Hand spinning -- India; India -- Economic conditions; Manufactures -- India
In _Ashadha_ the students were more energetic than before. The number of
regular students was 21, and these in 23 working days (there being six
holidays in the month) spun 30 pounds and 24 _tolas_ of yarn of about 12
counts on the average, fit for warp. At ten annas a pound, this means a
wage of Rs. 19-2-0. The total number of hours of spinning was 1337. At 4
hours a day it should have been 1932 (23 number of days × 21 number of
students × 4). This deficiency is not due to idleness, nor to headache.
Complaints of idleness have now quite ceased. And students now
understand that headache may prevent one from reading or working sums
but not from spinning. They have also realised that if the arms are
fatigued by fetching water or swimming, there is nothing like spinning
for removing the fatigue. The thing is that those students who have
mastered spinning were engaged in carding and other process. If full
time had been given to spinning, we would have turned out a
proportionately bigger quantity of yarn.
The spinning power of the students is increasing every day. The student
who spun 7 _tolas_ an hour during the Satyagraha week is now no longer a
prodigy and others are fast overtaking him. One day a girl spun 9
_tolas_ of uniform and well-twisted 12-count yarn in 6 hours. At the
above rate this means a wage of 2 annas 3 pies. For 8 hours therefore
the wage would be 3 annas, for 12 hours 4 annas 6 pies, for 14 hours 5
annas 3 pies. But it is hardly necessary to emphasise the pecuniary
value of the work, so far as schools are concerned. The point is that by
constituting spinning as a permanent part of our school curricula we
provide manual training of the highest kind and at the same time prepare
for the re-advent of a day when spinning will be as much a part of our
domestic economy as say cooking.
_Y. I.--11th Aug. '21_.
THE ADVANTAGE OF THE THIN SPINDLE
Since we introduced the thin Spindle, we have been keeping a number of
them in reserve. When a student has his spindle bent, it is not
corrected there and then but he is at once given one of the spare good
ones, so there is no delay. Afterwards all the spindles that have gone
wrong are collected and corrected together.
The _sadi_, i.e. the wrapping on the spindle which serves as a pulley,
is often cut by itself and has sometimes to be cut off in order to
correct the spindle. A new _sadi_ has to be wrapped and for this a
bottle of thick gum is kept ready at hand. It must be made of fine
strong yarn, and be wrapped very tight. If it is loose, the string which
revolves the spindle (_mala_) sinks in it and cuts it asunder, and at
once the spindle stops. If the _sadi_ is made of coarse yarn, it
becomes rough, and so the _mala_ does not run smoothly, and the spindle
throbs and causes breakage of the yarn while it is being spun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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