Once spotted...

To think that I hadn't seen this kind of double pulleys (or, not consciously, anyway) until a couple of months ago... now I see them everywhere.

Spotted at a flea market not far from here:

As (again) they were without companions, I left them for someone else to play with.

(And Jean, if you read this, the strange shaft-ties: I have given up on that, until I can get to the museum myself. They keep giving me the wrong references - )

How to spin better linen yarns

Many authorities "of the time" assert that yarn spun with "the new method" (ie with a DFW of the Mager type) has a much, much better quality - as if consistent grist and twist come automatically with the wheel type. (Maybe it does... after all, I haven't got mine operational yet)

To let you all know as much as I now do, I took a stab at translating the first part of the Book with the Hopeless Title - the part that should instruct us all how to use this famous wheel.

(It can be that you, too, become a bit disappointed with the contents. But I assure you: this is all there is!)

The first part, same as the other, is now available in .pdf-form, the translated variant here with text in both Swedish and (my attempt to translate it into) English. The plate is on the very last page. (Comments on the translation(s) are most welcome!)

There is also the "original" (transcribed, some sort of Swedish) - found here. The drawing is on the last page.

For my local-ish Swedish friends: do you know anything about the Gårdsby Lin-Institut, at Gårdsby outside Växjö, that was in existence 1811-1827 (or -28)? There is a rumour that they used double flyer wheels there, too, but as the Mager type was not known until 1843, I would be very interested to know what kind of DFWs they were using.

How to build your own double (or more!) flyer spinning wheel

As told here, I have borrowed the Ekenmark book with the hopeless title (Afhandling Om Den förbättrade och förenklade Nya Magerska Linspinnings-Methoden, Jemte En wida ändamålsenligare Method, för så wäl Dubbel- som Enkelspinning, med förändring af en wanlig Spinnrock, både för en och flere personer på en och samma gång, hwarigenom den motswarar nyttan af 4 serskilta wanliga spinnrockar, Äfwensom Om bästa sättet, att få linet genom sjelfwa Rötningen mycket finare och mjukare, så att det derigenom blifwer ojemförligt ändamålsenligare till båda Spinning, garn och wäfnader, än hwad genom den wanliga Linrötningen och torkningen kan åstadkommas.
Utarbetad Af GUSTAF EKENMARK och HUSTRU
Med en större Lithografierad Planch
Stockholm Tryckt hos Lundberg & Comp. 1848)

I have also transcribed it (gothic print...), probably with some mistakes here and there.

Today I can offer anybody nerdy enough to want to know how to alter an ordinary saxony type spinning wheel to accommodate as many as 4 flyers, without "compromising" the original wheel: there is one .pdf here with text in both Swedish and (my attempt to translate it into) English - no light reading this (I doubt I have ever encountered sentences as long as in this text... hard to read in Swedish, even harder to make some sort of sense in English). This file has a couple of illustrations enlarged from the drawing (which is on the very last page).

There is also the "original" (transcribed, some sort of Swedish) - found here. No extra illustrations, but the drawing is on the last page.

If I end this post with "enjoy!" - would you think I'm having you on?!?