Spinning wheel marked B. SANFORD, by Beardsley Sanford [1790–1868]
The 1956 attaché-sized charkha built by Edward Bosworth
Illustration of Accelerating Wheel Head from the Archive of Useful Knowledge, October 1811.
Close-up of front of spinning wheel marked B. SANFORD
Detail from the rear of spinning wheel marked B. SANFORD
Detail of front of spinning wheel marked B. SANFORD
Overall view from the side of the Rope wheel
Close-up of the spoked accelerating wheel
Close-up of movable board that holds short spindle post with spindle attached.
Box type tape loom with date of 1849 nicknamed the "cradle loom." Collection of and photograph from Versterheim Norwegian-American Museum.
Painted reproduction of "cradle loom" by Merlin Lee
Reproduction of a "cradle loom"

Issue #130 – January 2026

$6.00

• Accelerator Wheels
• A B. SANFORD Spinning Wheel: Innovation and Elegance
• The Rope Wheel: A Minimalist Spinning Device
• Norwegian Cradle Looms

Description

Highlights From This Issue

In this issue a contemporary spinning-wheel maker discusses accelerating wheels and their origins. We study an early 19th-century wheel that incorporates an accelerating wheel and other innovative features. We look at a spinning device that has only a spindle and an accelerating wheel. Then we are introduced to a Norwegian-style box tape loom.

Accelerator Wheels

Jonathan Bosworth is a well-known contemporary spinning-wheel maker. Since he uses accelerating wheels in his own wheel designs, he wondered about their origins and that led him to research Amos Miner. He reports on what he found.

A B. SANFORD Spinning Wheel: Innovation and Elegance

Thanks to a friend, Valerie Gaddis recently acquired a double-flyer spinning wheel marked B. SANFORD, for Beardsley Sanford. We found that it incorporates many of the innovative features popular in the early 19th century.

The Rope Wheel: A Minimalist Spinning Device

The rope wheel in Mark Ware’s collection is like what Pennington and Taylor call a “wheel-less wheel.” It has the minimal number of components for a spinning device, a spindle and an accelerating wheel. We review its features and history.

Norwegian Cradle Looms

Nancy Ellison introduces a style of box tape loom, nicknamed the “cradle loom,” in the collection of Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, IA. A former curator of textiles, Lila Nelson, recruited woodworkers to make copies of it. Then she used them to teach different tape-weaving techniques.

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