Hand spinning on these types of wheels, both hands are free (since the wheel is turned with a treadle, rather than by hand), so the spinner can use one hand to draft the fibres and the other to wet them. Modern powered spinning, originally done by water or steam power but now done by electricity, is vastly faster than hand-spinning. The spinning jenny, a multi-spool spinning wheel invented c. 1764 by James Hargreaves, dramatically reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn of high consistency, with a single worker able to work eight or more spools at once. At roughly the
Spinning wheel which is closer to the direct translation of the French "un fuseau". Spinning wheels are also integral to the plot or characterization in the Scottish folk tale "Habitrot" and the German tales "The Three Spinners". and "The Twelve Huntsmen" Louisa May Alcott, most famous as the author of "Little Women", wrote a collection of short stories called "Spinning-Wheel Stories", which were not about spinning wheels but instead meant to be read while engaging in the rather tedious act of using a spinning wheel. In 1814, Franz Schubert composed "Gretchen am Spinnrade", a lied for piano and voice based on a