An archaic, evocative noun with two connected meanings, originally for the song thrush, then later a textiles industrial frame for spinning, twisting and winding machine for cotton, wool, and other fibres simultaneously. It differs from the purely spinning mule of the Lancashire mills in the 18th and 19th centuries, and derived its name from the "singing or humming which it occasioned, in parallel to the bird. The increase production speed, the machine was a development from Richard Arkwright's water frame (c. 1769) , and used for continuous spinning via steam power in the early 1800s. It is often described as an improved, higher-speed version of the water frame, with significant developments by various industrialists the north of England, Manchester, and Stockport, but such as the Danforth throstle, appearing in the 1820s, by American inventor Charles Danforth.
It was named after the bird because of its sound, a continuous, loud humming or whirring sound while running, which operators compared to the bird's song.
But as for the bird, emitting a no doubt a much more pleasant sound, here’s a handy video showing ways to identify it by eye and by ear:
Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a poem about the bird, using its older name for the title:
‘Summer is coming, summer is coming.
I know it, I know it, I know it.
Light again, leaf again, life again, love again,’
Yes, my wild little Poet.
Sing the new year in under the blue.
Last year you sang it as gladly.
‘New, new, new, new’! Is it then so new
That you should carol so madly?
‘Love again, song again, nest again, young again,’
Never a prophet so crazy!
And hardly a daisy as yet, little friend,
See, there is hardly a daisy.
‘Here again, here, here, here, happy year’!
O warble unchidden, unbidden!
Summer is coming, is coming, my dear,
And all the winters are hidden
It was set to music in this operatic style by Maude Valérie White, performed by singer Anthony Rolf Johnson with piano accompaniment by Graham Johnson:
Here also is an instrumental track by Frank Schultz using the word as title:
Finally, there are many songs used the more conventional song thrush name. Here’s just one, a real beauty, by the trio L.Y.R, comprising British poet laureate Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist & producer Patrick Pearson, taken from their 2023 album The Ultraviolet Age:
So then, any further throstle-related examples to share from your own music library whether the bird or the texture machine? Feel free also to share anything related whether in music or wider culture, such as from film, art, or other contexts, in comments below.
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