The Wheel of Fortune/Appendix 1a
APPENDICES
BY
MAGANLAL K. GANDHI
A MODEL WEAVING-SCHOOL
All the external activities of Satyagrahashram in connection with Swadeshi have for some time now been taken over by the Gujarat Provincial Congress Committee. People, who are in heed of or wish to know anything about ginning-wheels, spinning-wheels, looms and Khadi, are requested to correspond with the Secretary of the Khadi department of that Committee. The Ashram now only conducts a weaving-school, which teaches all the processes from ginning right up to weaving. The boys of the Ashram school are at present taking the full course of instruction here, and we have not the room to take up students from outside. Some description of the work done is given here in the hope, that it may perhaps furnish suggestions to outside students and to schools desirous of having spinning-classes attached to them.
Forty-nine spinning wheels are here regularly at work, over and above twenty-five others which are reserved for beginners. All these are worked three to six hours per day. Some are worked for even seven or eight hours. After a month's training, a friend worked twelve to fourteen hours daily for a number of days and thus proved the possibility of earning three annas a day. Another, a sister, spun nine to ten hours daily for some days after finishing her, round of domestic business. In a month and a half, she, had spun enough to get sadlas and other cloth woven out of yarn spun by herself, and actually began wearing these things. She is now-a-days spinning at the rate of eight hours a day. One day there was something wrong with this lady's rentia. She referred the matter to the present writer who set it right. But she was not satisfied. She complained again, and again was the rentia operated upon. But the wheel apparently suffered from some occult malady, which she was at a loss to diagnose. Every time its spinning power would get enfeebled. At last the poor lady lost all patience and was almost ready to weep. This was reported to me, and this time I examined the wheel very critically and effected a perfect cure. It now moved merrily, and merrily did the sister proceed with her work. It is very desirable that all the wheels in a spinning-class be kept in a perfect condition. When that is the case, the spinner does not tire and works cheerfully and speedily. Our class is attended by five ladies, who spin five or six hours every day, and by twenty-three students of the Ashram school, of whom eighteen are boys and five are girls. The conduct of this class is not an easy job. Their spirits are in continual need of cheering. Some of them, spin very rapidly. But sometimes there is a grievous attack of head-ache, at other times the still more grievous attack of idleness. 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 two feet to two feet and a half of yarn every five seconds. This comes to 8 to 10 yards a minute. If the sliver is good and the student in a spinning-mood, there is less breakage of yarn. Even considering the time lost on account of breakage and joining, some students are easily able to spin 400 to 500 yards of yarn of about 12 counts, fit for warp. This approximates to the speed of a mill spindle, and is therefore quite satisfactory. When the work is over, the student removes the spindle from the wheel and keeps it in good preservation. Yet accidents do occur. The class master must know how to repair a spindle which has thus gone wrong. He must also know how to put the wheel in good working order. The string which makes the spindle revolve often breaks, but if it is well-twisted, treated with wax, and then rubbed well with a piece of cloth, it becomes more durable and lasts for a number of days.
The students generally like to work on the rentia. But the moment it gets a little wrong and cannot be soon corrected, they rise and flee. Not only the beginners but, even advanced scholars are sometime confused, when called upon to set right such a simple machine as the spinning-wheel. A veteran leader who set the non-co-operating students of engineering at work upon the spinning-wheel, made the remark that English education has incapacitated our young men. It was with great pain that he said this. And it is the simple truth of the matter. We can clearly see, that as a result of this education, we have not only lost the power of our hands and feet, but we also lack in patience and perseverance. We cannot bear to take the trouble of correcting anything that is wrong. Newspaper leader-writers question the educative value of spinning and doubt its efficacy in driving away poverty from our midst. Their doubts would vanish if ever they tried and saw for themselves what children gain from the spinning-wheel. But these writers are themselves the product of English education. To expect them to be patient, is to forget the character of the discipline to which they have been subject. There is no better test than the spinning-wheel, if we wish to ascertain whether our children are educated in the real and the proper sense of that term.
Many people still question the economic value of hand spinning. But I believe that the results of our experiments may perhaps lead them to reconsider their views. I will here put down the statistics of our own class. Among our students, there are five playful children, who spin only when the spirit possesses them. But all of them spin good yarn fit for warp. Hardly any spin yarn below 10 counts. Many spin yarn of about 15 counts. Now-a-days the boys are giving four hours to spinning. Formerly they used to work six hours daily, but then there was a tendency to occasional slackness. Now we have ruled that when once a student has spun a length of 1000 yards, he may be allowed to leave the spinning, class, and learn carding etc. This arrangement has had excellent efforts. All spin without losing a moment and spin 1000 yards in two to four hours according to the skill acquired. And the yarn thus produced is pretty uniform, well twisted, and fit for warp. We have fixed a round wire frame on the axle of the wheel just near the handle, with a circumference of 4 feet. This frame is used for opening the cone into a hank. 750 revolutions of this mean a thousand yards of yarn. Most students count the revolutions, while they are moving the frame, and hence do not take much additional time for calculations. Some are not able to practice this, and they count the length after they have prepared the hank.
1000 yards of yarn of six counts weigh 8 tolas. (840 yards make a hank. If six such hanks weigh a pound, the yarn is of 6 counts. Hence 840 yards of six count of yarn weigh 6⅔ tolas.) 4 annas is a quite proper wage for spinning one pound of six-count yarn of a standard quality. This means a wage of nine pies and a half for spinning 8 tolas. But most of our students spin yarn of 12 to 15 counts, and even finer. And this is quite good and fit for weaving. The wage for a thousand yards of finer yarn must be proportionately higher; as the finer the yarn, the greater the number of twists to be given to it. Twelve-count yarn requires nearly half as much twisting again as six-count yarn. Hence the wage of a thousand yards of twelve-count yarn must be half as much again as that of the same length of six-count yarn. But this proportionately higher wage makes the hand-spun yarn much dearer than the mill-made yarn of the same count. If we take 8 and 12 annas to be the wage for spinning a pound of yarn of 12 and 16 counts respectively, the wage for spinning a length of 1000 yards of the same counts will be 10 or 11 pies. One student spins this amount in 2 hours, several in 3 hours and the rest in 4.
On the last Amavasya it was twenty two days since the students set regularly to work after the vaishaka vacation. Deducting three holidays on Sundays and three half-holidays on Wednesdays, we get seventeen and a half working days. There was an average attendance of twenty two students out of twenty three. Twenty two students spun in seventeen days and a half twenty four shers and a half of yarn of about fourteen counts. If we take ten annas to be the average wage for spinning a sher, this comes to fifteen rupees and four annas. This is exclusive of Rs. 1-11-0 which is the wage of 18 pounds of cotton carded and made into slivers by one student in 12 days, calculated at an anna and a half per pound. It is also exclusive of the extra work put in by students on five or six days after finishing their daily quota of 1000 yds. of yarn by way of carding and opening yarn for weaving tapes and carpets. These students gave some of their private time also to this work.
There is no doubt, that the figures will mount higher when the students acquire the habit of methodical work. But whatever the pecuniary value of their work might be, method in work itself will be an acquisition beyond all price.
So much for the spinning department. I hope to be able to deal with the weaving department on another occasion.