raising sheep, working in cotton fields), not just as a fashion statement but as necessity.

In the early 1800s, a group of weavers near Nottingham, England, did not take kindly to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. With the introduction of mechanization, weavers who formerly worked as independent contractors were driven out of business or forced to work in factories. A guerrilla army of resisters started breaking into factories or using internal sabotage to destroy the mechanized looms. They became known as Luddites, a term we use today to label those who resist technological progress.

Many other expressions also have their roots in woven cloth. For example, before red tape meant bureaucracy, it referred to the handwoven tape, made on small looms and dyed red, that bound official documents from the crown. Revolting against the crown’s red tape, both American colonists, and 150 years later native Indians led by Gandhi, refused to buy British cloth that was heavily taxed and instead made their own homespun clothes.

When sailing ships dominated trade — from about the 15th to the mid-19th century — the sails

OPPOSITE: In legend, the spider taught African weavers, who today create brilliant Kente cloth. LEFT: English police offered rewards to catch rebellious Luddites. TOP: Gandhi's wife taught him to spin. He encouraged Indians to weave rather than buy British cloth. ABOVE: Inventor William B. Stout drives the first fiberglass car.

Until the Industrial Revolution —

the great divider between the time

when we knew how stuff was made

and modern times, when most

don’t have a clue — people made

their own clothes, or at least

participated in some way in

making their own clothes.

were made by thousands of people spinning yarn, and thousands more weaving the yarn into cloth. Without that cloth, we wouldn’t have been able to move anything from one continent to another.

Today, even airplanes rely on weaving technology. Modern structural composites are made by weaving fiberglass and other high-tech fibers, then infusing the web with plastic or other materials to create a lightweight, durable structure for boats, planes, and all kinds of modern vehicles.

Many early manufacturing mavericks got their