Wheel (tool)

See also: Wheel

A wheel is an old instrument with wheel actuated by a pedal or a crank, and being used for the spinning of the Laine, the hemp or the flax and any other fiber.

History

Chronology:
  • - wheel with hand in China,
  • about 1210 in China: First representation illustrated of the wheel in hand.
  • about 1224: introduction to Venice and in France
  • about 1300: wheel with canetter
  • 1470: first representation in Germany of the wheel with wings
  • James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny ,
  • the important technical innovations increase the productivity as of 1800. The wheel is competed with by the Mull Jenny which carries thirty pins.

At the 13th century, the Fuseau is replaced in several areas of Occident by the wheel actuated by means of a crank to spin the textiles.

In Europe, the use of the wheel with wing spreads at the end of the 15th century.

Gandhi and its partisans manufactured clothing which they wore and encouraged the others to make in the same way in order to reach the British economy economically which held the industrial spinning mills. The Indian wheel, the charkha, was incorporated soon in the flag of the party of the Indian congress.

In the culture

  • the Wheel of Omphale is a symphonic poem of Camille Saint-Saëns going back to 1869.
  • the trousseau of the young groom of the Pays of Caux included/understood a wheel.
  • Sleeping Beauty (in the tale or cartoon of Disney) is pricked with the Quenouille of a wheel and falls asleep.

Operation of a wheel

A wheel is composed of a wheel actuated by one or two pedals connected to the wheel by rods, and which trains the épinglier and/or the reel (according to the type of drive, to see low) using a belt. The belt perhaps out of leather, flax or more recently, flexible polyurethane. The épinglier (also called comb) is a U-shaped part provided with hooks on each branch, and a central opening by which the wire passes. The reel on which will be rolled up the wire, is on the same axis that the épinglier because it must be also in rotation during the process of the spinning.

While actuating the wheel, the épinglier and the reel will start to turn. The wire will be twisted by the épinglier then will be rolled up on the reel. So that it can be rolled up on the reel, épinglier and reel should not turn at the same speed.

The most recent wheels have various number of revolutions, called ratio.

Types of wheels

One can classify the wheels in three distinct big families, according to their mode of drive. Each family of wheel has characteristics and allows to spin more easily a fiber rather than another.

Double-drive

The belt trains the épinglier and the reel. It is the difference between the pulley of the épinglier and the pulley of the reel, which creates the difference in rotation. At the origin, this type of wheel was especially used to spin the flax.

Simple-drive

  1. Scottish tension: the belt trains the épinglier, and it reel is slowed down by a belt to allow the difference in rotation.
  2. Irish tension: the belt involves the reel, and the épinglier is slowed down by a belt. It is the wheel easiest to conceive.

Wheel with crank

This wheel does not have pedals, the wheel is actuated by a crank. It is the case in particular of the Indian charkha which is used to spin the Coton.

Dependant articles

See too

  • List of tools

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