Plaits in their day

Plant fibers: It all started out with twigs. Even Paleolithic humans would plait them to create a variety of utensils. Driven by the need for more flexible materials, techniques emerged enabling plant fibers and hairs to be processed into long threads, which marked the invention of spinning. Those fibers could be joined together in various ways. That led to the technique of weaving in which, unlike in plaiting or braiding, two threads are interlaced at right angles. Over time, people developed designs that would facilitate their work. In the case of the warp-weighted loom, a bundle of warp threads was vertically bound into a near-vertically standing loom. At the bottom, the threads were weighted with stones to keep them taut. To weave the weft between the longitudinal threads, the weavers would walk back and forth in front of the loom. Egyptian murals dating to around 2000 BC show flat looms as well. Despite the simplicity of these technical tools (primarily) women would produce very delicate fabrics that can hardly be created anymore on today’s computer-controlled weaving machines. That’s why weaving is described as a divine activity in ancient mythology. Across the centuries, the spinning and weaving techniques were developed further. Initial treadle looms enabled raising and lowering of the wefts so that the warp could be threaded through it faster. Approximately in the 13th century, the spinning wheel was invented for more effective yarn production because the yarn produced from flax or wool was a scarce material due to the labor-intensive spinning process. Only the novel spinning machines invented in the 18th century made cotton, a material that due to its short fibers entailed a slow spinning process, affordable for most people. The traditional weaver’s trade was now struggling because the beginning of the industrial revolution deprived it of its economic base. In the 20th century, textile production saw another revolution due to the development of synthetic fibers. In 1925, Hermann Staudinger, a German chemist, decoded the blueprint of natural fibers. That insight enabled an imitation in the laboratory. A few years later, the world-famous nylons hit the market. Currently, sewing robots, called sewbots, shape textile production. In the U.S. state of Arkansas, for example, a Chinese company has opened a factory with 330 robots where one sewbot equipped with sensors and cameras produces around 1,100 T-shirts in an eight-hour day. During the same time, ten people in a normal production line would produce about 700 shirts.