C. Evolution of textile production

1 - Textile making is a very ancient craft, with a history almost as old as mankind itself. Remembered and recorded in poetry and ancient stories and myths, textiles have always been important to man. As well as providing protection from the environment, the first textiles were used as decoration, providing status for the owner. They were also used as tools, bags for transporting things and for holding food as it was gathered.

2 - In 1782, the invention of the steam engine gave the world a new power source and started the Industrial Revolution. Previous to this the production of textiles had been a domestic system, a cottage industry with textiles spun, knitted and woven in the home. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, there was a whole range of new machines and inventions that were to take textiles into an era of mass production in factories. The development of man-made fibres and new dyestuffs in the early part of the twentieth century, and continuing technological developments, have led and continue to lead to new products and applications. The actual processes of textile manufacture, however, are still very much as they have always been, with the vast majority of cloth being woven or knitted from yarn spun from fibre. And, while much production may be very technologically advanced, hand-produced textiles are still made in many countries exactly as they were many, many years ago.

3 - Textiles are produced in almost every country of the world, sometimes for consumption exclusively in the country of manufacture, sometimes mainly for export. From cottage industry tomulti-national corporation, textiles and clothing are truly global industries.

4 - Nowadays, many different types of companies are involved in the production of textiles and clothing world-wide; some companies own many hugemanufacturing plants in many different countries while others will have only a few employees and some may not, actually manufacture at all.

Читайте також:

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Reading and writing skills	\|	II Read the text again and choose heading for each paragraph

Не знайшли потрібну інформацію? Скористайтесь пошуком google:

Генерація сторінки за: 0.006 сек.