Is the Use of Electrical Power Really Cheating

I happened to use my drop spindle out in public and a woman was very taken with its action, exclaiming how she'd never seen anything like it.  She, and the man with her, asked questions about how it worked and how spinning wheels work.

I talked about the action of flyers and bobbins and treadles.  I held my drop spindle sideways to show how twisting fibre falls off the tip of a great wheel's spindle.

I said there were also electric spinners that look like sewing machines.

"Oh, but that's cheating!" the man said.

Lenox "Le Printemps Spring"