Excerpt from The Story of Textiles: A Bird's-Eye View of the History, of the Beginning and the Growth of the Industry, by Which Mankind Is Clothed As clothing has from time immemorial been one of man's necessities and almost as essential to his welfare as food, it is not surprising that the textile industry has long in value of output been second only to the production of foodstuffs. Important, however, as the industry is, its history, so far as the writer knows, has never, at least in America, been published. Aside from its importance the industry possesses much of interest not only for the student, but also for the man of affairs. Different branches of the industry, such as wool, silk, cotton, and linen, have been treated separately, but nothing has been written about the origin and growth of the industry as a whole. This book, of which some explanation is necessary, is an effort to fill this gap. Although a complete history of the industry has not been the aim of the writer nor the desire of the publisher, the purpose has been to present to those interested in the textile industry a bird's-eye view of the leading facts which have marked the progress of the industry up to the firm establishment of the manufacture of textiles on American soil, together with such intervening facts as are necessary to give one a comprehensive view of the subject. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.