Art of drawing out and twisting fibers (originally wool or flax) into a long thread, or yarn, by hand or machine. Synthetic fibers are extruded as a liquid through the holes of a spinneret.
Spinning was originally done by hand, then with the spinning wheel, and in about 1767 in England James Hargreaves built the spinning jenny, a machine that could spin 8, then 16, bobbins at once. Later, Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule 1779 had a moving carriage carrying the spindles and is still in use today.
Also used is the ring-spinning frame introduced in the us in 1828 where sets of rollers moving at various speeds draw out finer and finer thread, which is twisted and wound onto rotating bobbins.
Originally, some 9,000 years ago, spinning was done by hand using a distaff (a cleft stick holding a bundle of fibers) and a weighted spindle, which was spun to twist the thread. In the 1300s the spinning wheel came to Europe, though it had been in use earlier in the East. It provided a way of turning the spindle mechanically. By the next century, the wheel was both spinning and winding the yarn onto a bobbin, but further mechanical development did not occur until the 18th century.
Creating thread.
(Irregular preterit, past participle: spun).
1. To revolve quickly and repeatedly around one's own axis; SYN. spin around, whirl, reel, gyrate.
2. To work natural fibers into a thread.
3. To form a web by making a thread, as of spiders.
4. To prolong or extend; SYN. spin out.
5. To make up a story, as in.
6. To stream in jets, of liquids.