The history of textile and weaving industry
According to the Will Durant’s Civilization History, Textile industry is an art discovered by human. Many tools similar to pins or needles were made by ivories and bones during late Palaeozoic Period (10-8 thousand years BC). During stone era, after the end of European frosty (10,000 BC), at extraction season, they cut trees shells like soft leathers and made cotton cloths for garments. The related cutting tool was found in Frauenfeld, Swiss.
Thread was created in bronze and iron era. There were spindles made from clay or stone in the Silk Plain in Kashan, Iran, which was the oldest human’s residence place (7000 BC). Also, there were works from completed textile industry in the regions such as Kamarband cave, Caspean Sea, Iran plateau, Shoush caves, Tourang Tapeh, and Barim Tapeh in Gorgan for 2500-6500 BC.
Cotton was planted 1500 BC to 1500 AD in India and it was led to Japan and China concurrently. Today, the best cotton in the world is called C.I.Land which is planted in USA.
Phoenicians played an important role in the history of cloth and they were the creators of cloth in Sidon (in the today’s Lebanon), especially in creation of geometrical art in the East.
Many dyes were gradually made by leaves of plants, snails, and lichens and were used for dying the cloths.
Spinning reached to its climax at Sumerian period in 1000-540 BC, and the most expensive exporting commodity during Babylonian was cloths woven by cotton or wool. Spindle and weaving such as perforated spindles, pins, awls, and hooks were found in Crete Island in the Mediterranean Sea, which indicated a mass production for a huge export market.
Egyptian developed this industry rapidly after Christ and many cloths with different designs and pictures and marginal scripts after Islamic period. Thereafter, silk cloths were made and different strata of society used different garments after Islamic and Roman civilizations. Cloth trade between countries was flourished and many different carpets were made. After the middle ages, Italy was the biggest producer of cloth, and textile industry had a significant progress in this country during 14th and 15th centuries.
Textile in Europe found a new form up to 18th century and printing on cloth and luxuriance were flourished. But after that, simplicity of English garments led to the other countries. According to the researches, the first method for cloth production was hanging threads (warps) from horizontal beams while weights were connected to their ends and woofs were passed through the warps.
Then a cloth was woven by turning threads (warps) around a roller and meanwhile, passing the woofs through them and turning around another roller. This method was used up to mid 19th century. Thereafter, simple equipment were replaced by advanced devices gradually, which its climax were Edmond Carturight in England, who invented machines for beating and weaving wool, Joseph Marie Jaguard in Franch, and Vladimir Esvatti in Czechoslovakia, which was continued till 1960.
In textile, thread is the first industry that was discovered and human converted many woven filaments to threads by spindles made from wood, stone, clay, and metals.
Weaving wheels were made gradually and the first steps were made towards mechanization were made in the 14th century. Finally, the weaving machine was invented in the 18th century and thread-making system was changed completely.
Weaving machines are different by the type of thread they produce (cotton, wool, silk).
Today, upon outstanding progress of technology, there are many advanced and intelligent devices in spinning and weaving in the market. The pioneers in this area are Swiss, Germany, and Italy, which their produced equipment are used all over the world today.