Textile & Fashion World: HISTORY OF WEAVING

9 May 2012

HISTORY OF WEAVING

HISTORY OF WEAVING

Evolution of Weaving

Egyptians made woven fabrics some 6000years ago .
Chinese made fine fabrics from silk over 4000 years ago.
A shedding mechanism was originally invented in China in the 3rd century and introduced in Europe.
In 12th century , completely wooden hand looms were used as standard designs in England.
The developments in the design and performance of looms have taken place during the past 850 years.
The fly shuttle , invented in 1733 by John Kay, was hand operated.
It was an important cornerstone to improve the productivity.
This shuttle, running on four wheels, was moving over the lower side of the warp sheet.
Two wooden tenders connected to a small cord commanded by the hand were used to propel the shuttle. The weaver sitting in the middle of the loom threw the shuttle by pulling the cord very easily.

Hand loom

Power Looms

E.Cartwright invented the power loom in 1785
In the early 1800s , looms made of cast iron were operated by power .
In the 1830s, there were some 100,000 shuttle looms operating in England.
In 1895, many looms, all driven by an electric engine were invented and then became spread.
At the beginning of 1930's, eventually, each weaving machine driven individually by an electric motor was developed, this loom drive concept has remained in use until the present.

Automation

The automatic loom stopping system was invented by R.Miller in England in 1796. The loom was automatically stopped when a short pick occurred.
In 1894 Northrop devised a means for automatic weft replenishment without stopping the loom which was called automatic loom .

Shedding Mechanisms

The first dobby operated by a punched card was invented by B. Bouchone in 1725.
A machine controlling bundles of harness cords with healds was constructed by J.M. Jacquard in 1801.
The first shuttle change motion enabling weft threads of different colors to be inserted was constructed by J.P. Reid and T. Johnson in 1835.
One significant invention in the field of design was that of Keighley dobby by Hattersley and Smith in 1867 .
Rotary dobbies are manufactured in 1990s.

Weft Insertion Systems

Projectile w.m. was invented in 1924by an engineer named Rossmann became commercial in 1953.
The first patent for the rapier w.m.was granted in 1898, then followed the Gabler system in 1925 and the Dewas system in 1930. Production of rapier w. m. started in 1972.
The first air-jet system was invented in 1914 but it became important commercially after 1980’s.
Continuous weft insertion on a circular w.m. was proposed before the end of the 19th century.
After mid 90s, multi phase w.m. has showed new developments.