Looms and Wheels

What is a Barn Loom?

If you have had the opportunity to visit our Bement-Billings Farmstead museum, you might have seen a loom on display. It is sometimes referred to as a "barn-frame loom", or "barn loom" for short. The frame is constructed of posts and beams; much like the old timber framed barns. It is held together with removable wooden pegs, allowing it to be disassembled and stored when not in use.

Spinning wool or flax into yarn was a daily activity in nineteenth century households. Spinning wheels were part of every home's furnishings. In the Bement-Billings Farmhouse, a "great wheel" occupies a corner of the dining room. When sufficient yarn had been spun it was time to begin weaving it into cloth. The barn loom would be assembled in one of the larger rooms of the house. When the weaving was done, the loom would be disassembled, and stored until the next time it was needed. A single loom could have been shared by several families.

Bill Ralph, renowned expert in antique spinning wheels and looms, has beautifully restored our loom to perfect working condition. The "Shuttles and Spindles Guild" uses the loom during weaving demonstrations at the Farmstead. Bill has prepared a more detailed description of our loom in his article, A Small Linen Loom at Newark Valley.

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A Small Linen Loom at Newark Valley
By Bill Ralph

At the Newark Valley Historical Society (NVHS) in Newark Valley, New York, there is a small restored barn-frame loom on display, similar to several other looms found in the area between Binghamton and Syracuse and also in what is known as the Finger Lakes District. (See What is a Barn Loom? for image.) This loom was donated to the NVHS by Clare Holden, of Newark Valley, to whose family the loom belonged. The loom was restored to working condition by Bill Ralph.

The loom, probably from the early 19th Century, is only four-feet-six-inches wide, and four feet deep and slightly more than six feet high, with a weaving width of about 36 inches. The structure of the loom uses a central castle with a cantilever supporting the shedding mechanism (harness) and an overslung beater. The design is often referred to as a Scandinavian loom or what John Tovey calls a Danish loom, although no Scandinavian connection has been found here. It's small size and the fact that it is designed to be taken apart suggests its use for smaller homes of earlier times.

The loom has several unique features which readily identify it as a loom for linen weaving. Linen yarn is particularly unyielding and requires the longest practical warp line. This is accomplished by first leading the warp threads up and over a back beam, increasing the distance between the warp beam and the cloth beam. Finely-spaced parallel incised marks on the hard wood of the back beam, barely visible but easily detected by running a finger nail over the edge of the beam, attest to the use of a linen warp. The back beam also imposes a steep incline on the warp line.

The highly tensioned warp required in linen weaving puts a considerable strain on the loom mechanism. To prevent the warp from lifting the warp beam out of its bearings when the warp is tensioned, the beam is set into hole bearings in the back posts instead of the usual open cup-shaped bearings common to barn-frame looms. The heavy warp beam (about 80 pounds)is cylindrical instead of eight-sided, turned from a single piece of hardwood, smoothly finished, and of a large diameter, winding on over a yard at each turn.(for a given length of warp, fewer turns on the warp beam diminish the problem of uneven winding and warp entanglement).

To lock the beam, a wooden pawl engages any one of 16 pegs or cogs around the end circumference of the warp beam. The pawl can be released from the weaver's position by means of a rope, to advance the warp. The wooden pawl is a replacement. The original was missing.

After leaving the back beam the warp line passes through the heddles, then through the reed and over the breast beam to the cloth beam. The smaller, eight-sided, five-inch diameter cloth beam is equipped with a fine-toothed iron ratchet, possibly made from an early recycled circular saw blade, which it resembles.

Judging from the treadle pivots at the rear of the loom the loom originally had only two treadles operating two shafts. The heddle sticks were probably hung from a pair of wooden pulleys since no roller bar was found with the loom. The loom may have been equipped with knitted string heddles. The restored loom has been equipped with individual string heddles and an early but not original cane reed.

Pegs and wedges securing the loom frame indicate provisions for disassembly when required. The loom may have been taken down and stored at times when not in use to conserve valuable living space. The side panels are permanently secured with draw pins but the cross beams (stretchers) are fitted with half-dovetail joints secured with wedges. This method provides a rigid, immoveable joint, easily disassembled when needed. Where stretchers join the posts, Roman numerals indicate matching joints since similar parts, although identical appearance, are nevertheless not interchangeable.

