History of Textile

Ancient to Modern fashion history

The term ‘Textile’ is a Latin word originated from the word ‘texere’ which means ‘to
weave’. Textile refers to a flexible material comprising of a network of natural or artificial
fibers, known as yarn. Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting and
pressing fibers together.
History of Textile The history of textile is almost as old as that of human civilization and
as time moves on the history of textile has further enriched itself. In the 6th and 7th
century BC, the oldest recorded indication of using fiber comes with the invention of flax
and wool fabric at the excavation of Swiss lake inhabitants. In India, the culture of silk
was introduced in 400AD, while spinning of cotton traces back to 3000BC.
In China, the discovery and consequent development of sericulture and spin silk
methods got initiated at 2640 BC while in Egypt the art of spinning linen and weaving
developed in 3400 B.Th. discovery of machines and their widespread application in
processing natural fibers was a direct outcome of the industrial revolution of the 18th
and 19th centuries. The discoveries of various synthetic fibers like nylon created a wider
market for textile products and gradually led to the invention of new and improved
sources of natural fiber. The development of transportation and communication facilities
facilitated the path of a transaction of localized skills and textile art among various
countries.
How the Textile Industry Started?
Ancient to Modern Fashion History

Cotton Stage
There are some indications that weaving was already known in the Paleolithic (Old
Stone Age.). An indistinct textile impression has been found at Pavlov,
Moravia. Neolithic textiles were found in pile dwellings excavations in Switzerland and
at El Fayum, Egypt at a site which dates to about 5000 BC.
In Roman times, wool, linen and leather clothed the European population, and silk,
imported along the Silk Road from China, was an extravagant luxury. The use
of flax fiber in the manufacturing of cloth in Northern Europe dates back to Neolithic
times.
During the late medieval period, cotton began to be imported into Northern Europe.
Without any knowledge of what it came from, other than that it was a plant, noting its
similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be
produced by plant-borne sheep. By the end of the 16th century, cotton was cultivated
throughout the warmer regions of Asia and the Americas.
The main steps in the production of cloth are producing the fiber, preparing it,
converting it to yarn, converting yarn to cloth, and then finishing the cloth. The cloth is
then taken to the manufacturer of garments. The preparation of the fibres differs the
most, depending on the fiber used. Flax requires retting and dressing, while wool
requires carding and washing. The spinning and weaving processes are very similar
between fibers, however.
Spinning evolved from twisting the fibers by hand, to using a drop spindle, to using
a spinning wheel. Spindles or parts of them have been found in archaeological sites and
may represent one of the first pieces of technology available. The spinning wheel was
most likely invented in the Islamic world by the 11th century.
Mughal Empire
Up until the 18th century, Mughal Empire was the most
important center of manufacturing in international trade. Up
until 1750, India produced about 25% of the
world's industrial output. The largest manufacturing industry
in Mughal Empire (16th to 18th centuries) was textile
manufacturing, particularly cotton textile manufacturing,
which included the production of piece goods, calicos,
and muslins, available unbleached and in a variety of
colours.

In early modern Europe, there was significant demand for textiles from The Mughal
Empire, including cotton textiles and silk products. European fashion, for example,
became increasingly dependent on textiles and silks imported from The Mughal Empire.
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, The Mughal Empire accounted for 95%
of British imports from Asia.

