What textile machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to automate winding thread onto a bobbin?

Leonardo da Vinci designed an automatic bobbin winder to wind thread onto a bobbin.

The mechanism used coordinated rotating parts to guide thread evenly as it accumulated on a spool. By automating the winding stage, the design could help prepare yarn for later textile work and reduce the need for constant manual handling. Leonardo’s notes show sustained interest in looms, spinning, winding, and other machines used in production.

This device was not the same as a spinning machine. Spinning turns fibers into yarn, while winding places already formed thread onto a bobbin or spool. That distinction matters because Renaissance textile production involved several separate operations, each with its own tools.

Leonardo’s machine also predates the Industrial Revolution, but it should not be treated as the direct invention of the spinning jenny or the power loom. Those later machines transformed textile production on a much larger scale and were developed by other inventors.