One of our members suggested this excellent article about how textiles have helped push technological innovation throughout the centuries. Generally when we think “textiles”, we don’t equate them with “tech”. However, manufacturing textiles require lots of technology that have revolutionized the manufacturing industry. A fantastic example was the Jacquard loom from 1801, which was the first programmable piece of machinery (running on punch cards). Anyway, it’s a great read, so check out the article here:

http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/how-textiles-repeatedly-revolutionised-technology/