The Wheel That Launched a Thousand Ships

It was the spinning wheel.

It was the ability to make sails more quickly.

Making cord and string has been around since the time of the Neanderthals. Modern humans probably learned this skill, along with sewing with a needle and thread, from them or the Denisovans hundreds of thousands of years ago. The first fibers were plant based and twined rather than spun, but it wasn’t relatively long before someone figured out how to spin fiber into thread using a stick, and then if a weight is added, the stick will spin faster and longer. As a creative species, we were on our way.

In order to keep a village in clothes, blankets, rugs, and everything else needed that was made out of fabric, people must have been spinning at every available moment. We assume that women were doing this, but there’s no reason that men weren’t also spinning. It was a vital activity and needed by the entire community.

Evenings would have been spent doing tasks that could be done by fire or lamp light. Tasks like spinning, sewing, and mending continued through the day and into the evening. There was no spare time. Spare time is a very modern concept.