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View the highlights & photographs from our current issue. Current Issue #56 - April 2007 In this issue we discover a tradition of using handspindles in America. We learn about two Connecticut great wheels and the material found in their hubs. More unusual spinning wheels are presented, one found in Hungary and two found in Canada.
When Jerry Yanchek came across an heirloom handspindle and handspun linen, she began researching them in the German-immigrant communities in her own area of southeastern Pennsylvania. She found evidence of a tradition of handspindle use in some expected but also in some unexpected places.
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| A Tale of Two Connecticut Great Wheels Grace Hatton recently acquired two great wheels that originated in Connecticut. They are signed and have brass bearings or bushings. They raised questions about the makers and the bearings. The one marked W. HOPKINS is similar to one described in a 1903 booklet about spinning wheels.
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| Brass Bearings on Great Wheels Sue Bacheller did some follow-up genealogical research on these Connecticut wheel makers. Three other readers, Michael Taylor, Craig Evans, and Patty Frye, responded to the question about great wheels with brass bearings.
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| An Unusual Spinning Wheel From Hungary Although Michael Taylor has focused his wheel collecting on American spinning wheels from before 1900, now and then a wheel is so exceptional that he has to acquire it to study. He describes what he learned about this very unusual spinning wheel that originated in Hungary.
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| Two Unusual Spinning Wheels One of the two unusual spinning wheels that Donna Lonergan found in Canada has maidens for three bobbin/flyer units. Where the wheel originated and how it worked are still unanswered questions. I add a few notes about other examples of three-flyer wheels found in Scotland. Donna found the other unusual wheel in Nova Scotia. It came with its own history.
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(c) 1999 - 2007 The Spinning Wheel Sleuth
