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Tools and Equipment

Spinning Wheel

Also Known As Charkha
Spinning and Weaving Tools
Wheel and Spindle

The wheel-driven successor to the hand spindle, twisting fiber into yarn continuously and many times faster. It fed every loom and knitting needle in the preindustrial world, became a symbol of household economy, and was chosen by Gandhi as the emblem of Indian self-reliance. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Disputed
Origin
Origin disputed among India, China and the Islamic world 1
Scholars genuinely dispute where the wheel was invented; India, China and the Islamic world each have serious advocates and the earliest evidence is thin.
Introduced When (Circa)
Clearly attested by the thirteenth century, with an illustration from Baghdad dated 1237 1
Introduced era (class)
Medieval 1
Connections

Associated With

Drop Spindle, Tools and Equipment

The spindle is the spinning wheel's own direct ancestor, and remains in use beside it.

Weaving, Crafts

The wheel spins the yarn the loom and the needles both depend on

Source Spinning Wheel (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Era Of Origin

The Post-Classical and Medieval Period

Also in History Atlas: the era this subject comes from.

Sources
1. Spinning Wheel (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Types section
    the charkha, native to Asia
  • In Group: Spindles and Spinning Wheels, Lead section
    A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres.
View the Source
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Origin

Historians genuinely dispute where and when the spinning wheel was invented, and Wikipedia's own account states all three positions without resolving them. One holds it "was invented in India between 500 and 1000 A.D." A second traces it to "Zhou dynasty China, in the first millennium BCE," "mentioned in Chinese dictionaries of the 2nd century CE, and in widespread use by c. 1090." A third holds "the spinning wheel was most likely invented in the Middle-East by the early 11th century," with evidence placing it there "by 1030," spreading "from the Middle East to Europe by the 13th century." The earliest unambiguous Indian textual reference is dated to 1350, well after the other two claims' own earliest evidence, which is part of why the dispute has not settled.

A dissenting reading, from an independent laneSpinning Wheel (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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