Note 4 — Chapter VI

The spinning-wheel of the Highlands is one of the most remarkable inventions. That formerly used in England, and still lingering where here and there a housewife has sense to say, “I cannot afford to buy in the shops stockings for my family,” was like that used now in the East, and anciently figured in Egypt. A wheel was turned by one hand, whilst with the other the wool, cotton, or flax was prepared for the spindle: as each portion was twisted the wheel was reversed, so as to run it on the spindle; but in the coil the thread passes through an orifice in the axis of the spindle, and is then carried by a bar to be distributed over the pirn. The wheel runs always on, and when yielded by the fingers, passes to the coil. Both hands are free for the work. The wheel being turned by a treddle, it is, compared to other spinning, as the delving of the Basque provinces to all other methods of culture, and performs at least twice as much work.