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Current Issue: #43 - January 2004

To begin our eleventh year we travel to New Zealand to visit a spinning-wheel factory. Then we return to North America to learn about two patented tabletop spinners, one American and one Canadian, and a possible connection between them.

A Visit to the Ashford Handcraft Center
by Florence Feldman-Wood

Elizabeth and Richard Ashford have been long-time subscribers and supporters of my newsletter. I have met them on numerous occasions at conferences. So it was a great treat for me to see the home base of their business operation, the Ashford Handcraft Center in Ashburton, New Zealand. I report on Richardís collection of spinning wheels in the little museum that he maintains above the shop and the tour he gave of their factory. Visit their Web site: www.ashford.co.nz

1940s Ashford Spinning Wheel

Spindle Wheels From Asia

Richard Ashford In The Factory

Computer-aided Machine

Restoring a Hathorn Spinning Wheel
by Dean Probst

When Dean and Nadean Probst of Jefferson, WI, discovered the base section of a rare patented spinning wheel in a collection of old wheel parts, they decided to learn more about it and try to restore it. With advice from Pat Hilts and patent drawings from me, Dean was able to re-create the missing pieces.

Set Up For Spinning And Reeling

Spindle With Yarn Guide

Set Up As A Quiller

George H. Hathorn and His Patent
by Florence Feldman-Wood

Since George H. Hathorn, who acquired the patent in 1871, was from Bangor, ME, which isnít that far from me, I decided to see what I could learn about him.

Hawthorn's Patent Diagrams For Spinning And Reeling

Diagram For Quilling

Fig. 7 For Plying, Fig. 5 Showing Spring Holder 'A'.

John Henry Nuteís Handspinner
by Donna Lonergan

Donna Lonergan of Little Britain, ONT, found a strange tabletop wheel while traveling in Nova Scotia. She describes the characteristics of this multifunctional tabletop wheel and what she was able to learn about John Henry Nute, the patent holder from Nova Scotia. I sent her a copy of the 1870 Canadian patent, which raises more questions than it answers.

Nute's Handspinner

Rear View

Elavation

Nute's Patent Diagram - Plan

The Hathorn-Nute Connection
by Sue Bacheller and Florence Feldman-Wood

Sue Bacheller of Plainville, MA, is an expert genealogical researcher. When I asked for her help with Hathorn and Nute, she braved frigid temperatures to visit the New England Historical and Genealogical Society library in Boston. She discovered records that show a highly probable link between these two inventors.