Page:Gandhi - The Wheel of fortune.djvu/144

126 Sometimes the hand is fatigued, at other times the wheel gets out of repair.

We are now replacing the thick by a thin spindle. It is true that with the slightest interference or rough handling, this thin spindle bends and begins to wobble. But it makes the movement of the wheel very smooth and easy, and also adds to its speed, as the revolutions are doubled from the fifty of the thick spindle to a hundred in the thin spindle following from one revolution of the large wheel. The doubling of revolutions does not mean a double output, but there is certainly a considerable increase. With the thick spindle, the wheel must go through 8 or 10 revolutions for the drawing and winding of one length of yarn; with the thin spindle, the revolutions of the wheel needed for that purpose are reduced to 4 or 5. Hence with the thin spindle, there is an economy of labour. The speed of drawing the yarn by the hand is clearly limited, so that 200 or 300 revolutions of the spindle instead of 100 would not double or treble the speed or the output. Advanced students draw and wind