“She’ll prick her finger on a spinning wheel’s spindle and die.” -Maleficent

A Great Wheel, or Walking Wheel, does not have a flyer assembly like treadle spinning wheels. The wheel has a drive band that turns a spindle, often made of iron, that is long and thin.

This iron spike, I’ve read, could be quite sharp, although the one on this wheel was not. Out of caution, the museum keeps a cork on the tip of the spindle to avoid the pricking of fingers or impaling of body parts.

The spindle is held to the Mother-of-all assembly with spindle bearings. On this particular wheel the bearings appear to be either carved wood or wrapped thread so old and hardened as to be a solid unit. I have seen pictures of other Great Wheels where the spindle bearings are made from fresh braided fiber and tightened through holes in the Mother-of-all.

I read that spinners would often use a “quill” with this type of spindle, wrapped around the spindle so that the cop of yarn could be easily removed. Historically the quill was a section of corn husk, so I bought dried corn husks from the produce section of my grocery store, and cut rectangles. To keep the husks pliable, I stored a few in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel overnight. Before I started spinning, I wrapped the husk around the spindle with the smooth side in. Corn husks have prominent ribbing on one side, and when the ribs are on the outside of the quill, they help hold the spun yarn in place.

I used a wool yarn leader to start my spinning, because that is what I made when I did my test spin a month before. It was an easy transition to go from the wool to cotton. I built up the cop of cotton yarn by spiraling the yarn back and forth across the quill as I rolled it up. This keeps the yarn from bunching and sliding as the pressure of the wound yarn builds up.

This particular spindle does have a disc and I could have run the yarn right up to the disc without risking tangling the yarn in the spindle bearings, but since I wanted to be able to quickly remove the yarn, the quill worked well.

My first cop of yarn went too close to the ends of the quill. For the second I was able to control the yarn better and keep it centered on the quill.

I left a cop of yarn on the spindle when I was done for the day so it could be part of the display when they put the Great Wheel back in the Man House at the museum.

This post is part of a series about my experience demonstrating spinning on a 1860s Great Wheel in Mansfield Texas.

The main wheel of a Great Wheel is truly great in size and the hub spins on a metal rod on the wheel post. The wheel stays on the post with a small nail or cotter pin inserted into the end of the rod.

The nail for the Great Wheel I was demonstrating with had fallen out… somewhere. This meant that the wheel kept migrating to the end of the rod, changing the alignment of the drive band and causing the drive band to slip off. My field-expedient fix was to use a wood toothpick. The toothpick alone, however, did not keep the hub snug against the wheel post, so I cut a leather washer and put it between the wood pin and the hub.

I kept the smooth part of the leather toward the hub to reduce friction, and added a drop of light weight oil to the metal rod. It turned well and stayed in place the rest of the day.

This post is part of a series about my experience demonstrating spinning on a 1860s Great Wheel in Mansfield Texas.

The Double Nut New England Great Wheel, that lives in Mansfield Texas in the Man House, has an accelerator wheel.

The accelerator increases the spin speed of the wheel, which indicates that the wheel was used for cotton, which needs more twist than wool. This matches the history of the area, where they grow cotton. To tighten the band from the accelerator to the spindle, the wood screws in the mother-of-all turn to raise or lower the maiden posts holding the accelerator.

It is interesting to note that the grooves in the whorl on the accelerator and the spindle are all the same diameter. On a treadle wheel, the grooves on the whorl are different, allowing for different spin speeds. On the Great Wheel they are for alignment. The drive band goes in the groove that lines up best with the center of the wheel. I spent quite a bit of time adjusting the wheel position and trying the drive band in different grooves.

This post is part of a series about my experience demonstrating spinning on a 1860s Great Wheel in Mansfield Texas.

The Double Nut New England Great Wheel is called a “double nut” because of the two wooden nuts on the wood screw that allows for adjustment of the position of the spindle post.

To increase the tension on the drive band that runs on the outside of the wheel, the spindle post can be moved farther away by backing off the left nut, and tightening the right nut. A properly tensioned drive band on a well-aligned wheel will keep the spindle turning without slipping or falling off the wheel.

All the wood screws on the wheel were in working condition, which is remarkable for 165 year old carvings. I was able to move the spindle post position in my quest to find the right alignment to keep her spinning for longer periods of time.

This post is part of a series about my experience demonstrating spinning on a 1860s Great Wheel in Mansfield Texas.