The flyer is a simple U-shaped piece of wood that can rotate freely around the bobbin, with hooks on its wings so you can adjust the point on the bobbin that the thread is wound around. As the bobbin rotates and pulls wool in, it forces the flyer to rotate too, at exactly the same speed. All you need to do is change the speed of the flyer: you can do this by adding a brake to it (a belt around the flyer’s shaft can be tightened or loosened to adjust its tension), or by adding a separate drive belt to the flyer, spinning it at a different rate. When the flyer and bobbin no longer rotate at
...more
