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| HISTORY OF THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY |
This article is
about the production of fibers and fabric. For the production of apparel,
clothing, and garments, see Clothing industry.
An old textile factory ("Cvernovka") in Bratislava, Slovakia (1901-2004).
Textile factory (Germany, c. 1975).
The textile industry is
primarily concerned with the design, production, and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth, and clothing.
The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical
industry.
Cotton is the world's most
important natural fiber. In the year 2007, the global yield was 25 million tons
from 35 million hectares cultivated in more than 50 countries. There are
five stages of cotton manufacturing:
- Cultivating and Harvesting
- Preparatory Processes
- Spinning - giving yarn
- Weaving - giving fabrics
- Finishing - giving textiles
Synthetic fibers
Artificial fibers can be made by
extruding a polymer, through a spinneret (polymers) into a
medium where it hardens. Wet spinning (rayon) uses a coagulating medium. In dry
spinning (acetate and triacetate), the polymer is contained in a solvent that
evaporates in the heated exit chamber. In melt spinning (nylons and polyesters)
the extruded polymer is cooled in gas or air and then sets. Some examples
of synthetic fibers are; polyester, rayon, acrylic fibers, and microfibers. All
these fibers will be of great length, often kilometers long. Synthetic fibers
are more durable than most natural fibers and will readily pick up different
dyes.
Artificial fibers can be processed as
long fibers or batched and cut so they can be processed like natural fiber.
Natural fibers
Sheep, goats, rabbits, silkworms, and
other animals, as well as minerals like asbestos, are sources of natural fibers
(cotton, flax, sisal). These vegetable fibers can originate from the seed
(cotton), the stem (bast fibers: flax, hemp, jute), or the leaf (sisal). All of
these sources require a number of steps, each of which has a distinct name before a clean, even staple is produced. All of these fibers, with the
exception of silk, are short, only a few centimeters long, and have a rough
surface that allows them to adhere to others like staples.
History
Cottage stage
There are some indications that
weaving was already known in the Palaeolithic. An indistinct textile impression
has been found at Pavlov, Moravia. Neolithic textiles were found
in pile dwellings excavations in Switzerland and at El Fayum,
Egypt at a site which dates to about 5000 BC.
In Roman times, wool, linen, and leather clothed the European population, and silk, imported along the Silk Road from China, was an extravagant luxury. The use of flax fiber in the manufacturing of cloth in Northern Europe dates back to Neolithic times.
The main steps in the production of
cloth are producing the fiber, preparing it, converting it to yarn, converting
yarn to cloth, and then finishing the cloth. The cloth is then taken to the
manufacturer of the garments. The preparation of the fibers differs the most,
depending on the fiber used. Flax requires retting and dressing,
while wool requires carding and washing. The spinning and weaving processes
are very similar between fibers, however.
Spinning evolved from twisting
the fibers by hand, to using a drop spindle, to using a spinning
wheel. Spindles or parts of them have been found in archaeological sites and
may represent one of the first pieces of technology available. The spinning
wheel was most likely invented in the Islamic world by the 11th
century.
India
Textile workers in Tiruppur, South India
The textile industry in India
traditionally, after agriculture, is the only industry that has generated huge
employment for both skilled and unskilled labor in textiles. The textile
industry continues to be the second-largest employment-generating sector in
India. It offers direct employment to over 35 million in the
country. According to the Ministry of Textiles, the share of textiles
in total exports during April-July 2010 was 11.04%. During 2009–2010, the
Indian textile industry was pegged at US$55 billion, 64% of which services
domestic demand. In 2010, there were 2,500 textile weaving factories and
4,135 textile finishing factories in all of India. According to AT
Kearney’s ‘Retail Apparel Index’, India was ranked as the fourth most promising
market for apparel retailers in 2009.
Britain
The key British industry at the
beginning of the 18th century was the production of textiles made with wool
from the large sheep-farming areas in the Midlands and across the
country (created as a result of land clearance and enclosure). This was a
labor-intensive activity providing employment throughout Britain, with major
centers being the West Country; Norwich and environs; and the West
Riding of Yorkshire. The export trade in woolen goods accounted for more than a
quarter of British exports during most of the 18th century, doubling between
1701 and 1770. The British textile industry drove the Industrial
Revolution, triggering advancements in technology, stimulating the coal and
iron industries, boosting raw material imports, and improving transportation,
which made Britain the global leader in industrialization, trade, and
scientific innovation.
Exports by the cotton industry-centered
in Lancashire – had grown tenfold during this time, but still
accounted for only a tenth of the value of the woolen trade. Before the 17th
century, the manufacture of goods was performed on a limited scale by individual
workers, usually on their own premises (such as weavers' cottages). Goods
were transported around the country by clothiers who visited the
village with their trains of packhorses. Some of the cloth was made into
clothes for people living in the same area, and a large amount of cloth was
exported. River navigations were constructed, and some
contour-following canals. In the early 18th century, artisans were
inventing ways to become more productive. Silk, wool, fustian, and
linen were being eclipsed by cotton, which was becoming the most important
textile. This set the foundations for the changes.
