What is spinning wheel: types, instructions and feedback. Wooden spinning wheel with a wheel: description, specifications and reviews

Once without a spinning wheel it was impossible to imagine any house, not a girl, a girl and a woman. Today's young people may not even know what a spinning wheel is all about. About how she looked and how she worked - you do not even have to ask. But taking into account the place that people used to occupy in this life before, one should not forget about this, once simply necessary, an instrument.

What is a spinning wheel?

From the name of the subject it is not difficult to understand what a spinning wheel is - a device for spinning. The appearance of the spinning wheel was constantly changing - if earlier it was just two perpendicular boards, today it is a complex mechanism producing yarn of various thickness and quality. In addition to its direct functions, the spinning wheel was a participant in various assumptions and beliefs, none, even a rich house, could be imagined without this device.

Spinning wheels in antiquity

Already in ancient times people knew what spinning wheel was. This is evidenced by legends, according to which parks can lengthen, and can also tear the thread of life. And they create this thread on it, on the spinning wheel. The protector of spinning was considered to be Athena.

Slavic spinning wheel

Old rattles were used from ancient times. Labor was purely female, a man could only make a tool of labor. From the end of the harvesting and until the Great Lent, spins spent their days and often nights at this machine. It's amazing that the spinning wheels were not alike one to the other. Rather, the design was one, but that's decorated every spinning wheel was in different ways.

Of course, originally only wooden spinning wheels were used - maple, linden, aspen and birch were used to make it. The ornaments were unique - mostly carved wood.

Spinning wheels in the culture

The ancient spinning wheels were of great importance in the life of our ancestors, because they were not just a means for creating clothes and a way to earn money, but also played an important role in culture.

Each girl had her own spinning wheel. She received it at birth and changed only after getting married. And the umbilical cord of a newborn was cut on a spinning wheel or spindle. At the baptism, the girl was given the cross through this device. Even the girl with the spinning wheel was sleeping - she was put in a cradle to the child.

It was impossible for anyone to give his own, personal tools of labor even for temporary use: according to beliefs, in this case a fire would inevitably arise or all bees would perish. In the northern regions of our country it was believed that if a young man wrote his name on a girl's spinning wheel, his duty was to marry her. At the wedding, in any case, the groom made a spinning wheel. His hands had to make a guy this gift, decorating it as best as possible.

The winter period was all about spinning, excluding Christmas days. The last working day for spinners was the end of Shrovetide. On this day it was customary to ride the Donets from the mountain. It was believed that the length of flax in the coming year will depend on how far the rider will leave. If any of the skaters had the imprudence to fall from the spinning wheels, the surrounding people were waiting for her death even before the new spinning season. On Christmas and Christmas Eve, all the spinning tools were hidden in attics and closets to exclude their encounters with spirits that could spoil the tools.

In Serbia it was customary on Christmas Eve, when visiting animal buildings, to spin a little wool so that the cattle did not remain without wool. The inhabitants of Slavonia thought that the first guest should spin a little, so that the year would be fruitful for flax and that the chickens would not be extinct. In addition, the young wife on the first day in a new status had to spin on a new machine, because it was believed that this promises a better life.

In all cultures where it was known what a spinning wheel was, there were various, often unique, rituals and beliefs associated with this object. But all the peoples were united in the main: spinning wheel is not just a means of earning, but also a guard for your mistress. For example, in Bulgaria, even when going to field work, the girls took this instrument with them. Often they spun even along the way, if around was too crowded. For the treatment of babies from night crying, the girls were hiding a spinning wheel under the cradle. She saved all the insomnia from insomnia - she had to stick a spinning wheel with a towel under her mother, while saying special words. Even the chickens from the weasels were rescued by a spinning wheel - it was necessary to throw it on the chicken coop.

Types of spinning wheels

Despite the fact that each was unique, it was not very many spinach types. The first was the usual manual, appeared in ancient Rome. After it, a much quicker self-wheeler appeared. Since she did not give the opportunity to act with both hands, she was equipped with a foot-operated drive. So there was a foot wheel. Well, much later, with the development of science and the emergence of electricity, was created electropower. However, it is better to consider each of the species separately.

Manual

So, this spinning wheel appeared in Ancient Rome, replacing the usual spindle and a bunch of yarn on his knees. Then it was a breakthrough, simplifying the hard and exhausting female labor.

