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Spinning
Spinning is the process by which cotton, wool, flax, and other short fibers are twisted together to produce a yarn or thread suitable for weaving into cloth, winding into rope or cable, or used in sewing.
In hand spinning, the fibers are first cleaned and disentangled and then carded.
In hand carding, the fibers are placed between two boards covered with leather, through which protrude fine wire hooks that catch the fibers as one board is pulled gently across the other. When sufficiently loosened, the fibers are pulled off in a roll, or sliver. The fibers can now be drawn out and, with sufficient twist, will be locked together so firmly that they can no longer slide past each other, thus forming a strong yarn.
The Spinning Wheel
The spinning wheel made its European appearance during the 14th century. It consisted of a horizontally mounted spindle that was connected to a large, hand-driven wheel by a circular band. The spinner's left hand fed the fibers into the spindle from a distaff that was sometimes mounted on the frame of the wheel, and the right hand turned the wheel. When a length of fiber had been spun, the process stopped while the yarn coils on the tip of the spindle were cleared by reversing the spindle's rotation.
About 150 years after the introduction of the spinning wheel,
a mechanical improvement, the Saxon wheel, was introduced. The Saxon wheel was operated by a foot pedal that left both hands free to manipulate the fibers. The yarn passed through a hole in the end of the spindle. Fixed to the spindle was a U-shaped flyer, one arm of which guided the spun yarn to the side of the spindle and onto a spool, or bobbin. As it circled the spindle, the flyer twisted the yarn, then wound it evenly around the bobbin. Spinning and winding-on were continuous. These wheels were basicly the same as the ones used today.
The Use of Natural Fibers
Until the 20th century all of the fibrous raw materials available for textile use were based on animal hair, plant or seed fibers, or the product of the silkworm. These are all organic fibers and are rapidly degraded by weathering or are destroyed by decomposing agents in the soil. Only a few samples of textile products have remained from prehistoric eras. Cotton, flax, silk, and wool probably represent the major fibers available to ancient civilizations, although other fibrous materials may also have been used especially the bast fibers from hemp, jute, and sisal.
The earliest known samples of yarn and fabric of any kind were found near Robenhausen, Switzerland, where archaeological excavations unearthed bundles of flax fibers and yarns and fragments of plain-weave linen fabric, estimated to be 7,000 years old. Woven wool fabrics may have been used as early as 4000 © in Mesopotamia, and wool spinning and weaving became cottage industries wherever sheep (or, in the New World, the members of the llama family) were raised.
The cotton plant is indigenous to India, Egypt, and the warmer regions of the Americas; it was in these regions that the fiber was first used to make textiles. Cotton did not achieve commercial importance in Europe until after the colonization of the New World. Silk culture remained a specialty of the Chinese from its beginnings (c.2600 ©) until the 6th century ¥, when silkworms were first raised in the Byzantine Empire.
Fabric Production
The hand loom, in many variations, was for many centuries the basic weaving instrument. Mechanical improvements began to be developed in ancient times: the heddle, to which alternate warp threads are tied, was probably the first major innovation; the foot treadle, which could operate one or a series of heddles, followed shortly. Foot-powered looms with several sets of heddles appeared in Europe during the 13th century. Combined with the frame-mounted batten, which was used to beat the weft, or filling yarns, into place, such looms were the principal types used in Europe for many year
The Industry
Until the latter years of the 18th century the production of textiles was a handcraft, practiced in small units by skilled artisans and by cottage spinners and weavers. Large and economically vital cloth industries had emerged in Britain, Belgium, and other European countries. With the exception of the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris, however, few factories existed. The technical advances achieved during the 1700s, particularly in Britain, were the impetus not only for the establishment of the modern textile industry, but for the factory system and the Industrial Revolution as a whole.
Cloth had been made by American colonists since the building of a cloth "mill" in Massachusetts in 1638. The era of powered textile manufacturing, however, was inaugurated by an Englishman. Samuel Slater, a former mill supervisor in England, rebuilt from memory a spinning frame in Providence, R.I., in 1790 and later founded several other mills.