Catalonia
The cotton industry in Catalonia was
the first industry in Spain to industrialize and led, by the mid-19th century,
to Catalonia becoming the main industrial region of Spain, a position it
maintained until well into the 20th century. Catalonia is the one Mediterranean
exception to the tendency of early industrialization to be concentrated in
northern Europe.
Spinning was a late addition to the industry and took off after
English spinning technology was introduced at the turn of the 19th century. The industrialization of the industry occurred in the 1830s after the adoption of the
factory system, and the removal of restrictions by Britain on the emigration of
expert labor (1825) and machinery (1842). Steam power was introduced but
the cost of imported coal and steam engines led to the extensive use of
hydraulic power from the late 1860s.
Industrial revolution
The woven fabric portion of the
textile industry grew out of the industrial revolution in the 18th
century as mass production of yarn and cloth became a mainstream
industry.
In 1734 in Bury, Lancashire John
Kay invented the flying shuttle - one of the first of a series
of inventions associated with the cotton woven fabric industry. The
flying shuttle increased the width of cotton cloth and the speed of production of a
single weaver at a loom. Resistance by workers to the perceived
threat to jobs delayed the widespread introduction of this technology, even
though the higher rate of production generated an increased demand for spun cotton.
Shuttles
In 1761, the Duke of
Bridgewater's canal connected Manchester to the coal fields of Worsley and
in 1762, Matthew Boulton opened the Soho Foundry engineering
works in Handsworth, Birmingham. His partnership with Scottish
engineer James Watt resulted, in 1775, in the commercial production
of the more efficient Watt steam engine which used a separate
condenser.
In 1764, James Hargreaves is
credited as inventor of the spinning jenny which multiplied the spun
thread production capacity of a single worker-initially eightfold and
subsequently much further. Others credit the invention to Thomas
Highs. Industrial unrest and a failure to patent the invention until
1770 forced Hargreaves from Blackburn, but his lack of protection of the idea
allowed the concept to be exploited by others. As a result, there were over
20,000 spinning jennies in use by the time of his death. Also in 1764, Thorp
Mill, the first water-powered cotton mill in the world was
constructed at Royton, Lancashire, and was used for carding cotton. With
the spinning and weaving process now mechanized, cotton mills cropped up all
over the North West of England.
This allowed stockings to be manufactured in silk and later in cotton.
In 1768, Hammond modified the stocking frame to weave weft-knitted openworks or
nets by crossing over the loops, using a mobile tickler bar- this led in 1781
to Thomas Frost's square net. Cotton had been too coarse for lace, but by
1805 Houldsworths of Manchester were producing reliable 300-count cotton thread.
19th-century developments
With the Cartwright Loom, the Spinning
Mule, and the Boulton & Watt steam engine, the pieces were in place to build
a mechanized woven fabric textile industry. From this point, there were no new
inventions, but a continuous improvement in technology as the mill owner strove
to reduce cost and improve quality. Developments in the transport
infrastructure; that is the canals and after 1831 the railways facilitated the
import of raw materials and export of finished cloth.
Firstly, the use of water power to
drive mills was supplemented by steam-driven water pumps and then superseded
completely by steam engines. For example, Samuel Greg joined
his uncle's firm of textile merchants, and, on taking over the company in 1782,
he sought out a site to establish a mill. Quarry Bank Mill was built on
the River Bollin at Styal in Cheshire. It was
initially powered by a water wheel but installed steam engines in
1810. William Fairbairn addressed the
problem of line shafting and was responsible for improving the efficiency of
the mill. In 1815 he replaced the wooden turning shafts that drove the machines
at 50 rpm, with wrought iron shafting working at 250 rpm, these were a third of
the weight of the previous ones and absorbed less power.
A Roberts loom in a weaving shed in 1835. Note the wrought iron shafting, fixed to the cast iron columns
Secondly, in 1830, using an 1822
patent, Richard Roberts manufactured the first loom with a cast
iron frame, the Roberts Loom. In 1842 James Bullough and
William Kenworthy made the Lancashire Loom, a semiautomatic power
loom: although it is self-acting, it has to be stopped to recharge empty
shuttles. It was the mainstay of the Lancashire cotton industry for a
century until the Northrop Loom (invented in 1894, with an automatic
weft replenishment function) gained ascendancy.
Roberts self-acting mule with quadrant gearing
The industrial revolution changed
the nature of work and society The three key drivers in
these changes were textile manufacturing, iron founding, and steam
power. The geographical focus of textile manufacture in Britain was Manchester and
the small towns of the Pennines and southern Lancashire.
