Media Category: issue

Rebecca’s free-standing umbrella swift.

Strickland Silent Spinner. A relatively small, single treadle, upright, bobbin and flyer spinning wheel. Most of the wheel is wooden; the drive wheel is metal.

Detail of bobbin/flyer unit on the Strickland Silent Spinner.

American Traveler wheel, front view. An upright, double treadle, bobbin and flyer wheel designed, patented, and manufactured by Doloria Chapin in New York State in the late 1970s.

Doloria Chapin’s Yarn Guide, Patent 4,090,347. A system for guiding yarn onto a bobbin.

Decorator: non-functional spinning wheel. Appears to be a wooden, single-treadle, bobbin and flyer wheel.

Henry Miller lever-action spinning wheel.

Miller’s patent #71,897 for a lever-action spinning wheel.

Francis Nixon tabletop spinning wheel. Small metal wheel with gearing mechanism.

Nixon’s patent #88,065 for geared tabletop spinning wheel.

Susan’s Swiss wheel; small, wooden, upright, bobbin and flyer flax wheel.

Example #2 of an inscribed hackle, hatchel, or hetchel. Inscription on example #2 reads: “MAY THE 18 AD 1797 JOHN MATHEWSON LYDA MATHEWSON STAY AT HOME AND USE ME WELL.”

Great wheel built by David Bryant.

Great wheel marked “R. TOWNLEY3.”

Great wheel marked “N. R. HILLS.”

Two Brantford-style great wheels.

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.