an apparatus intended particularly for pulling filamentary spooled material , such as yarn , from a spool has a spool holder , receiving the spool , and a flyer arm , preferably rotatably supported about the axis of the spool . the flyer arm carries yarn guide elements for the spooled yarn arriving from the spool and traveling to a yarn user . in order to assure gentle , regulated pulling off of the spooled material , the arrangement is such that the flyer arm and / or the rotatably supported spool holder is coupled with a speed controlled electric drive motor , and the flyer arm has sensing means which scan the spooled yarn arriving from the spool and emit an output signal representative of the spooled yarn travel speed with respect to the flyer arm . the speed of the drive motor is synchronized with the output signal of the sensing means .