Textile production in England peaked
in 1926, and as mills were decommissioned, many of the scrapped mules and looms
were bought up and reinstated in India.
20th century
Textile factory workers in Poland,
1950s
Textile workers at Finlayson factory in Tampere, Finland in 1951
Manila hemp warp yarns being prepared for weaving in a modern textile factory
Major changes came to the textile
industry during the 20th century, with continuing technological innovations in
machinery, synthetic fiber, logistics, and globalization of the business. The
business model that had dominated the industry for centuries was to change
radically. Cotton and wool producers were not the only sources for fibers, as
chemical companies created new synthetic fibers that had superior qualities for
many uses, such as rayon, invented in 1910, and DuPont's nylon,
invented in 1935 as an inexpensive silk substitute and used for products
ranging from women's stockings to toothbrushes and military parachutes.
The variety of synthetic fibers used
in manufacturing fiber grew steadily throughout the 20th century. In the
1920s, the computer was invented; in the 1940s, acetate, modacrylic,
metal fibers, and saran were developed; acrylic, polyester,
and spandex were introduced in the 1950s. Polyester became hugely
popular in the apparel market, and by the late 1970s, more polyester was sold
in the United States than cotton.
By the late 1980s, the apparel segment
was no longer the largest market for fiber products, with industrial and home
furnishings together representing a larger proportion of the fiber
market. Industry integration and global manufacturing led to many small
firms closing for good during the 1970s and 1980s in the United States; during those
decades, 95 percent of the looms in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
shut down, and Alabama and Virginia also saw many factories close.
Pakistan
Pakistan is the 4th largest producer of cotton with the third largest spinning capacity in Asia. It contributes 5% to the global spinning capacity. At present, there are 1,221 ginning units, 442 spinning units, and 124 large spinning units in addition to 425 small units which produce textiles. Pakistan is the third largest consumer of cotton. Exports of $3.5 billion were recorded in 2017- 2018(6.5% of the total exported cotton on the world)
In 1950, textile manufacturing emerged
as the center of Pakistan's industrialization. Between 1947 and 2000, the number
of textile Mills increased from 3 to 600. In the same time, spindles increased
in number from 177,000 to 805 million. The textile industry provides 45% of the
bank debt in Pakistan.
Bangladesh
Many Western multinationals use labor
in Bangladesh, which is one of the cheapest in the world: 30 euros per month
compared to 150 or 200 in China. Four days is enough for the CEO of one of the
top five global textile brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will
earn in her lifetime. In April 2013, at least 1,135 textile workers died in the
collapse of their factory. Other fatal accidents due to unsanitary factories
have affected Bangladesh: in 2005 a factory collapsed and caused the death of
64 people. In 2006, a series of fires killed 85 people and injured 207 others.
In 2010, some 30 people died of asphyxiation and burns in two serious fires.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters
Association (BGMEA) uses police forces to crack down. Three workers were
killed, and hundreds more were wounded by bullets, or imprisoned. In 2010,
after a new strike movement, nearly 1,000 people were injured among workers as
a result of the repression.
Ethiopia
Employees of Ethiopian garment
factories, who work for brands such as Guess, H&M, or Calvin
Klein, receive a monthly salary of 26 dollars per month. These very low wages
have led to low productivity, frequent strikes, and high turnover. Some
factories have replaced all their employees on average every 12 months,
according to the 2019 report of the Stern Centre for Business and Human Rights
at New York University.
The report states:" Rather than
the docile and cheap labor force promoted in Ethiopia, foreign-based suppliers
have met employees who are unhappy with their pay and living conditions and who
want to protest more and more by stopping work or even quitting. In their
eagerness to create a "made in Ethiopia" brand, the government,
global brands, and foreign manufacturers did not anticipate that the base salary
was simply too low for workers to make a living from.
Commerce and regulation
The Multi Fibre Arrangement (MFA)
governed the world trade in textiles and garments from 1974 through
2004, imposing quotas on the amount developing countries could export to developed
countries. It expired on 1 January 2005.
However, the Arrangement was not negative for all developing countries. For example, the European Union (EU) imposed no restrictions or duties on imports from very poor countries, such as Bangladesh, leading to a massive expansion of the industry there.
Bangladesh was expected to suffer the
most from the ending of the MFA, as it was expected to face more competition,
particularly from China. However, this was not the case. It turns out that
even in the face of other economic giants, Bangladesh's labor is “cheaper than
anywhere else in the world.” While some smaller factories were documented
making pay cuts and layoffs, most downsizing was essentially speculative – the
orders for goods kept coming even after the MFA expired. In fact, Bangladesh's
exports increased in value by about $500 million in 2006.
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