Actually, that does sound nifty. Would spin easily too. You'd just have to figure out how to connect it to a spindle.

In some places, instead of a treadle (that foot pedal thing), they had "great wheels" which were basically just huge wheels...you'd turn them by hand, hard, and then walk back and forth. It was good exercise, they estimate that in a day's spinning on a great wheel, you'd walk a good number of miles!