During restoration, provisions were made to convert the loom to a four-shaft operation if desired. This modification may be added or taken down at any time and does not compromise the historic integrity of the loom.

Special Note: Our special thanks to Bill Ralph. He was an old friend of the Newark Valley Historical Society, and a specialist in antique spinning wheels and looms. He bought, sold and restored wheels and looms at his home in the Village of Orwell, Pennsylvania. Bill had over 30 years experience and 500 documented restorations, using old time methods and tools.

Bill passed away in 2002. He will be missed by all of us.

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The Spinning Wheel Sleuth & Farnham Research

Farnham Family Textile Tools
by Pamela Goddard, Program Director of the Tioga County Historical Society

This article appeared in issue #10, October 1995 of The Spinning Wheel Sleuth.

Farnham's mill, before the flood of 1935

In Issue #7, we gave a brief outline of what was known about the Farnham family of Owego, NY, and the spinning wheels they made. What follows is a historic "work in progress" about this industrious family and the others who followed in their style. Examples of Farnham-style wheels are still coming in, and we welcome any additional information that this article might generate.

Joel Farnham was born in Windham, CT, in 1774. Because he grew up through the turbulent Revolutionary War era, our knowledge of his early life history is somewhat confused. Accounts have him at the burning of New London, CT, in 1781 and at the Wyoming Massacre in Pennsylvania in 1782. At some time in the early 1780s Joel's father Ebenezer died, reputedly "put on a British prison ship and starved to death." His mother, Joanna B. Farnham, remarried. It is unclear what happened to this second marriage and to Joel's three brothers and sisters.

What is clear is that in 1792 Joel and his mother Joanna left "Old Forty Fort" in Pennsylvania and poled up the Susquehanna River to the mouth of the Owego Creek. They found this area of New York's Southern Tier to their liking. In 1794, when Joel Farnham was 20 years old, he bought 640 acres of land in Tioga County, NY. An 1880s Tioga County history relates that

... Pioneer Farnham was a wheelwright and cabinet maker, a native Yankee who possessed all the ingenuity of his people, and it was not long before he built a dam across the creek and erected mills for the manufacture of spinning wheels and other domestic articles then much used by the settlers. [Kingman, p.451]

Family records show that Joel and his sons maintained a mill race with at least four mills--saw, carding, thrashing, and cider--along with a wood turning shop. But there is no indication when the different mills were built or whether they were all established at the same time. The wool carding mill was probably the first mill to be constructed. Our research indicates that carding mills were often the first businesses started in this region, even before sawmills and gristmills. The Farnhams also maintained a blacksmith shop and farm, with all accompanying outbuildings. Clearly, making spinning wheels was just part of the family business! This was not unusual for much of the Northeast during the 19th century.

The manufacture of spinning wheels may have even been a side business to attract more people to the wool carding mill. In the 1820s Joel ran advertisements in the Owego Gazette which focused on the wool carding concern. In 1823 he believed that his mills were "too well known to the public to require any commendation at this time.-Let it suffice that he carries on his business as usual, at this old stand, two miles from the village of Owego."

This advertisement finished with a note that he was carrying on "The Wheelright Business, in all its branches," at his "old factory," and that "Large or Small WHEELS of the first quality" were available "at short notice and on reasonable terms.

From the wording of both the county histories and the 1823 advertisement, Joel Farnham probably began making spinning wheels in 1794, or soon after he settled in Owego. By the 1820s he already had a well established business. Also he had been teaching the skills of milling and woodcraft to his sons and to others such as Enoch Slosson Williams of Newark Valley, NY. (As Joel's wife, Ruth Slosson, was also of Newark Valley, Williams may have been a relative by marriage.)

County histories clearly state that As Joel Farnham grew older, at least Williams learned the business of making spinning wheels from Joel Farnham. It is not certain when he learned, but we surmise circa 1800. Perhaps Williams was an early apprentice before Joel's sons were old enough to help with the work. Comparison photos of Williams and Farnham spinning wheels and research into at least one quill winder. Our survey to other museum collections show that Williams learned to make both wool and flax wheels from Farnham. His wheels are very close in style and construction and are similarly marked with a carved or branded stamp.

The production of this style of four-legged spinning wheel was further passed on to Jesse Truesdell of Newark Valley who took over the wheel factory and turning shop from Williams. He is charmingly described in a county history as

a witty and companionable little man, fond of the good things of this life, and would work industriously in his little shop on Spring brook ... till he had a wagon load of spinning wheels, reels, etc, and then enjoy the pleasures of travel, till they were sold.