It consisted of, roughly speaking, two boards attached at right angles to each other. On one part it was sitting downright, on the upper part of the second was fixed the yarn. The part intended for sitting was called the Donets. The vertical part consisted of the cervix and the lopitis. Decorated carvings, for the most part, it is to shovel (as the most visible part of the instrument).

Spinning rod

A spinning wheel - a wooden wheel with a wheel - appeared in India. Gradually from this country, she dispersed around the world, greatly facilitating the life of spies.

Its design is simple, but ingenious: the cylinder, in which the spindle is installed horizontally, is mounted on the board. The wheel rotates by hand, which, thanks to the belt, turns the spindle. The left hand of the spinner feeds the fibers to the sharp end of the spindle, while the right hand turns the wheel. As soon as the thread "grows" to the length of the arm, it winds on the spindle and the process continues. The speed of spinning with the advent of such devices has increased significantly. In Russia these machines were divided into Russian (with a wheel located perpendicular to the floor) and chuhouki, in which the wheel was at an angle.

When in the 15th century a spinning wheel was equipped with a flyer, there was no need to take breaks for winding the thread on the spindle - this was happening itself.

Foot

In the 19th century, the demand for yarn increased significantly. In as much yarn as possible. For this reason, a wooden spinning wheel with a wheel that needs to be rotated with one hand has ceased to satisfy the consumer. Fortunately, there were craftsmen who could adjust the pedal to this design, which allowed to rotate the wheel with their feet. Both hands could be engaged in yarn, which greatly accelerated the work. In other respects, the principle of work remained the same: the tow was still fastened to the upper crossbar of the bottom, the spindle rotated due to the twisting of the wheel, the ready thread was wound on a flyer attached to the free end of the spindle - this was the last mechanical spinning wheel.

Electrical

Ironically, with the advent of electricity in principle the design has not undergone any changes. Yes, electric spinning wheel does not look like any of its predecessors at all. However, it is still the same tool, with the same basic elements. Just today, in the age of minimalism, they look a little different.

The main node of the new spinning wheel was the stag. It consists of an axis that replaced the spindle, flyers, pulleys and coils. To understand how the machine works is not difficult. The electric pulley drives the axis-spindle, at the end of which there is a hook and flyer. In addition, the coil is put on the axis. It also rotates from the pulley, but from the other. The entire structure is driven by an electric motor. Only here the diameter of the coil pulley discs is smaller, so are the same parts that drive the spindle. This allows the coil to spin faster than the roguel and spindle.

What happens to the thread that is tucked into a spinning wheel? Let's imagine that a fiber bundle made of wool is already twisted. Now let's pass this thread through the hook, then it is necessary to throw hooks on the hooks and tie it to the coil. Starting to work, the spinning wheel continues to twist the bundle of fiber into a string. As the coil turns faster, it pulls and winds the thread on itself. The worker simply stretches the fiber evenly.

Selection

Buy a spinning wheel these days is not difficult. But many people want, as before, to do it themselves. This is quite possible, since the design of the spinning wheel is very simple. There is no need even to perform turning work. You can do with plywood of different thickness or textolite. This will require a metal tube, two blocks of beech or birch, nails and screws and epoxy glue. Yes, even a thick paper is needed. In addition, you need to get an electric motor from a sewing machine or something similar. Preferably, the motor is a collector. You should prepare two toggle switches and rheostat, which regulates the speed. Of course, you can do without the latter, but it will reduce the comfort of the machine.

The way the spinning wheel is made (assembly instruction and recommendations for individual sites), it is not difficult to find out today. Before you start to manufacture, you should carefully study these instructions, really assess their strength and decide whether it is worth it to do or it is easier to just buy a ready-made spinning wheel. At purchase it is possible to choose both appearance, and the technical characteristics which are required for your purposes. Therefore, if there is no confidence in the desire to assemble the instrument yourself, it is better not to waste time in vain.

However, if there is a desire and strength, it is worth doing it yourself, because, even becoming electric, the spinning wheel did not completely lose the extraordinary properties that were awarded to it in antiquity. And let now few people will take this mechanism with them to work, as no one will put it under a crib for a crying child, yet things related from not only that with hand-made threads, but also on a hand-made machine, bring their owner not simply Warmth and pleasure, but also a little bit of magic.