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Spinning is the process by which cotton, wool, flax, and other short fibers are twisted together to produce a yarn or thread suitable for weaving into cloth, winding into rope or cable, or used in sewing.
In hand spinning, the fibers are first cleaned and disentangled and then carded.
In hand carding, the fibers are placed between two boards covered with leather, through which protrude fine wire hooks that catch the fibers as one board is pulled gently across the other. When sufficiently loosened, the fibers are pulled off in a roll, or sliver. The fibers can now be drawn out and, with sufficient twist, will be locked together so firmly that they can no longer slide past each other, thus forming a strong yarn.
The Spinning Wheel
The spinning wheel made its European appearance during the 14th century. It consisted of a horizontally mounted spindle that was connected to a large, hand-driven wheel by a circular band. The spinner's left hand fed the fibers into the spindle from a distaff that was sometimes mounted on the frame of the wheel, and the right hand turned the wheel. When a length of fiber had been spun, the process stopped while the yarn coils on the tip of the spindle were cleared by reversing the spindle's rotation.
About 150 years after the introduction of the spinning wheel, a mechanical improvement, the Saxon wheel, was introduced. The Saxon wheel was operated by a foot pedal that left both hands free to manipulate the fibers. The yarn passed through a hole in the end of the spindle. Fixed to the spindle was a U-shaped flyer, one arm of which guided the spun yarn to the side of the spindle and onto a spool, or bobbin. As it circled the spindle, the flyer twisted the yarn, then wound it evenly around the bobbin. Spinning and winding-on were continuous. These wheels were basicly the same as the ones used today.
The Use of Natural Fibers
Until the 20th century all of the fibrous raw materials available for textile use were based on animal hair, plant or seed fibers, or the product of the silkworm. These are all organic fibers and are rapidly degraded by weathering or are destroyed by decomposing agents in the soil. Only a few samples of textile products have remained from prehistoric eras. Cotton, flax, silk, and wool probably represent the major fibers available to ancient civilizations, although other fibrous materials may also have been used especially the bast fibers from hemp, jute, and sisal.
The earliest known samples of yarn and fabric of any kind were found near Robenhausen, Switzerland, where archaeological excavations unearthed bundles of flax fibers and yarns and fragments of plain-weave linen fabric, estimated to be 7,000 years old. Woven wool fabrics may have been used as early as 4000 © in Mesopotamia, and wool spinning and weaving became cottage industries wherever sheep (or, in the New World, the members of the llama family) were raised.
The cotton plant is indigenous to India, Egypt, and the warmer regions of the Americas; it was in these regions that the fiber was first used to make textiles. Cotton did not achieve commercial importance in Europe until after the colonization of the New World. Silk culture remained a specialty of the Chinese from its beginnings (c.2600 ©) until the 6th century ¥, when silkworms were first raised in the Byzantine Empire.
Fabric Production
The hand loom, in many variations, was for many centuries the basic weaving instrument. Mechanical improvements began to be developed in ancient times: the heddle, to which alternate warp threads are tied, was probably the first major innovation; the foot treadle, which could operate one or a series of heddles, followed shortly. Foot-powered looms with several sets of heddles appeared in Europe during the 13th century. Combined with the frame-mounted batten, which was used to beat the weft, or filling yarns, into place, such looms were the principal types used in Europe for many year
The Industry
Until the latter years of the 18th century the production of textiles was a handcraft, practiced in small units by skilled artisans and by cottage spinners and weavers. Large and economically vital cloth industries had emerged in Britain, Belgium, and other European countries. With the exception of the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris, however, few factories existed. The technical advances achieved during the 1700s, particularly in Britain, were the impetus not only for the establishment of the modern textile industry, but for the factory system and the Industrial Revolution as a whole.
Cloth had been made by American colonists since the building of a cloth "mill" in Massachusetts in 1638. The era of powered textile manufacturing, however, was inaugurated by an Englishman. Samuel Slater, a former mill supervisor in England, rebuilt from memory a spinning frame in Providence, R.I., in 1790 and later founded several other mills.
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