Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
From prehistory through the early Middle Ages, for most of Europe, the Near East and North Africa, two main types of loom dominated textile production. These are the warp-weighted loom and the two-beam loom. The length of the beam determined the width of the cloth woven upon the loom, and could be as wide as 2–3 meters. [26]
Calico and chintz, types of cotton fabrics, became popular in Europe, and by 1664 the East India Company was importing a quarter of a million pieces into Britain. [33] By the 18th century, the middle class had become more concerned with cleanliness and fashion, and there was a demand for easily washable and colourful fabric.
Over time, damask has become a broader term for woven fabrics with a reversible pattern, not just silks. [3] There are a few types of damask: true, single, compound, and twill. True damask is made entirely of silk. [3] Single damask has only one set of warps and wefts and thus is made of up to two colors.
In 1700, the Italians were the most technologically advanced throwsters in Europe and had developed two machines capable of winding the silk onto bobbins while putting a twist in the thread. They called the throwing machine, a filatoio, and called the doubler, a torcitoio. There is an illustration of a circular hand-powered throwing machine ...
1928 – International Bureau of Standardization of Man Made Fibers founded. [24] 1939 – US passes Wool Products Labeling Act, requiring truthful labeling of wool products according to origin. [25] 1940 – Spectrophotometer invented, with impact on commercial textile dye processes. 1942 – First patent for fabric singeing awarded in US. [26]
Cotton was first used in 5000 B.C. in India and the Middle East, and spread to Europe after they invaded India in 327 B.C. The manufacture and production of cotton spread rapidly in the 18th century, and it quickly became one of the most important textile fibers because of its comfort, durability, and absorbency. [9]
Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum Linnaeus) may have been domesticated 5000 BC in eastern Sudan near the Middle Nile Basin region, where cotton cloth was being produced. [21] Around the 4th century BC, the cultivation of cotton and the knowledge of its spinning and weaving in Meroë reached a high level.
Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. The word was derived from Old French samit , from medieval Latin samitum, examitum deriving from the Byzantine Greek ἑξάμιτον hexamiton "six threads", usually interpreted as indicating the use of six yarns ...