Mrs. Ruland's Student Gallery

A Demonstration on the Significance of Industrialization in the Textile Industry: A Photographic Journal

The Industrial Revolution has had a major impact on our world, however many of us today have trouble understanding just how large that change has been. Technology has changed so much in the last decades that students frequently think that their parents and teachers are from the Dark Ages when they talk about albums and other pieces of "ancient" technology. Students have a hard time understanding the world before computers, cell phones and CDs much less before the telephone and the television. But these items are just some of the latest manifestations of a Revolution that changed society from mostly rural to mostly urban, and from mostly agricultural to mostly industrial.

I am a Social Studies teacher, but I am also a weaver, spinner, dyer and sewer. As such, I am in a position where I can show my students the impact of industrialization on the Textile Industry. We also get some hands-on involvement in the spinning process. And at the end of the day, there is a greater understanding of just how much industrialization has changed our lives.

We begin with a look at our own closets. Students do an estimated count of how many garments they own that cover them from the waist up. We then look at how many garments someone in the Middle Ages would have owned. At that time, 2 shirts or chemises would have been the upper limit for all but the wealthiest people. One garment would have been used for Church and special occasions, the other would be the working clothes. After several years, the special occasion clothes would be relegated to the working category and the working clothes would be cut apart to remake into clothes for the children. Hopefully, there would be a new special occasion garment by this time!

But why would it take so long to get a new garment? All the work had to be done by the family. But how much work can we be talking about? More than you can imagine.

Since wool is one of the easiest fibers to work with, I use wool for my demonstrations. I use washed fleece from local sheep, and I also use commercially prepared roving. After an initial discussion of the procurement of wool, we looked at the steps necessary to cover the body. Washing is the important first step since sheep don't realize that we intend to use their fleece for clothes. Sheep are not indoor animals, so their fleece has animal and plant matter in it that would not be comfortable in clothing. Most of the wool that I use for these demonstrations has not been scoured; the lanolin in still in the wool. At this stage we note that the fleece is somewhat clumpy and would not be comfortable.

So what do you do? You have to either card or comb the fleece so that it isn't clumpy. I have students use wool cards during the demonstrations. Wool cards are used in pairs and look like a larger version of a dog grooming brush. They have small, closely spaced needles on both cards.

A student is captured on film attempting to use the wool cards. A small amount of the clean fleece is loaded on one of the cards. The cards are held in each hand so that they can be pulled apart. This stroking loosens the clumps of fleece and helps to somewhat align the individual fibers. After a few passes, the fleece on one of the cards is off-loaded onto the other card with a skilled turn of the wrist. The cards are once again pulled apart; the fleece on the other card is off-loaded onto the opposing card. After one more pass, it is time to remove the fleece. The fleece is rolled from the front edge toward the handle edge of the card. The resulting fluff is called a rolag.

As you can see in the following pictures, students (and adults) can have fun producing one or two rologs. Classmates can have even more fun watching the efforts. Sometimes a group effort is required (or are we just posing for the picture?)

Some students are rather dangerous! The cards require a light touch, but if you jam the cards together, it takes great force to pull them apart. Be careful where you sit!

Sometimes some friendly company helps the job get done.

Even administrators can get in on the fun; Mrs. Wise is the Principal at Glenelg High School. Mr. Felsen, a teacher candidate working with me, also gives carding a try.

Everyone agreed that carding wasn't very difficult. But then we looked at how many rolags would be necessary to make enough yarn for an average sized sweater. Just how much does a rolag weigh?

As I demonstrated, these rolags don't weigh very much! An average wool sweater requires between 1 and 1 1/2 pounds of yarn. That sweater is going to need more than 200 rolags!!! No one was will to make that many rolags for me.

Whose job was it to produce the rolags? While many students thought that the women would do this job, they had too many other things that only they could attend to. The job of carding the wool usually went to the children. They were used as the unskilled and semi-skilled labor in the family. Depending on the age of the child, the sex roles of various tasks were not adhered to, so even the boys would help.

