Industrial Revolution

Maria de Brigard, Maria Rodriguez, Daniela Varela

The Textile and Silk Industry During the Industrial Revolution
1. Introduction
2. Machines
3. Fabrics
4. Characters
5. Consequences in the XIX
6. Conclusion
The Industrial Revolution was a very important event during the XIX century. As we all know, it stared in Great Britain because of its political, economical andsocial stability during this period. Textiles and silk industries were two of the most developed aspects during the revolution; the demand of cloth grew, so new machines were created to help workers to develop their jobs easier and faster, and new fabrics were used in the production of clothes. All of these changes brought many consequences that affected the life during the XIX century.
As it wassaid before, new machines were invented for the production of cloth. These machines produced textiles at a lower cost, so people could have an easier access to cloths. One of these machines was the “spinning jenny”, invented by James Hargreaves. Its process included stretching several fibers and twisting them together to form a thread. The result of this process was a single strand made of lots ofsmall threads. The “water frame” was another machine that was invented by Richard Arkwright, in 1764. This was powered by waterwheels, and was known as the first machine that could weave automatically and continuously. Also, another quality of this new invention was that, even though it could only spin one thread at a time, the thread was much stronger and thicker. Later on, in 1779, SamuelCrompton found a way of combining the quantity of the “spinning jenny” and the quality of the “water frame” into a new machine, the “spinning mule”. It gave the spinner more control over the weaving process, and allowed the production of many different types of yarn. Just like the spinning jenny, it tuned textile fibers into yarn, by twisting it. The roving, which is a bundle of fiber, is pulled throughrollers and twisted, and then wrapped into the spindle. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG2hG1SLdoQ ). But then Edmund Cartwright, in 1784, invented the “power loom”, an invention that combined threads to make cloths. It was operated mechanically, but it went through many changes. This was a very important invention, since more improved “power looms” are still being used today.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpwaVqTFteo&feature=related
As a result of the inventions of the machines previously mentioned, during the XIX century, the wool, silk and cotton industries became the most important textile industries in the English society. The wool industry started before the industrial revolution took place in England because of its big amounts of sheep and the previous mechanization ofthe cotton industry before the revolution. Many people worked as producers of woolen cloth; they cleaned, combed, spun, dyed and wove the raw material into cloth. The process for the wool was the following: When the wool arrived, it was washed to clean out all the dirt and natural oil. It was then dyed with color and combed between two parallel pads of nails until all the fibers faced in the samedirection. This process is known as carding of the wool. The carded wool was made into thread or yarn by using the spinning Wheel and then rolled onto a bobbin. The spun yarn was then taken to the loom to be woven and then was worked by both hand and foot movements and usually was the work of the man of the house since it was very hard work.
The production of silk cloth reached Europe in the 12thcentury; it started in Ancient China with the fine and elastic fibers produced by the caterpillars called “bombyx mori”. The process consisted in the method in which the silkworms surrounded themselves in a cocoon (a very fine strand of silk) and turning themselves into a moth. The cocoons were put into very hot water in order to make them softer and that the fibers stood together. At the end of...