EARLY TYPES OF SEWING-MACHINES Upper picture, machine of Elias Howe, 1845 Lower picture, first Singer sewing-machine, 1854 SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 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 implements 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 can not be definitely determined, but it was certainly several centuries before the Christian era. It is probable 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 |