Once we do get all the rolags completed, can we make our sweater?

No, this is just the first of many steps. A student has realized that the rolags are not very sturdy. They would not do a good job of covering what we normally want to cover. They also fall apart rather easily.

The next step in the process is to put twist on the wool. I showed the students that just twirling the rolag between my fingers puts enough twist on the wool so that it is much more difficult to pull apart. But this is not a very efficient method.

Early peoples used a simple spindle to put the twist on their fiber. This is a drop spindle. The drop spindle has a round disk with a dowel going through it. The dowel is notched at the top to provide an easy place for the yarn to be secured. While holding the fiber in one hand, the spinner twists and then releases the spindle. The spinner then uses both hands to play out an appropriate amount of fiber to be twisted by the twisting spindle and to periodically spin the spindle. Many beginning spinners quickly learn why this is called a drop spindle. If the fiber is too thin or doesn't have enough twist, it will break, and the spindle will drop to the floor. The spinner has to stop frequently to wind the twisted yarn onto the spindle. This is an improvement over twisting the fiber by hand, but there is definitely room for improvement.

The Chinese were responsible for the next advance in textile technology, the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel was introduced to Europe via India in the 13th or 14 century. The spinning wheel contains a wheel and a separate spindle that are linked by a drive band.

Some spinning wheels have foot pedals, which allow the spinner to use both hands to fashion the yarn. This is especially important when the spinner is also trying to answer class questions!

The next stage of our process was to get some willing volunteers. Of course, they had to be skilled at various tricky maneuvers. Actually, I explain that trying to work the foot pedals and coordinate the hand motions was much more difficult that patting the head and rubbing the tummy. Even with those warnings, I got some volunteers.

To make things easier for my first-time spinners, I took care of the foot pedals. All they had to do was all the twist to move down the yarn, and then to load the yarn onto the bobbin. Easy!!

So why did they look like they had put in a hard days work. Could it really be more difficult than I made it look?

Of course, everyone was amazed to see just how much they had spun. Usually, it was only about 1 1/2 yards. So how much would you need for a pair of pants? The following are very rough calculations designed to give a rough idea of the scope of the job. These calculations are not intended to supplant a weaver's precise calculations.

40 inches (waist to hem measurement) - multiplied by
4 (number of panels needed) - plus
27 inches (loom waste) - multiplied by
15 (width of one panel) - multiplied by
100 (Lengthwise threads per inch) - multiplied by
2 (you need the crosswise threads too or you won't be covering what needs to be covered) - divided by
36 (number of inches in yard) - equals
15,583 yards

No one was ready for that number!

Of course, spinning the 16,000 yards of yarn wasn't the end of the job. The mother had to wash and set the twist in the yarn. She would dye it using natural dyestuffs and any available mordant. The children might be involved in the collection of bark, berries, roots and other materials. After the yarn was clean, dyed, and dry, mother would wind the warp according to the length needed for the project. She would then dress her loom. This would involve winding the warp onto the back beam, threading each one of the threads through the eye in the heddles, sleying the threads through the slots in the reed, and then tying the warp onto the front beam.

Even then, mother isn't nearing the end of the job. She has to weave the fabric, cut it off the loom, wash and full the fabric. Then she is ready to cut and sew the garment. At this stage everyone needs to hope that mother is very patient. You definitely want her to take those little stitches and not the big impatient ones. We don't want the seams to fall apart.

At this stage, my students started to understand why industrialization had such a large impact on the way we live. Those early inventions, the fly shuttle, the spinning jenny, the water frame, the spinning mule, the power loom and the cotton gin, made it possible for people to buy the fabric and later the clothes they needed. We are now able to acquire a wardrobe of various fashions rather than the limited clothes of the previous eras.

mruland@comcast.net

Last updated April 3, 2002