Silk twister's reeler for twisting silk by hand, c 1770

Silk twister's reeler for silk throwing, 1760-1780.

To produce a silk yarn of sufficient strength for weaving, it is necessary to twist together the filaments from a number of cocoons; this is known as throwing. The threads of silk are hung on the 24 hooks of the wheel head by the twister and taken around the hooks of the 'cross' by the boy and back to the hooks of the wheel. The wheel is turned, which rotates the hooks and twists the doubled thread, he next puts the threads together in groups of threes and passes around the cross and back to the wheel as before. The wheel is then turned in the opposite sense to reverse the thread twist. The eight threads are then reeled into a skein.