Inventions and Other Developments Associated with the Heritage Textile Industries of the British Isles
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The Research Journal of the Costume Culture Vol. 20, No. 4 pp.616~620, August 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.7741/rjcc.2012.20.4.616 Inventions and Other Developments Associated with the Heritage Textile Industries of the British Isles M. A. Hann†and E. Nicholson University of Leeds International Textiles Archive, University of Leeds, UK (Received April 27, 2012 : Accepted August 1, 2012) Abstract The objectives of this paper are to examine some of the factors which may account for the rise in predominance of British textile manufacture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This paper identifies a range of important eighteenth century British inventions and associated developments, such as the ‘factory’ system, which stimulated expansion in textile manufacture in the British Isles and led to the rise in international importance of various ‘heritage textile industries’, including the Lancashire cotton industry, the Yorkshire woollen and worsted industry, the Dundee jute industry and the Irish linen industry. Keywords: Heritage Textile industry, British inventions, eighteenth century underwent substantial declines in machinery capacity, Ⅰ. Introduction output, numbers of establishments and numbers of personnel employed, as textile manufacture re-located Textiles with functional, ritualistic, decorative and geographically to locations offering lower production aesthetic applications have been produced throughout costs. Examples from the British Isles context include much of Europe for several hundred years. Various the Irish linen industry, the Yorkshire woollen and craft-based industries have evolved and have received worsted industry, the Dundee jute industry and the attention from scholars and museum professionals over Lancashire cotton industry; there are several others. the years. Many well-documented collections, comprised All four had risen to a peak of output and perfor- of hand-crafted textile items, are housed in national mance, during the nineteenth and early-twentieth cen- and provincial museums across Europe. Also of im- turies, to be confronted ultimately with unavoidable portance (in the cultural, historical and heritage con- decline towards the late-twentieth century. Examples text) but receiving relatively less scholarly attention of heritage textiles still produced today, though at from textile and fashion scholars, are the various reduced capacities compared to several decades ago national factory-based textile industries developed along- are Irish Linen and Harris Tweed. side, or in the wake of, the Industrial Revolution, In many cases, communities built up around these involved in the processing of various fibres, including heritage textile industries, with generations of work- flax (linen), wool, cotton, and jute. Towards the end forces recruited often from the same families to work of the twentieth century, many of these industries in the same mill. In some cases whole towns were † 교신저자 E-mail : [email protected] - 616 - Vol. 20, No. 4 M. A. Hann and E. Nicholson 155 built by entrepreneurs in order to ensure that workers capital to invest in new forms of industrial activity; lived close to their place of employment and also, in its many colonies which acted as sources of raw some instances, to ensure socially and hygienically materials and markets for finished products. Improve- better living conditions for the workforce than would ments in the transport infrastructure and in industrial have been the case otherwise; Saltaire (in Yorkshire, production generally were strongly supported by govern- UK) established by Titus Salt in 1851, and now ment and the Royal Navy was available to protect a UNESCO world heritage site, is a good British British sea trade. By around the mid-nineteenth century, example. the Industrial Revolution had spread to France, The objectives of this paper are to examine some Belgium and Germany as well as the United States of the factors which may account for the rise in and ultimately Japan. Drawing on substantial natural predominance of British textile manufacture in the resources, as well as European capital to build rail- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Particular attention ways and factories, the United States had overtaken is focused on inventions which brought about signi- Britain as the world’s leading industrial nation by the ficant increases in production which in turn led to last decade of the nineteenth century. Never the less the development of the various British heritage textile Britain retained an important position industrially, industries. throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. Probably the most noticeable benefit of the Ⅱ. The Stirrings of Industrial Industrial Revolution, for the societies affected by it, Revolution was sustained economic growth, the increase in ave- rage per capita income and vast amounts of wealth Radical changes in agriculture in the 1700s were accumulated by industrial entrepreneurs. Working necessary pre-requisites for the Industrial Revolution conditions faced by the newly-industrialised labour in Britain. Seed drills and the use of the iron plough force in the new factories and mills were regarded as were of great importance, and these and other agri- harsh by many contemporary social observers, and cultural inventions led to increased food production the employment of children was a particular concern; which in turn allowed population growth. Degrees of these aspects of the topic are however outside the labour intensity in farming were decreased which in scope of this short paper. An interesting article con- turn contributed to unemployment in farming and the cerned with employment conditions and the deve- availability of a large unemployed labour force. A loping trade union movement was provided by Pearce proportion of this large labour force was thus avail- (1975). able for employment in unskilled or semi-skilled textile manufacture. Ⅲ. Inventive Activity The development of the ‘factory’ system was sti- mulated by the availability of several important pro- The Encyclopaedia Britannica Online identifies five cess innovations in textile manufacture (identified important textile inventions associated with the Indu- below) as well as developments in water and steam strial Revolution and the reduction of labour costs: power, rail and water transportation, coal mining, John Kay’s ‘flying shuttle’ (1733); James Hargreaves and iron smelting. Britain was well placed to benefit ‘spinning jenny’ (1764); Richard Arkwright’s ‘water from these developments. Advantages included the frame’ (1769); Samuel Crompton’s ‘spinning mule’ availability of coal and iron resources; its position as (1779); Edmund Cartwright’s power loom (1785). an established commercial power; the availability of Each is considered briefly below. - 617 - 156 Inventions and other Developments Associated with the Heritage Textile Industries of the British Isles 복식문화연구 For centuries prior to the Industrial Revolution, Arkwright left his native Lancashire for Nottingham spinning and weaving were conducted on a home (or where, in 1777, he met Jedediah Strutt (who had ‘cottage’) basis, occasionally supplementing the income made several inventions relating to knitting). Spon- from farming. Typically the women of a household, sored by the firm of Need and Strutt, Arkwright built often assisted by children, were involved in spinning Cromford mill on the river Derwent in Derbyshire, and men (occasionally from within the same house- housing water frames producing cotton yarn. Arkwright hold) were involved in weaving. A merchant (or is considered by many observers as a leading entre- clothier) ‘managed’ the process, by providing the preneur of the Industrial Revolution and a contem- fibrous raw material and then paying for the spun or porary authority on textile processing technology. He woven goods. One handloom weaver required the is also associated with the introduction of the factory yarn produced by at least four spinners, but this system as well as with the mass production of cotton changed dramatically with the introduction of an yarns (a century before Ford). In the publication invention to become known as the ‘flying shuttle’. World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom, it was Invented by John Kay (1704-c1779) of Lancashire, commented that: and patented in 1733, the ‘flying shuttle’ permitted ‘… the Derwent Valley site is significant because the faster production of wider cloth and led to a of the development of early technology at … Crom- four-fold increase in demand for yarn. At around the ford Mill in 1771. Here, Richard Arkwright first same time, with populations increasing at home and introduced factory production and transformed the the colonies providing a massive ‘captive market’, scale of the output and the numbers of workers on there was an increased demand for quantities of British- the site. A shift system was introduced with workers produced cloth. This in turn necessitated innovations employed in large buildings and living nearby in in spinning methods in order to feed the faster and dependent communities. The spread of the factory wider ‘flying shuttle’ looms. system created a new cultural tradition and the ven- A major innovation in spinning was the machine ture introduced a degree of social enlightenment and which became known as the ‘spinning jenny’. Some concern for the quality of life …’ historians give credit to Thomas Highs (1718-1803) Yet further improvements in spinning came in of Lancashire for its introduction in 1764