Spinning (textiles)

The spindle is driven (usually at an angular velocity that is either constant or changes only slowly), and the traveller is dragged around a ring by the loop of yarn passing round it.

In dry spinning (acetate and triacetate), the polymer is contained in a solvent that evaporates in the heated exit chamber.

Natural fibres can be divided into three categories: animals (sheep, goat, rabbit, silkworm), minerals (asbestos, gold, silver[1]), or plants (cotton, flax, sisal).

With the exception of silk, each of these fibres is short, only centimetres in length, and each has a rough surface that enables it to bond with similar staples.

[4] Other systems include air-jet and open-end spinning, a technique where the staple fiber is blown by air into a rotor and attaches to the tail of formed yarn that is continually being drawn out of the chamber.

[5] The processes to make short-staple yarn (typically spun from fibers from 1.9 to 5.1 centimetres (0.75 to 2.0 in)) are blending, opening, carding, pin-drafting, roving, spinning, and—if desired—plying and dyeing.

In long staple spinning, the process may start with stretch-break of tow, a continuous "rope" of synthetic fiber.

It is the descendant of a device invented in 1779 by Samuel Crompton, and produces a softer, less twisted thread that is favored for fines and for weft.

[9] People eventually discovered that adding a weight to the stick, often made of stone, wood, or clay and known as a whorl, helped to maintain momentum and left the hands free to draft the fiber.

[11] Hand spinning was an important cottage industry in medieval Europe, where the wool spinners (most often women and children) would provide enough yarn to service the needs of the men who operated the looms or to sell on in the putting-out system.