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Ireland: An elderly Irish woman seated at her spinning wheel, County Galway, c. 1890

Ireland: An elderly Irish woman seated at her spinning wheel, County Galway, c. 1890

A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or synthetic fibres. Spinning wheels appeared in China, probably in the 11th century, and very gradually replaced hand spinning with spindle and distaff.

Spinning machinery, such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, displaced the spinning wheel during the Industrial Revolution.

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