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98 woman's work in the world's clothing....
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
(Continued.) - Ii. The Spinning Wheel.
of more than two looms at one time , while persons living in ? rural districts were still further limited to but one . Though
therefore there were in the sixteenth century some women who were engaged in spinning , carding , & c , as a business , " _beings
employed by the great clothiers , whose manufactures of Kendal cloths and Manchester " cottons " were then steadily on the
increase , as their artizans attained greater excellence , the processes performed by females were almost entirely carried on
at their own homes . There was indeed nothing either in the nature of the
employment , or the appliances required for it , to prevent this being the case . In the earliest and simplest style of spinning the
only tools required were the distaff and spindle : the former was a mere stick held upriht between the left arm and the
body ; to the top of this a g bunch of flax was loosely tied , a continuous lock of which was drawn down to the level of the
more hands and , and more hel , d while by the the left rig , ht which formed continued it to the to requisit draw e it size out ,
and gave it a twist , increased by the constant twirl of the spindle or bobbina kind of long pinwhich hung dangling to
the endand on which , it had ever and , anon to be wound .. This primitive , mode of preparing yarn may still be seen in some
their parts distaff of Greece and , where continu the e wom their en sp seldom inning as leav they e hom walk e without along .
It is , however , , a tedious process compared to that of the wheel , which was earlintroducedand in the use of which the
flax was drawn very out y and twisted , into thread by means of attaching one end of a portion of it to a spindleinserted
horizontally into an upright erection of wood , so , connected with the wheel that when that was moved round the indle
rotated . A piece was then drawn out by the left hand sp , and the wheel turned with the riht until it was sufficiently twisted
when a turn of the wheel the g other way wound it upon the , spindle . - It was not till much later that the further
improvement was effected of using hand cards or combs , a kind of brushes thick set with wires instead of bristles , between two
of which the material was subjected to an action analogous to that of combing or brushing our own hair , until the fibres were
disentangled and laid lengthwise ; it was then scraped off in rolls about 12 inches long and 2 f of an inch in diameter , which
were first drawn out and slightly twisted into _" rovirigs , " and subsequently by a second process , with a similar wheel ,
thoroughly twisted into the finished yarn . An eventual addition to the wheel enabled it to be turned by the action of the foot , like a knife-grinder ' s grindstone , leaving both the hands at
liberty It was to b fo y rm means the ya of rn such . simple implements as these that ,.
98 Woman's Work In The World's Clothing....
98 woman ' s work in the _world ' s clothing . _'
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1863, page 98, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101863/page/26/
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