I 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 



IT is difficult to say what substance was first used 

 by primitive man for spinning whether wool, 

 cotton, or flax fibers since all of these were 

 used prehistorically. But the extensive and universal 

 use of cotton is of comparatively recent date, and 

 many of the remarkable inventions of machinery for 

 spinning and weaving were designed primarily for 

 using cotton fibers. Fortunately most of such imple- 

 ments will spin and weave wool and hemp as well as 

 cotton, using certain modifications that do not affect 

 the general principle, and a description of the cotton 

 spinning and weaving machines will suffice to give a 

 general idea of all the rest. 



Just when cotton fabrics were introduced into Europe 

 cannot be definitely determined, but it was certainly 

 several centuries before the Christian era. It is proba- 

 ble that such fabrics came first from India, where the 

 cotton plant is indigenous. Herodotus, who wrote 

 his history about the middle of the fifth century, B.C., 

 refers to the cotton garments of the Indians; and we 

 know that in Roman times cotton had become a standard 

 article of importation from the East. This traffic with 

 Europe ^disappeared largely in the [Dark Ages, but was 

 revived again on the reawakening of Western Europe. 



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