Around its rim are metal partitions generally identified as separators or frets, and the compartments or pockets between these are referred to as canoes by roulette croupiers. Thirty-six of these compartments, painted alternately purple and black, are numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36. On European-style wheels a thirty seventh compartment, painted green, carries the signal 0, and on American wheels two green compartments on reverse sides of the wheel carry the indicators zero and 00. The wheel, its spindle completely balanced, spins smoothly in an almost frictionless method.