In ancient times, when people had high levels of knowledge and the capacity to think for themselves, they came to the conclusion that if they went about "naked" like this again, it would be too destructive to the dignity of the "overlord of the earth."
As a direct consequence of this, some resourceful ancient people started to gather natural resources, such as kudzu, hemp, mulberry silk, and other materials, in order to fashion the most basic clothes for themselves.
After some time, humans learnt how to utilize the feathers of birds that they had killed in order to hand-weave crude clothing. This was done in order to replace the grass and fur that had previously been used to cover the body.
In the middle and late periods of ancient times, as agriculture and animal husbandry developed, humans gradually discovered how to produce hemp ropes, cultivate silk, and other techniques to weave clothing. These skills were made possible by the growth of agriculture. The resulting garments are not only more breathable and thermally efficient, but also more aesthetically pleasing.
Therefore, considering that the textile industry is one of the oldest industrial chains, its history dates back at least five thousand years. The production of textiles was a highly successful business in ancient China. Since the time of the Spring and Autumn Dynasty and the Warring States Period, China has been known around the globe for its extravagant and exquisite fabrics and garments.
You should be aware that at that historical period in Europe, both the aristocracy and the commoners were still wearing such antique skirts, leaving each other with bare and thick thighs. Even the ancient Roman legions did not make an exception to this rule.
The weaving machine is the most important industrial instrument for the manufacture of textiles. It has been developed and refined in China for at least four thousand years. Not only does the weaving machine make people's weaving much more efficient, but it also allows for the production of clothing that is both beautiful and long-lasting since it employs the fabric that is weaved from the machine itself.
In point of fact, there are records of weaving machines in China dating back to the time of the Yellow Emperor. These documents are few and few between. The weaving machine and the spinning machine are said to have been invented by the Yellow Emperor's mother, the second concubine, and the Yellow Emperor's wife, Leizu. According to mythology, the Yellow Emperor invented both of these machines.
The textile industry has always been one of the most significant and long-lasting technical pillar industries in ancient Chinese civilization. This can be traced back to the time when the Chinese were the first to create sericulture and the process of creating silk.
By the time of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the average person had already mastered the art of spinning on a rudimentary loom. A spinning machine with two crossbars, a "knife," and a pounding knife are shown here. When a woman weaves, one end of the warp is linked to the wooden post, and the other end is wrapped around the weaver's waist; hence, the device is also referred to as the waist machine.
This low-profile loom does not have a frame. The production of cloth is accomplished by repeatedly cycling one end of the warp beam while simultaneously tying the other end of the winding shaft around the waist. It is also considered to be the forerunner of the modern loom since, up to the Han Dynasty, it was the primary specialized instrument used by women who were involved in the production of textiles at the period.
Later on, a pedal-type twill loom was successfully produced as part of the manufacturing practice of people's weaving. This was one of several textile technologies that were steadily evolved through time. The look of this weaving machine can also be seen on a number of the stone portraits that were created during the Han Dynasty.
The weaver is able to sit while operating this twill weaving machine, and both their hands and feet are used in the manufacturing process. Additionally, the productivity of this machine is at least ten times greater than the productivity of the first weaving machine. At the time, it was the most sophisticated weaving machine ever created anywhere in the world.
Later on, as loom technology continued to advance, several other types of looms began to arise in ancient China. These included vertical looms, Dingqiao looms, Luo looms, and many more. And the Hualou loom is the one that is the most technologically sophisticated. According to historical sources, this kind of loom with a complicated construction and stringent technical standards first existed in the late Tang Dynasty; nevertheless, its popularity did not reach its zenith until the Song Dynasty.
It is the most sophisticated kind of weaving machine, and it contains a total of up to 1800 components so that it can weave vast, complicated, and colorful cloth designs. The jacquard work and the weaving job are separated on the Hualou loom for the very first time. The "flower puller" is a full-time worker who operates the loom and is responsible for its operation.
The weaver and the puller work together in coordination and collaboration throughout the weaving process. The puller sits high on the flower floor and pulls the bouquet with his hand to make the warp open. The weaver sits on the flower floor and weaves. Weavers working underneath do both color matching and pounding of the weft at the same time. Because lifting the texts requires a significant amount of power, the people who pluck the flowers are almost always males. Women are the ones that sit in the lower seats as they stomp on the pedals and hurl the different colored shuttles.
In spite of the fact that there is now one more person operating the Hualou loom, both the speed with which weaving patterns are completed and the quality of the textiles produced have significantly enhanced. This loom was mainly responsible for the weaving of some of the most beautiful and complicated silk garments ever seen in ancient China.
The technical difficulty of the Hualou loom was comparable to that of a modern lithography machine, and its mechanical complexity and sophisticated technology ranked first in the world. In terms of the technological conditions of the time, the Hualou loom's technical difficulty was comparable to that of a modern lithography machine. Ancient Chinese textile technology reached its pinnacle with the creation of the Hualou loom, which hasn't been surpassed by any contemporary loom to this day since it was the most advanced of its kind at the time.
Although China has numerous superior traditional textile machine technologies, it was also the birthplace of many "textile scientists" during that time, like Huang Daopo, whose name was included in the literature that we studied in school. This lady, who was one of the most renowned cotton weavers at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, was a Taoist temple from the time she was a little child and lived in Yazhou. She was born into poverty, and she spent her formative years in Yazhou. The technique of weaving the "Yazhou quilt" using several implements.
Huang Daopo went back to her hometown during the Yuanzhen period of the Yuan Dynasty (1295-1296), and she began to reform the textile technology she had learned. She decreased the diameter of the spinning wheel by decreasing the diameter of the three-spindle pedal spinning wheel that was used for hemp spinning. As a result of the transformation of the extension force into a three-spindle pedal spinning wheel that is suitable for cotton yarn spinning, the cotton textile industry in Songjiang was given a significant boost in its rate of expansion.
Even though the industrial revolution brought about a significant improvement in loom technology, the conventional Chinese loom is said to "live forever"!
Regarding the advanced textile technology that was developed in ancient China, many people have ridiculed the following theory: Ever since the Song Dynasty, the reason why the Central Plains has been invaded by nomads is actually because these "barbarian" people on horseback are very jealous of the textile technology of the Central Plains, because the clothes worn by the people of the Central Plains are too beautiful. On spite of this, the reality remains that the textile manufacturing techniques developed by the several dynasties that flourished in the Central Plains have had a "dominant" position in the global market for a considerable amount of time.
Hargreaves, a laborer from the United States, did not create the Anna textile machine until the seventeenth century. Edmund Cartwright, a barber by trade, was the one who came up with the idea for the hydraulic loom in 1785. This invention immediately resulted in a fortyfold increase in the productivity of weavers. In the same year, Thales began using the steam engine as the driving power for textile machines. This innovation was met with immediate success and led to a significant increase in the weaving process's overall productivity. In point of fact, they indicate that the technical revolution of textile modernization in Europe and the United States is somewhat less advanced than the traditional textile technology used in China.
The evolution of the contemporary textile industry has resulted in the steady emergence of an increasing number of types of looms, such as shuttleless looms, rapier looms, projectile looms, air-jet looms, water-jet looms, multiphase looms, Magnetic weft insertion looms, and so on.
The shuttleless weaving machine is now the most popular kind of loom used all over the globe. It employs automation technology that is more effective, and it can weave textiles of a greater variety of compositions and colors in a shorter amount of time.