As Joel Farnham grew older, at least three of his sons assisted with his extensive business. Sylvester seems to have mainly helped with the milling, while Charles and Frederick helped with production of reels and spinning wheels. They made two types of spinning wheels (the large wool and small flax), clock reels and at least one quill winder. Our survey to date has uncovered nearly equal numbers of clock reels, wool wheels and flax wheels. In time Charles and especially Frederick progressed to marking wheels with their own names.

It was Joel's youngest son, Frederick A. Farnham, who took over the family homestead and most of the family business. Joel died in 1858 at age 84. Our survey has uncovered an almost equal number of wheels and wheel-heads marked with "J. Farnham" and "F. A. Farnham." I am of the opinion that the "F. A. Farnham" mark shows the next generation of Farnham wheels and probably date from the 1840s on. Frederick may have specialized in "upgrade" parts, as we have found a wool wheel marked "E. Lewis" with a newer "F. A. Farnham" accelerating head.

Through interviews with descendants of the Farnham family, we have uncovered some interesting "myth busting" information. We assumed that making spinning wheels and home spinning were primarily part of early settler history; that using spinning wheels and operating carding mills were from the "age of homespun"--the first quarter of the 19th century; and that by mid-century this work died out because of advances in transportation and the industrial revolution. Most of the county's carding mills had disappeared by the time of the Civil War. However, two Farnham descendants have clear memories of Herbert Farnham (grandson of Joel, youngest son of Frederick) running the carding mill circa 1910. They remember the mill producing rolags "the size of your finger" [pencil rovings] rather than sheet carding.

So our survey and research have answered some questions and raised others. How long through the 19th century, and possibly into the 20th, were people of Tioga County practicing homespinning? Likewise, how long into the 19th century did Frederick A. Farnham (1818-1887) continue making his father's style wheel? Was Herbert Farnham (1855-1921) still making or repairing wheels, or was he only running the mill works?

Also we still do not know the origin of Joel Farnham's distinctive 4legged wheel design. Did he learn to make his wheels from Connecticut wheelwrights? Or did he develop his wheel design on his own? Joel Farnham was an inventer who patented a special kind of cider press and dabbled with horseless carriages in the 1830s or 1840s. So it is possible that he created his own wheel design.

Reading
General
Baines, Patricia. Spinning Wheels Spinners and Spinning. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977.

Cummer, Joan. A Book of Spinning Wheels. Portsmouth, NH: Peter J. Randall, 1993.

Pennington, David, and Michael Taylor.
A Pictorial Guide to American Spinning Wheels.
Sabbathday Lake, Maine: The Shaker Press, 1975.

Specific
Gay, W. B. The Historical Gazetteer of Tioga County, New York. 1785-1888.

Kingman, Leroy W., editor. Our County and Its People: A Memorial History of Tioga County. 1897.

Linen-making in New England, 1640-1860. N. Andover, MA: Merrimack Valley Textile Museum, 1980.

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How to Identify Farnham Flax Wheels
By Bill Ralph, acknowledged expert on antique spinning wheels

This article appeared in issue #10, October 1995 of The Spinning Wheel Sleuth.

Today wheels made by the Farnham family of Owego, NY, are highly prized and in great demand. They are easily identified because they are all signed. The problem is that not all wheels found today signed "Farnham" are 100 percent original.

I have seen six different Farnham signatures, the most common being "J FARNHAM." Other signatures are "J. Farnham JR.,""J FARNHAM Owego," "J. FARNHAM near Owego," and "F.A. FARNHAM Owego." The signature is embossed in the wooden base of the wheel by stamping or burning. The letters are either 1/2 or 5/8 inches high, all in capitals. The words "near" and "Owego" are in script. Often the signature is found on both the top and the side of the wheel table. The sixth signature, found on a walking wheel, is a small cartouche, perhaps 2 inches wide and 3/8 inch high, with the name "FARNHAM" stamped in the end grain of the table.

This may be the earliest of the Farnham signatures. I have not found this signature on flax wheels.

