Spinning wheel

A spinning wheel is a device for making thread or yarn from fibrous material such as wool or cotton.

The spinning wheel was an advancement on the concept of the distaff[?] or drop spindle[?]; like the distaff, it worked by spinning the material - twisting the fibers into a long continuous strand. Rather than relying on hand-spinning or gravity, however, the spinning wheel used a pedal (or other motivation, such as water or electric power) to turn a large wheel, along which the thread was strung. The motion of the wheel twisted the thread, which was then collected on a post called (after its predecessor) the spindle.

Referred to in the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty; the princess (leading lady) pricks her finger on the spinning wheel and falls asleep before a handsome prince finds and kisses her. In the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin[?], a young woman is expected to use a spinning wheel to spin straw into gold.

See also:

• Spinning
• Spinning jenny[?]

this is a stub article, but it's probably better than nothing -- please write more about spinning wheels here

External links:

• http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~caj/wheel.html
• http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~caj/diy.html
• http://www.spwhsl.com/
• Folklore of the spinning wheel (http://www.thorshof.org/spinyarn.htm)