Chapter 316: Spinning and Weaving

Chapter 316: Spinning and Weaving

Spinning and weaving, arguably the two oldest skills of mankind, were recorded after mankind bid farewell to obscurity and the dawn of civilization.

The spinning process consisted of two distinct parts: rolling and pulling the thread. The raw material, usually in the form of fibers, must be twisted together for added strength and wringing, and then drawn into thread.

In the most primitive techniques, spinners use a spindle and a spinning rod, the unspun thread is placed on the rod and the spun thread is drawn out with one hand, once the thread is of sufficient length, the spinner picks up the spindle and spins the thread around the bobbin, and then the process is repeated again. The disadvantage of this method of spinning is that it is slow, the advantage is that the equipment is lightweight.

Hundreds of years ago, spinning technology ushered in a major technological breakthrough – the handspinning wheel was invented. Compared to the previous simple process, the handspinning wheel was significantly bulkier and more expensive, but it spun thread ten times faster.

In the course of long-term use, some improvements were made to the handspinning wheel one after another, such as changing the hand-cranked type to the foot-pedal type. Turning the big wheel of the foot pedal to improve the speed of spinning wheel, freeing up the hands of weavers.

Later, the more creative “flywheel” was invented, once again making great progress in spinning technology, but due to the difficulty of obtaining the appropriate tension, only spinning coarse thread.

Now it is time to redefine the ancient art of spinning once again.

On October 1, 1991, the first day of the Holy Calendar, the long-prepared technology launch at the Lakewood Township Machine Shop was held as scheduled. People from Arda, Baldin, and Emden gathered in Lakewood to see the new gadgets introduced by the machine shop. Some of them were merchants in the city, some were landowners in the countryside, some were nobles and lords with titles, and even a large number of ordinary people with ordinary families but with dreams of making a fortune, the launch of the machine factory’s products was open to everyone – provided that they were from the three places mentioned above.

The launch was held in the square in front of the lord’s mansion. Right now, these people from different walks of life and backgrounds were gathering around a machine to slurp it up.

A demonstrator from the machine shop was operating an extremely creative piece of equipment. A main wooden frame with a vertical row of spindles, and across the main frame are two parallel wooden tracks, both of which slide back and forth freely on the frame. After carding and winding into a cotton thread, in the two tracks between the movement, the demonstrator one hand to make the frame back and forth, the other hand to turn the handle to drive the spindle wheel drive, a row of spindle in accordance with a certain angle of placement, the thread through the rotation of the spindle to screw together, and then in the spindle at the top of the reversed and then loosened, and finally, a section of metal wire hanging down to the spinning thread, which continues to move forward, which makes the twisted and stretched The spindle continues to move forward, which causes the twisted and elongated thread to recede to the lower part of the spindle, and then the process is repeated again.

Yes, this is the Jenny spinning machine that played such an important role in the 18th century. As a mark of respect to Hargreaves, her real inventor, Paul was restored to this world and retained his original name, which coincided with the birth of a daughter to the youngest son of old Ford, the head of the Council of State, avoiding a lot of wild and boring speculation by the public, for which he would have been very grateful.

“Gentlemen!”

Guy Burns introduced the crowd with a proud expression.

“This is our Lord Gladman’s brainchild – the Jenny Spinner. Oh, for the record, Jenny is the name of that newborn granddaughter of Lord Chief Ford, so don’t get any ideas. Back to the point, let’s see how amazing she is.”

“It’s just a simple showpiece for a round of ten spinners, and even then it’s capable of topping the workload of ten weavers in the past. In fact, as long as the power is sufficient, theoretically the number of spinning hammers she can drive is unlimited, 18, 30, or even 80, the efficiency can be increased by tens of times.”

The surrounding people were in an uproar.

“Oh! From the Lord of Light! What a marvelous creation.”

“I have a premonition of a new era!”

Many people wanted to go up and touch it, but a cordon was drawn around the spinning machine, and the leering sight of the loaded inner guard soldiers forced back those who tried to approach; apparently, the Lord’s House was still very secretive about the manufacturing technology. As for whether it could be faked? That machine was spinning thread under the operation of the demonstrators. The machine couldn’t be touched, but the thread spun on the spot was still brought out for the crowd to savor.

A bit of a shortcoming is that the thread spun by the machine can’t be spun as very fine as hand-spun thread, and it seems to only be able to do light yarns (yarns that extend along the length of the loom), but this can definitely, definitely, definitely qualify as a big leap forward in technology.

……

Listening to the flurry of murmurs from the audience and watching the looks of amazement on their faces, Guy Burns was mentally fulfilled and proud. He certainly had reason to be proud, although the idea and the general structure was suggested by Paul, the concrete realization was done by him and those colleagues who were also Chimeras.

Knowledge and technology should benefit the majority, not be reduced to a plaything in the hands of the few – the words summarized by Lord Graiman at the time were so true that Guy Burns felt that he had taken another giant step along the path.

Haha, there’s more to surprise you next!
Guy ripped his throat out and shouted, “Gentlemen, have you ever thought that with the kind of speed of our current general purpose looms, what’s the use of producing more yarn? It can only be piled up in a warehouse to eat dust.”

The crowd was alarmed, could it be that …… could it be that ……

“That’s right! The Lakewood Township Machine Shop also makes a new type of loom that matches the spinning speed of the Jenny Spinning Loom in addition to the Jenny Spinning Loom!”

One sentence whetted the visitors’ appetites again.

Guy walked toward another exhibit area, and the eyes followed him, focusing on a cloth-covered piece of equipment.

With a clatter, Guy ripped off the cloth covering the exhibit, revealing the real thing inside.

The machine was clearly a loom, a wooden structure, roughly 2.5 meters long and 2 meters high, using a foot pedal to provide power. However, there were still parts of the mechanism that were different from a traditional loom, and it was obvious at a glance.

For many centuries, weavers have woven cloth by passing the shuttle from one hand to the other, so that the width of the cloth is comparable to the length of a person’s arms. To make the cloth wider, two weavers had to be used, which greatly limited the width of the cloth and the speed of weaving.

Now, a kind of invention called “flying shuttle” solves these two problems, skills to increase the width of the cloth, but also can greatly improve the speed of weaving.

“Ahem! Now, let me introduce the second new product of the machine factory – the flying shuttle loom.”

Guy Burns continued to introduce it with a proud expression.

(End of chapter)