There are two distinct styles of Farnham flax wheels. First is the traditional three-legged wheel. It is slender, lightly built, with a narrow-rimmed, 12-spoke drive wheel. The plain spokes increase in diameter from the hub to the rim, with a single band decoration cut into the spoke near the rim. A unique feature, more often seen on European wheels, is a wooden nut below the table which, when tightened, secures the mother-of-all to maintain the belt tension. Turnings are graceful and unadorned with free-flowing, rounded lines and no sharp demarcations. The maidens and the distaff post are topped with a small, cap-like finial. The flyer is delicately shaped.

The second wheel is of a unique design. It has four legs, a horizontal table, two vertical rectangular posts which support the drive wheel and at the top of which is mounted the distaff crossarm. The mother-of-all rides high on two pivoting arms. A long tension screw, threaded into the near wheel post, adjusts the distance of the flyer from the drive wheel. The turnings on the maidens, legs, and wheel spokes are very similar to those found on the three-legged Farnham wheel. At the center of the pivoting arms are holes to accommodate a long pin to hold an additional bobbin.

Almost identical wheels with signatures of "Truesdell" and "E.S.Williams" exist. Other quite similar wheels are signed "Schoonover," "L. Brown," and "C Heese." Some clones are unsigned. The design of this style of four-legged wheel is generally attributed to Farnham, but whether Farnham was the originator of this design is not known.

Since all Farnham wheels are signed, why should there be any question about the authenticity of a Farnham wheel? The problem is the replacement of original parts long since lost. Distaffs, flyers, treadles, and even the drive wheels are frequently missing after a century or more in storage in some forgotten attic or barn. Because Farnham wheels are now in high demand and somewhat expensive, it occasionally happens that someone who has an incomplete Farnham wheel, usually a dealer, will attempt to complete the wheel with parts which are not Farnham and which do not really fit. Replacement of one or two parts, expertly done according to the original design, is quite acceptable, provided the repairs are pointed out to a prospective buyer. But this is not always the case. I've seen wheels, not only Farnham wheels, assembled from parts of other antique wheels. They can look very convincing if you don't know what to look for, but they are worthless to a collector or historian or to someone who wants to spin on them.

No written description can adequately convey all the necessary information required to identify a genuine Farnham wheel. It is suggested that the reader go and personally examine a known Farnham wheel or, lacking that opportunity, study carefully several photographs of genuine Farnham wheels.

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Identifying Farnham Great Wheels
By Bill Ralph, acknowledged expert on antique spinning wheels

This article appeared in issue #13, July 1996 of The Spinning Wheel Sleuth.
 

The name FARNHAM inscribed on the base of a great wheel considerably increases the value of the wheel for collectors as well as for the dealers who sell them. It is not surprising, therefore, that when a signed Farnham spinning-wheel base is found that is missing an essential part, such as the drive wheel, a dealer may take the needed part from a non-Farnham wheel. That causes a problem for historians, wheel collectors, and people who want to own a piece of authentic history. It is therefore important to recognize the distinguishing characteristics of a genuine Farnham great wheel.

Because all Farnham wheels, to the best of my knowledge, are signed, preliminary identification is simple. Just look for the signature.

Since Farnham wheels were made by a succession of Farnhams, there are several varieties of Farnham signatures. I have seen six different Farnham signatures, the most common being J FARNHAM. Other signatures are J. Farnham JR., J FARNHAM Owego, J. FARNHAM near Owego, and F.A. FARNHAM Owego. The signature is imprinted in the wooden base of the wheel by stamping or burning. The letters are either 1/2 or 5/8 inches high, all in capitals. The words near and Owego are in script. Often the signature is found on both the top and the side of the wheel table. The sixth signature, found on a walking wheel, is a small cartouche, perhaps 2 inches wide and 3/8 inch high, with the name FARNHAM stamped in the end grain of the table. This may be the earliest of the Farnham signatures. I have not found this signature on flax wheels. (For more about Farnham flax wheels, see THE SPINNING WHEEL SLEUTH, Issue #10, October 1995).

The next best indication of a Farnham wheel are the eight parallel shallow grooves cut into the surface of the rim of the drive wheel. Every Farnham wheel I have encountered has these grooves. An unsigned wheel, however, with a drive wheel with eight grooves does not mean that the wheel is necessarily a Farnham. It could be an unrecognized solitary Farnham drive wheel attached to a convenient base to make a complete wheel.

The typical Farnham drive wheel is 46 inches in diameter, with 12 plain tapered spokes. The rim is made of a single length of split wood, 2 1/2 inches wide, 1/4 inch thick, with slightly rounded edges. There may be minor variations, but the eight grooves are always present. The wheel is mounted on a sturdy post with a ball finial. The post is secured by a wedge underneath the base.

