Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/520

* SPINELLO AB.ETINO. 448 SPINNING. Pope Alexander III. His best preserved works are the frescoes of the "Life of Saint Benedict," in San Miniato, Florence. He also executed exten- sive frescoes at Casentino and Arezzo, where, in Santa JIaria degli Angeli, was his celebrated "Fall of Lucifer," which gave rise to Vasari's well-known fable that the painter died of friglit in consequence of an apparition of Lucifer call- ing him to account for the painting. Spinello's work is facile in composition and vivacious in presentation, but superficial in form and exe- cution. SPINET (OF. espinette, Fr. epinette, from It. spinctta, spinet, point, diminutive of spina, from Lat. spiim, thorn, spine). A stringed musi- cal instrument with a keyboard, smaller and ■weaker than the harpsichord, and, like it, one of the precursors of the pianoforte. The general outline of the instrument nearly resembled that of a harp laid in a horizontal position, with the keys occupying the position of the sounding- board. The oldest extant specimen is dated 1490. SPINNAKEK. A triangular racing sail car- ried by yachts. It hoists to the foremast or fore- topmast head and is sjjread by a boom which is, at other times, carried up and down the fore- mast. The spinnaker is only set when the wind is free or behind the yacht. "See Yacht. SPIN'NEB, Fkancis Elias (1802-90). An American political leader, born at German Flats, now Mohawk, N. Y. From 1845 to 1849 he was auditor of the naval office in New York City. In 18.54 lie w^as elected to Congress as a Free-Soil Democrat, but soon identified himself with the newly organized Republican Party, and was twice reelected to Congress, serving from -1855 until 1801, when he was appointed Treasurer of the United States. This position he filled with great credit until 1875, when he resigned on account of failing health and went to Florida, where he passed the remainder of his life. During his administration women were first employed as clerks in the Treasury Department to take the places of the men who enlisted in the Federal armies. SPINNING (from spin, from AS.. Goth,, OHG, spinnnn. Ger. spinnen. to spin; probably connected with AS., OHG. spannnn, Ger. spannen, Eng. spare, to stretch out, extend, and ultimately with Lat. spatium, extent, Gk. crTrai', span, to draw out). The art of drawing, twisting, and combining either animal or vegetable fibres, so that they are formed into continuous threads ready for the further operations of weaving. Unit- ting, or sewing. The principal textile fibres are silk, wool, fiax, jute, and cotton (qq.v.), and the method of spinning each of these substances dift'ers slightly from the rest. The most ancient instruments for spinning were the spindle and distaff, representations of which are to be seen on the earliest Egyptian monuments. The distaff was a stick or staff upon which a bundle of the prepared material was loosely bound, and which w'as held in the left hand or stuck in the belt; the spindle was a smaller tapering piece to which the thread was attached. By a dexterous twirl of the hand the spindle was made to spin round and at the same time recede from the spinster, who drew out be- tween the forefinger and thumb of the right hand a regular stream of fibres so long as the twisting of the spindle lasted. It was then drawn in, the new length of thread wound upon it, and the operation renewed. An obvious im- provement in tliis device was to set the spindle in a frame and make it revolve by a band passing over a wheel, driven by occasional impetus from the hand. The ^ijxon wheel is said to have been invented in Nuremberg in 1530. This wheel, used only for flax-spinning, contained the germ of Arkwright's invention, described later on. A bobbin or 'pirn' with a separate motion was placed on the spindle, which had a bent arm — a flyer or flight — for winding the yarn on the bobbin. The spindle and Iioiibin revolved at dift'erent speeds, the revo- lutions of the spindle giving the twist, and the difference of the speed causing the winding on. The two-handed wheel had two spindles and pirns a little apart, with the distaff stuck into the frame between them, and the spinster produced a thread with each hand. During the last half of the eighteenth century three inventions were made which completely revolutionized the art of spinning. These three inventions were Hargreaves's spinning jennij, Ark- wright's throstle machine or roll-drawing spin- ning machine, and Crompton's mule spinner. In the spinning jenny a number of large reels of fibre formed into a thickish coil, called a roving, were set on upright fixed spindles, and the ends of the rovings were passed between two small movable bars of wood placed horizontally and under the control of the spinner, who could thus make them press more or less on the roving, and consequently increase or decrease the draw upon it from the spinning spindles, which were set in a row at the other end of the frame, and all capable of being set in motion simultaneously bv the wlieel. The spinner drew out the rovings by moving the bars back and forth and at the same time turned the crank with his right hand to rotate the spindles. The throstle machine, patented by Arkwright in 1769, had for its object the drawing of the rovings through a succession of pairs of rollers, each pair in advance of the others, and moving at different rates of speed. The first pair receive the sliver, compress it, and pass it on to the sec- ond pair, which revolve at a greater speed, and thus pull it out to exactly the number of times