Textiles: Did you mean...?

Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule in 1779, which greatly increased the speed of spinning yarn for textile production. It made finer and more uniform yarn than previous machines and had many more spindles, up to 1,320. The invention...

A flying shuttle, used in the textile industry to pull thread (weft) horizontally across longitudinal threads (the warp) on a weaving frame. The device was invented by John Kay in 1733 and greatly speeded up textile production. (Immigration...

A detail from an Inca textile showing a geometric cross design. (Museo de America, Madrid)

A diagram showing a cross-section of a cast-iron loom powered by steam as invented by Richard Roberts (1789-1864) in 1822. The diagram illustrates the importance of clock-working engineering in textile mechanization. From R. Marsden's 1892...

An example of a water frame (a machine for spinning cotton) as invented by Richard Arkwright in Nottinghamshire in 1769. It was powered by a water wheel and increased the speed that yarn could be spun. (Science Museum, London)

The power loom was first invented by Edmund Cartwright in 1785 and it doubled the speed of textile production compared to traditional methods. (The American Textile Museum, Lowell, Mass., USA)

A detail of a Chimu cloth from a mantle, 1100-1470 CE. (Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru)

Woven bag was found at Twyford, Co. Westmeath, Ireland, 3800-2500 BCE. National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology, Dublin.

The Silk Road was a network of ancient trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China in 130 BCE, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce between 130 BCE-1453 CE. The Silk Road was not a single route...

The Mali Empire (1240-1645) of West Africa was founded by Sundiata Keita (r. 1230-1255) following his victory over the kingdom of Sosso (c. 1180-1235). Sundiata's centralised government, diplomacy and well-trained army permitted a massive...