A Miner's accelerating head is usually found on a Farnham great wheel (see THE SPINNING WHEEL SLEUTH, Issue #8, April 1995). The head mounting post fits into a barrel-shaped, rotating socket that is supported by two sturdy turned posts. It is secured by a wooden nut on the back post. This allows the drive-band tension to be adjusted by pivoting the spinning head.

A few Farnham wheels have a Miner's accelerating head with a Farnham signature. Signed Farnham accelerating heads are of two types. In one case the signature is imprinted in the rear of the mother-of-all in uppercase Roman letters 1/4 inch high. Another variation has a chartreuse oval label with the name Farnham pasted on the mother-of-all. One feature that seems to be shared by all signed Farnham heads is that the pulley wheel is painted green (again, beware of enhancements).

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A Rare Farnham Accelerating Wheel
By Bill Ralph, acknowledged expert on antique spinning wheels

This article appeared in issue #15, January 1997 of The Spinning Wheel Sleuth.

In earlier issues I discussed the flax and great wheels produced by three generations of the Farnham family of Owego, NY. [See THE SPINNING WHEEL SLEUTH, Issues #10 and #13.] For some time it was rumored that Joel Farnham had also made a small accelerating flax wheel. But no one I spoke to had ever seen such a wheel or had any documentation about it. A few months ago a small signed Farnham accelerating wheel was found in an antiques shop in northeastern Pennsylvania.

It is a tiny wheel, barely 14" wide, 14" deep and 32" high. The name J. Farnham is clearly inscribed on the front of the wheel base in 1/2" high letters. Except for its dual-wheel accelerating mechanism and double treadle, the design is similar to the four-legged Farnham wheel described in Issue #10, but much smaller.

The accelerating mechanism consists of two solid wooden wheels, 8" in diameter and 7/8" thick, placed one above the other. The bottom wheel is the drive wheel, which drives the accelerating wheel above it. A cloth drive band 1 1/4" wide engages the 2" diameter extended hub of the accelerating wheel. This provides a rotational gain of about four times. The accelerating wheel has two grooves to hold the doubled drive band, which controls the flyer assembly. The drive-wheel axle crank is connected to the right treadle by a wooden footman. Also connected to the crank is a cord that passes over a pulley at the top of the rear wheel support and then down to the left treadle. In operation, the right treadle pulls the crank down and the left treadle pulls the crank up on the return stroke. Accumulated friction from the two wheels and the wide drive band does not allow sufficient momentum to carry the crank past the top center position for the next downward stroke, making this unusual treadle connection necessary. One advantage of this arrangement is that the wheel can be started using only the treadles, except for the top and bottom center positions, which a skillful spinner can easily learn to avoid. The almost total lack of residual rotation makes this a difficult and tiresome wheel to spin on.

Flyer drive band tension is accomplished by a threaded wooden rod connecting the mother-of-all to the wheel's framework. The mother-of-all is supported by two pivoting arms. Turning the threaded rod moves the mother-of-all toward or away from the accelerating wheel driving the flyer. There are no provisions to adjust the tension on the other drive band, but thin leather shims inserted under the accelerating wheel axle seem to solve this problem.

The unusual design of this wheel is not exclusive to Farnham. Similar small wheels are occasionally found in the New England states and in Pennsylvania, but all examples I have seen or heard of so far were unsigned.

Often this strange wheel is not recognized as a spinning wheel, especially if the flyer assembly is missing. A similar but larger wheel in the Cummer collection is listed as being from the last half of the nineteenth century, although examples I have seen, including the Farnham wheel, seem to be of a much earlier period.

In the U.S. Patent Index, there is a listing dated June 28, 1825 of a machine for spinning wool and cotton. The names of A.S. Wittse and J. Farnham of Tioga County, NY, are listed as the patent holders. Could the wheel described here relate to that patent? I doubt it. This wheel has a distaff holder used for flax spinning.

We can also ask whether this wheel is a Farnham design that was copied by other makers, or did Farnham copy the design from contemporary wheels? In any case, considering their rarity, it is fair to assume that not many of these wheel were made. We can guess that the wheel was simple and cheap to produce but was not accepted by handspinners because it did not spin well and was therefore soon discontinued.

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