Industrial revolution

The woven fabric portion of the textile industry grew out of the industrial revolution in the
18th century as mass production of yarn and cloth became a mainstream industry.
In 1734 in Bury, Lancashire John
Kay invented the flying shuttle — one of the
first of a series of inventions associated with
the cotton woven fabric industry. The flying
shuttle increased the width of cotton cloth
and speed of production of a single weaver
at a loom. Resistance by workers to the
perceived threat to jobs delayed the
widespread introduction of this technology,
even though the higher rate of production
generated an increased demand for spun cotton.
In 1764, James Hargreaves is credited as inventor of
the spinning jenny which multiplied the spun thread
production capacity of a single worker — initially
eightfold and subsequently much further. Others credit
the invention to Thomas Highs. Industrial unrest and a
failure to patent the invention until 1770 forced
Hargreaves from Blackburn, but his lack of protection of
the idea allowed the concept to be exploited by others.
As a result, there were over 20,000 spinning jennies in
use by the time of his death. Also in 1764, Thorp Mill,
the first water-powered cotton mill in the world was
constructed at Royton, Lancashire, and was used for
carding cotton. With the spinning and weaving process
now mechanized, cotton mills cropped up all over the
North West of England.

The stocking frame invented in 1589 for silk became

viable when in 1759, Jedediah Strutt introduced an
attachment for the frame which produced what became
known as the Derby Rib, that produced a knit and purl
stitch. This allowed stockings to be manufactured in
silk and later in cotton. In 1768, Hammond modified
the stocking frame to weave weft-knitted openworks or
nets by crossing over the loops, using a mobile tickler
bar- this led in 1781 to Thomas Frost's square net.
Cotton had been too coarse for lace, but by 1805
Houldsworths of Manchester were producing reliable
300 count cotton thread.
19th-Century Developments
in 1830, using an 1822 patent, Richard Roberts manufactured the first loom with a cast
iron frame, the Roberts Loom. In 1842 James Bullough and William Kenworthy, made
the Lancashire Loom, a semiautomatic power loom: although it is self-acting, it has to
be stopped to recharge empty shuttles. It was the mainstay of the Lancashire cotton
industry for a century, until the Northrop Loom (invented in 1894, with an automatic weft
replenishment function) gained ascendancy. also, in 1830, Richard Roberts patented
the first self-acting mule. Staybridge mule spinners strike was in 1824; this stimulated
research into the problem of applying power to the winding stroke of the mule. The draw
while spinning had been assisted by power, but the push of the wind had been done
manually by the spinner, the mule could be operated by semiskilled labor. Before 1830,
the spinner would operate a partially powered mule with a maximum of 400 spindles;
after, self-acting mules with up to 1300 spindles could be built.

A Roberts loom in a weaving shed in Roberts self-acting mule with quadrant

1835. Note the wrought iron shafting, gearing
fixed to the cast iron columns

The industrial revolution changed the nature of work and society The three key drivers
in these changes were textile manufacturing, iron founding and steam power. The
geographical focus of textile manufacture in Britain was Manchester and the small
towns of the Pennines and southern Lancashire.
Textile production in England peaked in 1926, and as mills were decommissioned,
many of the scrapped mules and looms were bought up and reinstated in India.
20th Century

Major changes came to the textile industry during the

20th century, with continuing technological innovations
in machinery, synthetic fibre, logistics, and
globalization of the business. The business model that
had dominated the industry for centuries was to
change radically. Cotton and wool producers were not
the only source for fibres, as chemical companies
created new synthetic fibres that had superior qualities
for many uses, such as rayon, invented in 1910,
and DuPont's nylon, invented in 1935 as in
inexpensive silk substitute, and used for products
ranging from women's stockings to tooth brushes and Textile factory workers in Poland, 1950s
military parachutes.
The variety of synthetic fibres used in manufacturing fibre grew steadily throughout the
20th century. In the 1920s, the computer was invented; in the
1940s, acetate, modacrylic, metal fibres, and saran were developed; acrylic, polyester,
and spandex were introduced in the 1950s. Polyester became hugely popular in the
apparel market, and by the late 1970s, more polyester was sold in the United States
than cotton.
By the late 1980s, the apparel segment was no longer the largest market for fibre
products, with industrial and home furnishings together representing a larger proportion
of the fibre market Industry integration and global manufacturing led to many small firms
closing for good during the 1970s and 1980s in the United States; during those
decades, 95 percent of the looms in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia shut
down, and Alabama and Virginia also saw many factories close.