Media Category: issue

Great wheel marked “W. DINNIN.”

Miles Winchester great wheel.

Peter’s charkha from rear showing plying arrangement. Charka top has two full bobbins set up on vertical pins. The spun fiber on the bobbins feeds on to a horizontal bobbin and flyer mechanism.

Incomplete example marked “SS.” Upright bobbin and flyer wheel with two asymmetric drive wheels. This example is missing one of its treadles.

Double treadle upright wheel with asymmetric double drive wheels. Marked “W. KILBOURN.”

Linda’s Bageshwari Charkha. A single treadle, wooden, table-like spinning wheel.

Folk wheel side view. A rough-looking, wooden, double treadle, upright, bobbin and flyer wheel.

Ancient glass distaffs. Three glass rod-shaped distaffs with a loop of glass at one end and varying styles of finials on the other end. One distaff has a free ring of glass around the shaft of the distaff.

Reel marked “E. FROST” front view. A free-standing, four-armed wooden reel.

Hatchel with eagle design.

Horizontal arrangement reel/swift patented by James Forman Palmer, 1867. A metal reel/swift is clamped to a table. The four arms of the reel/swift are parallel to the plane of the table.

Close-up of bobbin/flyer arrangement on parlor wheel from Germany.

C. Norman Hicks’ “Debbi” wheel. Wooden, upright, double treadle wheel with adjustable bobbin and flyer position.

Wheel marked “MJY 407.” Upright wooden bobbin and flyer wheel, double treadle, with secondary accelerating wheel and distaff.

Wheel marked “J WEYGANDT 1839.” Upright wooden bobbin and flyer wheel, double treadle, with secondary accelerating wheel. Accelerating wheels are slightly different sizes, with the smaller wheel placed above the larger wheel on the frame.

Wheel marked “J+B+ No 3+21+.” Upright wooden bobbin and flyer wheel, double treadle, with secondary accelerating wheel.

Wheel marked “JOHN BURLEY, WARRANTED, PENNA.” Upright wooden bobbin and flyer wheel, double treadle, with secondary accelerating wheel and basket distaff.

Pendulum spindle wheel marked “H. ROW MAKER KEMPTVILLE.”

Owen’s wheel. Double treadle upright bobbin and flyer wheel with two asymmetrical drive wheels, the larger wheel positioned lower on the frame than the smaller wheel.

Wooden bobbin and flyer wheel with a single treadle, marked “E L. St. Frs.”

Metal treadle with mark “E L. St. Frs,” a five-petal flower, a five pointed star, equilateral triangle, and free-form geometric shape cut into the metal.

Horizontal wheel by Alan Brenkley. Wooden bobbin and flyer wheel, single treadle. Drive wheel supports are attached to the mother-of-all by side rails. The frame holding the drive wheel supports is turned wood.

Main wheel type 3; a wooden and metal tabletop wheel. Drive wheel position is perpendicular to the plane of the table when the wheel is in use. Metal drive wheel has teeth and is part of a cog mechanism with the spindle.

Bryce wheel; a wooden and metal tabletop wheel. Drive wheel position is perpendicular to the plane of the table when the wheel is in use.

Model of track wheel. The spindle head on a cart or trolley travels along a track, by means of cords attached to drive wheel and treadle.

Upright double-flyer Swiss flax wheel. Wooden wheel, single treadle, with drive wheel parallel to treadle.

Illustration from an early 20th-century postcard for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Courtship of Miles Standish.” A woman, dressed in an early 20th-century rendition of 17th-century clothing, wears a dress and a cloth cap. She is seated on a straight-backed chair or bench and is spinning on an upright double flyer wheel. A man, also in period dress, bareheaded, leans towards her.

Double-flyer Swiss upright flax wheel. Wooden wheel, single treadle, drive wheel parallel to treadle.

Restored Scandinavian wheel. Wooden three-legged wheel, single treadle, bobbin and flyer.

Normandy wheel #1. Short-legged great wheel with spindle. Extensive decorative turning on drive wheel spokes.

Normandy wheel #2. Short-legged bobbin-and-flyer great wheel from Normandy with decorative turning on drive wheel spokes.

Wool bows from: Karelia (top);
northern Russia (middle);
Turkestan (bottom). Triangular tools with variations.

Mark “F N Vezina, Vercheres” on the upper side of the wheel table, near the metal tilt-tension device.

Mark “J O” on the end of the table, below the mother-of-all.

Wooden wheel marked “Louis Bisson.” Single treadle, bobbin and flyer, with tilt tension.