When trying to decide the bedding set, curtains, sheets, accessories and decor for my child's bedroom he asked where did this come from, so we started do research on the beginning of fabric and how it was made and this is what we found.
Progress took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
Old fashioned spinning was a slow, laborious process.
The wool, flax or cotton, having been fastened to a stick called the staff was twisted by hand into yarn or thread and wound onto a spindle.
The spinning wheel came into use as early as the fourteenth century.
This enabled the operator by working a treadle to make two threads at once, one in each hand.
Weaving was done on a hand loom, a wooden frame in which vertical threads (the warp) were attached.
Horizontal threads (the woof) were then inserted by an enlarged needle or shuttle.
The invention of the fling shuttle enabled the operator by pulling a cord to jerk the shuttle back and forth with out the aid of an assistant.
The demand for thread and yarn quickly out ran the supply so spinners could not keep up with weavers so a prize was offered for a better machine than the spinning wheel.
In 1770 James Hargreaves patented the"spinning jenny".
It was a simple machine operated by a hand wheel, but it carried eight spindles all at the same time.
In 1769, Richard Arkwright got a patent for a spinning machine run by water power this was called a "water frame".
In this machine the cotton was drawn out by rollers to become fineness and was twisted into threads by revolving spindles.
Ten years later Samuel Crompton combined the two machines of Hargreaves and Arkwright into what become known as the "mule".
It has been steadily improved, and may carry as many as a thousand spindles.
These three inventions upset the balance in the textile business, the spinners could produce more thread and yarn than the weavers could make into cloth.
Edward Cartwright constructed a loom with an automatic shuttle operated by water.
This machine enabled a single operator to produce more cloth than two hundred men could weave on an old fashioned hand loom.
Both spinners and weavers needed for the machinery an abundant supply of raw material, thus came the cotton gin.
Invented by Eli Whitney in 1794.
This machine separated the seed from the cotton so fast it increased the production of cotton mills.
Cotton manufacturing soon became and still is the leading industry of this country.
We enjoyed looking all this information up and he has learned a bit of history, all started by children's bedding sets, sheets, curtains and an inquiring little mind.
Progress took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
Old fashioned spinning was a slow, laborious process.
The wool, flax or cotton, having been fastened to a stick called the staff was twisted by hand into yarn or thread and wound onto a spindle.
The spinning wheel came into use as early as the fourteenth century.
This enabled the operator by working a treadle to make two threads at once, one in each hand.
Weaving was done on a hand loom, a wooden frame in which vertical threads (the warp) were attached.
Horizontal threads (the woof) were then inserted by an enlarged needle or shuttle.
The invention of the fling shuttle enabled the operator by pulling a cord to jerk the shuttle back and forth with out the aid of an assistant.
The demand for thread and yarn quickly out ran the supply so spinners could not keep up with weavers so a prize was offered for a better machine than the spinning wheel.
In 1770 James Hargreaves patented the"spinning jenny".
It was a simple machine operated by a hand wheel, but it carried eight spindles all at the same time.
In 1769, Richard Arkwright got a patent for a spinning machine run by water power this was called a "water frame".
In this machine the cotton was drawn out by rollers to become fineness and was twisted into threads by revolving spindles.
Ten years later Samuel Crompton combined the two machines of Hargreaves and Arkwright into what become known as the "mule".
It has been steadily improved, and may carry as many as a thousand spindles.
These three inventions upset the balance in the textile business, the spinners could produce more thread and yarn than the weavers could make into cloth.
Edward Cartwright constructed a loom with an automatic shuttle operated by water.
This machine enabled a single operator to produce more cloth than two hundred men could weave on an old fashioned hand loom.
Both spinners and weavers needed for the machinery an abundant supply of raw material, thus came the cotton gin.
Invented by Eli Whitney in 1794.
This machine separated the seed from the cotton so fast it increased the production of cotton mills.
Cotton manufacturing soon became and still is the leading industry of this country.
We enjoyed looking all this information up and he has learned a bit of history, all started by children's bedding sets, sheets, curtains and an inquiring little mind.