From Muse to Machines: Indian Cotton Textiles and British Industrialisation
Lead Research Organisation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Economic History
Abstract
'From Muse to Machines' will consolidate the work I have undertaken during my doctoral and post-thesis research periods, produce tangible outputs in the form of publications (two papers and one book), generate impact-oriented public engagement events, gain university teaching training, and develop the funding plans for my next substantial research project.
My doctoral research has assessed the impact of the imitation of pre-industrial Indian cotton textiles on the technological trajectory of mechanisation and industrialisation in the British cotton industry during the 18th and 19th centuries. Using a material evidence and digital, scientific experiments-based approach, I demonstrate that the introduction of Indian cottons into Britain and Western Europe stimulated and intensified the evolutionary process of technological change, guided by the quest to match the cloth and print quality of Indian cottons. This change materialised via knowledge transfer through the benchmark product itself, which contained the knowledge necessary for its replication, setting the course of mechanisation along a specific trajectory, and triggering modern economic growth through the first industrial revolution.
In my post-thesis research, funded by the Economic History Society for the year 2021-22, I ask two further questions that emerged from my doctoral research. The first question asks whether Indian textile patterns and designs influenced the growth of the British calico printing industry. I use a combination of qualitative and quantitative perspectives to answer this question. Qualitatively, I examine the creative outputs of two well-known British textile designers, Anna Maria Garthwaite (1689-1763) and William Morris (1834-1896), to assess the impact of Indian patterns and motifs on their designs. Quantitatively, I compile a database of over 7000 British textile prints and use deep neural-network based machine vision to track the occurrence and evolution of one Indian motif (paisley) over time. I am collaborating with the V&A, the University of Surrey and Adobe Research for this project.
The second question pertains to developing a historical reconstruction experiment to determine the pre-industrial Indian technique of painting directly on cloth with indigo. Existing literature holds that direct painting with indigo on cloth began around 1738 with the English discovery of the arsenic technique for re-oxidation reduction of indigo to allow painting. This view contradicts material evidence from the surviving pre-1738 Indian textiles in museums around the world, where the indigo is deemed painted, rather than resist-dyed, by curators. In the absence of any written records related to how Indian artisans may have painted with indigo, the current historiography persists.
During my doctoral research, I organised, in collaboration with the Winterthur Museum, investigations using Raman Spectrometry, X-Ray Fluorescence and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry on select Indian textiles, where the blue was deemed painted. Results showed that the blue was indeed indigo but did not contain any arsenic residue. In June-July 2022, I again have the very fortunate opportunity to collaborate with the Winterthur Museum to organise a reconstructive experiment in the museum laboratory to re-create Indian methods of reducing indigo for the purpose of printing and dyeing. I experiment with different carbohydrates such as gums, starch, sugar and cellulose, and proteins such as hide glue, fish glue, egg-white, and other comparable animal products which would have been locally available to Indian artisans, to test for their efficacy in acting as re-oxidation reducing agents enabling painting with indigo. The experiment is being conducted with the help of scientists, curators and conservation experts at the museum and is also funded by the Winterthur Museum.
Both investigations will be completed by the end of September 2022.
My doctoral research has assessed the impact of the imitation of pre-industrial Indian cotton textiles on the technological trajectory of mechanisation and industrialisation in the British cotton industry during the 18th and 19th centuries. Using a material evidence and digital, scientific experiments-based approach, I demonstrate that the introduction of Indian cottons into Britain and Western Europe stimulated and intensified the evolutionary process of technological change, guided by the quest to match the cloth and print quality of Indian cottons. This change materialised via knowledge transfer through the benchmark product itself, which contained the knowledge necessary for its replication, setting the course of mechanisation along a specific trajectory, and triggering modern economic growth through the first industrial revolution.
In my post-thesis research, funded by the Economic History Society for the year 2021-22, I ask two further questions that emerged from my doctoral research. The first question asks whether Indian textile patterns and designs influenced the growth of the British calico printing industry. I use a combination of qualitative and quantitative perspectives to answer this question. Qualitatively, I examine the creative outputs of two well-known British textile designers, Anna Maria Garthwaite (1689-1763) and William Morris (1834-1896), to assess the impact of Indian patterns and motifs on their designs. Quantitatively, I compile a database of over 7000 British textile prints and use deep neural-network based machine vision to track the occurrence and evolution of one Indian motif (paisley) over time. I am collaborating with the V&A, the University of Surrey and Adobe Research for this project.
The second question pertains to developing a historical reconstruction experiment to determine the pre-industrial Indian technique of painting directly on cloth with indigo. Existing literature holds that direct painting with indigo on cloth began around 1738 with the English discovery of the arsenic technique for re-oxidation reduction of indigo to allow painting. This view contradicts material evidence from the surviving pre-1738 Indian textiles in museums around the world, where the indigo is deemed painted, rather than resist-dyed, by curators. In the absence of any written records related to how Indian artisans may have painted with indigo, the current historiography persists.
During my doctoral research, I organised, in collaboration with the Winterthur Museum, investigations using Raman Spectrometry, X-Ray Fluorescence and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry on select Indian textiles, where the blue was deemed painted. Results showed that the blue was indeed indigo but did not contain any arsenic residue. In June-July 2022, I again have the very fortunate opportunity to collaborate with the Winterthur Museum to organise a reconstructive experiment in the museum laboratory to re-create Indian methods of reducing indigo for the purpose of printing and dyeing. I experiment with different carbohydrates such as gums, starch, sugar and cellulose, and proteins such as hide glue, fish glue, egg-white, and other comparable animal products which would have been locally available to Indian artisans, to test for their efficacy in acting as re-oxidation reducing agents enabling painting with indigo. The experiment is being conducted with the help of scientists, curators and conservation experts at the museum and is also funded by the Winterthur Museum.
Both investigations will be completed by the end of September 2022.
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Alka Raman (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |