Throstle Spinning Frame, circa 1835

Summary

Spinning frames spin cotton fiber into yarn and then wind it onto a bobbin. This throstle spinning frame could simultaneously spin 64 strands of yarn. (Throstle -- an old name for a song thrush -- refers to the bird-like sounds the machine made.) Machines like this helped produce the large quantities of yarn that growing industrial weaving operations needed in the early and mid-1800s.

Spinning frames spin cotton fiber into yarn and then wind it onto a bobbin. This throstle spinning frame could simultaneously spin 64 strands of yarn. (Throstle -- an old name for a song thrush -- refers to the bird-like sounds the machine made.) Machines like this helped produce the large quantities of yarn that growing industrial weaving operations needed in the early and mid-1800s.

Artifact

Throstle frame

Date Made

circa 1835

Creators

Unknown

Place of Creation

United States, Massachusetts, Lowell 

Creator Notes

Likely made by Lowell Machine Shop in Lowell, Massachusetts

Henry Ford Museum
 On Exhibit

at Henry Ford Museum in Made in America

Object ID

2017.84.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of American Textile History Museum.

Material

Cast iron
Leather
Metal
Thread
Wood (Plant material)

Dimensions

Height: 72 in

Width: 50 in

Length: 111 in

Related Content

Connect 3

Discover curious connections between artifacts.

Learn More