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The Textile industry (also known in the United Kingdom and Australia as the '''Rag Trade''') is a term used for industries primarily concerned with the design or manufacture of Clothing as well as the distribution and use of Textile s . COTTAGE STAGE Before the maufacturing processes were mechanized, textiles were produced in the home, and excess sold for extra money. Most cloth was made from either from China, was an extravagant luxury. The use of Flax fibre in the manufacturing of cloth in northern Europe dates back to Neolithic times. Cloth was produced in the home, and the excess woven cloth was sold to merchants called Clothiers who visited the village with their trains of pack-horses. Some of the cloth was made into clothes for people living in the same area and a large amount of cloth was exported. The process of making cloth depends slightly on the fiber being used, but there are three main steps: preparation of fibers for Spinning , spinning, and Weaving or Knitting . 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 though. Spinning evolved from twisting the fibers by hand, to use of a via the Middle East in the European Middle Ages . Weaving, done on a Loom has been around for as long as spinning. There are some indications that weaving was already known in the Palaeolithic . An indistinct textile impression has been found at Pavlov , Moravia. Neolithic textiles are well known from finds in Pile Dwellings in Switzerland. One extant fragment from the Neolithic was found in Fayum at a site which dates to about 5000 BCE . There are many different types of looms, from a simple inkle loom that dates back to the Vikings, to the standard floor loom. HISTORY DURING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION See Also: Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution The key British industry at the beginning of the 18th century was the production of industry – centred in Lancashire – had grown tenfold during this time, but still accounted for only a tenth of the value of the woollen trade. The textile industry grew out of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century as Mass Production of clothing became a mainstream industry. Starting with the Flying Shuttle in 1733 inventions were made to speed up the manufacturing process. In 1738 Lewis Paul and John Wyatt patented the Roller Spinning Machine and the Flyer-and-bobbin system. Lewis Paul invented a Carding machine in 1748, and by 1764 the Spinning Jenny had also been invented. In 1771 , Richard Arkwright used waterwheels to power looms for the production of cotton cloth, his invention becoming known as the Water Frame . In 1784 , Edmund Cartwright invented the Power Loom . With the spinning and weaving process now mechanized, Cotton Mill s cropped up all over Great Britain. Textile mills originally got their power from Water Wheel s, and thus had to be situated along a river. With the invention of the Steam Engine , in the 1760s to 1800's, mills no longer needed to be along rivers. POST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Many of the cotton mills, like the one in Lowell MA, in the US originally started with the intention of hiring local farm girls for a few years. The mill job was designed to give them a bit more money before they went back to the farm life. With the inflow of cheap labor from Ireland during the potato famine, the setup changed, as the girls became easily replaceable. Cotton mills were full of the loud clanking of the looms, as well as lint and cotton fiber. When the mills were first built a worker would work anywhere from one to four looms. As the design for the loom improved so that it stopped itself whenever a thread broke, and automatically refilled the shuttle, the number of machines a worker could work increased to up to 50. Originally, power looms were shuttle-operated but in the early part of the 20th century the faster and more efficient shuttleless loom came into use. Today, advances in technology have produced a variety of looms designed to maximize production for specific types of material. The most common of these are air-jet looms and water-jet looms. Industrial looms can weave at speeds of six rows per second and faster. By the latter 20th Century , the industry in the Developed World had developed a bad reputation, often involving Immigrant s in illegal " Sweat Shop s" full of people working on Textile Manufacturing and Sewing Machine s being paid less than minimum wages. This trend has resulted due to attempts to protect existing industries which are being challenged by Developing Countries in South East Asia , the Indian Subcontinent and more recently, Central America . Whilst Globalisation has seen the manufacturing outsourced to overseas labor markets, there has been a trend for the areas historically associated with the trade to shift focus to the more White Collar associated industries of Fashion Design , Fashion Modeling and retail. Areas historically involved heavily in the "rag trade" include London and Milan in Europe , SoHo district in New York City and the Flinders Lane and Richmond districts in Melbourne and Surry Hills in Sydney . IN POPULAR CULTURE
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