spinning wheel

Device used for twisting fibers into yarn. From approximately the 14th century onward, and particularly from the 1720s, the spindle spinning wheel (also known as the cloth-maker’s spinning wheel) became widely used in the territory of present-day Slovakia for wool spinning. The device consisted of a large wheel operated by the right hand, with motion transferred by a drive cord to a horizontally positioned spindle. During spinning, the rotating spindle first twisted the wool fibers into yarn, which was subsequently wound onto the spindle itself.