Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Wool fabrics were available in a wide range of qualities, from rough undyed cloth to fine, dense broadcloth with a velvety nap; high-value broadcloth was a backbone of the English economy and was exported throughout Europe. [68] Wool fabrics were dyed in rich colours, notably reds, greens, golds, and blues. [61]
c. 1000 BC – Cherchen Man was laid to rest with a twill tunic and the earliest known sample of tartan fabric. [7] c. 200 AD – Earliest woodblock printing from China. Flowers in three colors on silk. [8] 247 AD – Dura-Europos, a Roman outpost, is destroyed. Excavations of the city discovered early examples of naalebinding fabric.
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.
These were both events that enabled cotton mill construction and the move away from home-based production. In 1764, Thorp Mill the first water-powered cotton mill in the world was constructed at Royton, Lancashire, England. It was used for carding cotton. [9] The multiple spindle spinning jenny was invented in 1764.
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. [7] 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 Lowell system, also known as the Waltham-Lowell system, was "unprecedented and revolutionary for its time". Not only was it faster and more efficient, it was considered more humane than the textile industry in Great Britain by "paying in cash, hiring young adults instead of children, and by offering employment for only a few years and providing educational opportunities to help workers ...
Such garments included the Freemasons' apron, based on the functional attire of medieval stonemasons and adorned with Masonic symbols, ribbons, and rosettes, and the collar of the Orange Order in Canada, which was embroidered with British-Canadian symbols like the thistle, shamrock, rose, and maple leaf.
Osnaburg fabric may have been first imported into English-speaking countries from the German city of Osnabrück, from which it gets its name. Scottish weavers produced a coarse lint- or tow-based linen imitation in the later 1730s, which quickly became the most important variety in east-central Scotland. Sales quadrupled, from 0.5 million yards ...