Into Continuous Circular Ones.

283

Chap. 5.]

alternating ones may be attributed nearly all tbe conveniences and elegan-cies of civilized life. It is not too much to assert that the present advancedstate of Science and the arts is due to revolving mechanism; we nxayspeak of the wonders that steam and other motive agents have wrought,but what could they have done without this means of employing them %The appücation of rotary, in place of other movements, is conspicuous inmodern machinery; from that which propels the stately steam ship throughthe water, and those flying chariots named “ locomotives” over the land,to that which is employed in the manufacture of pins and pointing of nee-dles. It is by this that the irregulär motion of the ancient flail and primevalsieve, have become uniform in thrashing, bolting and winnowing machines;—hence our circular saws, shears and slitting mills ;—the abolition ofthe old mode of spreading out metal into sheets with the Hammer, bythe more expeditious one of passing it through rollers or flatting mills :—and hence revolving oars or paddle wheels f’or the propulsion of vessels—the process of inking type with rollers in place of hand balls—rotary andpower printing presses—and revolving machines for planing iron andother metals instead of the ancient practice of chipping off superfluous por-tions with chisels, and the tedious Operation of smoothing the surfaceswith flies.

But in few things is the effect of this change of motion more conspi-cuous than in the modern apparatus for preparing, spinning and weavingvegetable and other fibres, into fabrics for clothing. The simple applicationof rotary motions to these operations has in a great degree revolutionizedthe domestic economy of the World, and has increased the general com-forts of our race a hundred fold. From the beginning of time femaleshave spun thread with the distaff and spindle : Naamah the antediluvian,and Lachesis and Omphale the mythological spinsters, have been imi-tated in the use of these implements by the industrious of their sex in allages and countries to quite modern days, and even at present they areemployed by a great part of the human family. In India, China, Japan ,and generally through all the East, as well as by the Indians of this he-misphere, this mode of making thread is continued : the filaments aredrawn from the distaff and twisted by the finger and thumb, the threadbeing kept at a proper tension by a metallic or other spindle, sus-pended to it like the plummet of a builder’s level, and the momentum ofwhich, while turning round, keeps twisting the yarn or thread in theinterim of repeating the Operation with the fingers. ® The thread as it is

a There are numerous allusions in history to this primitive mode of spinning, that arehighly illustrative of ancient nianners. At the battle of Salamis, Queen Artemisia com-manded a ship in the Persian fleet, and Xerxes , as a compliment to her bravery, senther a complete suit of armor, while to his general (who was defeated) he presented adistaff and spindle. When Pheretine applied to Euelthon of Cyprus for an army to re-cover her former dignity and country, he intimated the impropriety of her eonduct bysending her a distaff of wool and a golden spindle. Herod . iv, 162. Hercules attemptedto spin in the presence of Omphale , and she bantered him on his uncouth manner ofholding the distaff. Among the Greeks and Romans, the rites of marriage directed theattention of women to spinning ; a distaff and fleece were the emblems and objects ofthe housewife’s labors; and so they were among the Jews —“ A virtuous woman [saysSolomon] layetli her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff.” When Lu-cretia was surprised by the visit of Collatinus and his companions of the camp, althoughthe night, was far advanced, they found her with her maids engaged in spinning. Apainting found in Pompeii represents Ulysses seated at his own gate, and concealedunder the garb of a beggar ; Penelope, who is inquiring of the supposcd mendicant fortidings of her husband, holds in one hand a spindle, as if just called from spinning. Onthe monuments of Beni Hassan both men and women are represented spinning andweaving. Several Egyptian spindles are preserved in the museums of Europe . Seean account of a female in Sardis spinning while going for water, at page 22.