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Cotton and wool have long dominated studies of the English textile industries, relegating silk manufacture to no more than a minor role in the British economy. Regional studies have likewise tended to concentrate upon areas dominated by a single feature or single industry. This thesis aims to address the economic and social impact of a silk industry established in the predominantly rural area of South West Hertfordshire. Here the indigenous population had other opportunities for employment, agricultural labour of various kinds forming the greatest occupational group. The straw plait absorbed female and child labour in the districts of Berkhamsted and St Albans, in direct competition to the silk mills, while the rag factories supplying the paper industry offered competition to the silk mills of Watford and Rickmansworth. Any industry dependent upon imports is especially vulnerable to external pressure, and an overview of the national situation regarding the silk industry in England, and of the particular problems besetting manufacturers during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is therefore essential to an understanding of the situation in the rural semi-industrial districts. The chapters of this thesis therefore follow the story of silk production from the wider context of the national industry to the specific mills of Hertfordshire, asking first, why the establishment of an English silk industry was so important. Themes explored in later chapters are already discernible in the early history of the silk industry: the high involvement of women; the apprenticeshipo f children; the interventionist role of government; and the problem of the poor. The extent to which these factors impinged upon the relationship between master, worker, and the local district, and ultimately upon the viability of the Hertfordshire mills, form the central core of this study.

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As the clothing industry moves away from traditional models of mass production there has been increased interest towards customised clothing. The technology to produce cost effective customised clothing is already in place however the prerequisite to customised clothing is accurate body dimensional data. In response, image capture systems have been developed which are capable of recording a three-dimensional image of the body, from which measurements and shape information may be extracted. The use of these systems for customised clothing has, to date, been limited due to issues of inaccuracy, cost and portability. To address the issue of inaccuracy a diagnostic procedure has been developed through the performance evaluation of an image capture system. By systematically evaluating physical and instrumental parameters the more relevant sources of potential error were identified and quantified and subsequently corrected to form a `closed loop' experimental procedure. A systematic test procedure is therefore presented which may be universally applied to image capture systems working on the same principle. The methodology was based upon the isolation and subsequent testing of variables that were thought to be potential sources of error. The process therefore included altering the physical parameters of the target object in relation to the image capture system and amending the configuration and calibration settings within the system. From the evaluation the most relevant sources of error were identified as the cosine effect, measurement point displacement, the dimensional differences between views and the influence of the operator in measurement. The test procedure proved to be effective in both evaluating the performance of the system under investigation and in enabling the quantification of errors. Both random and systematic errors were noted which may be quantified or corrected to enable improved accuracy in the measured results. Recommendations have been made for the improvement of the performance of the current image capture system these include the integration of a cosine effect correction algorithm and suggestions for the automation of the image alignment process. The limitations of the system such as its reliance on manual intervention for both the measurement and stitching processes, are discussed, as is its suitability for providing dimensional information for bespoke clothing production. Recommendations are also made for the creation of an automated test procedure for testing the performance of alternative image capture systems, which involves evaluating the accuracy of object replication both for multiple and single image capture units using calibration objects which combine a range of surfaces.

This investigation examines the structure-property relationships of high modulus fibres. Five fibre classes were chosen for examination. These are p-aromatic copolyamide (Armos and SVM) and poly-p-aramids (Terlon and Kevlar) obtained from rigid chain polymers; poly-m-aramids (Phenylon and Nomex) obtained from semi rigid chain polymers, and aliphatic polyamide (Capron and Nylon) and Polyethylene obtained from flexible chain polymers. The thermo-mechanical properties studied include tensile properties, thermal shrinkage, creep-recovery, stress-relaxation and residual deformation over a range of temperatures. Results show that mechanical properties are highly related to chain rigidity, orientation and crystallinity of the fibres. The presence of aromatic rings in polymer chains increase the polymer rigidity. The higher the intermolecular attractive force and chain rigidity, the greater the resistance to heat. Study of the creep-recovery properties of polyamide fibres shows that irrecoverable residual deformation for the rigid chain polymers is accumulated within a very short initial period of time (15 seconds) when the load is applied. However for semi-rigid or flexible chain polymer fibres, the residual deformation is accumulated during the whole creep process. The characteristics of tensile stress-strain properties and the accumulation of residual deformation are found to be temperature dependent, especially in the case of Armos and SVM. The mechanical properties of polyamide fibres are also influenced by moisture which is associated with intermolecular interaction. Supplementary studies using FTIR, SEM and DSC were also undertaken. FTIR was used for preliminary investigation into the intermolecular hydrogen bonding and associated moisture in fibres. The results support the explanation of the thermomechanical properties of polyamide fibres. SEM results show the fibre rupture mechanism related to the fibre structures.