From antiquity to the last part of the eighteenth century, the conversion of fibers into materials was a handcraft. Wool fibers may have been the first textile material to be used by man to clothe himself. The felting of wool may have been suggested by the matting that results when pelts are worn with the wool or hair side toward the body; however, it was the spinning of fibers and the weaving of them into cloth that was to have the widest application. Until power-driven machines came into being, spinning was a household industry, and there are still many areas of the world where one can see women carrying a distaff of wool in one hand while