Textiles | SciShow Tangents Podcast

From expressing ourselves through fashion to protecting ourselves from the elements, textiles seem to be self-evidently significant to the human experience. But it's our goal on Tangents to always poke holes in the obvious, tear through distraction, and weave humor with knowledge - and the facts this episode will blow your cotton-poly blend socks off.
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[Truth or Fail Express]
Fabric shoe sole tariff
www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/bu...
www.bbc.com/news/business-458...
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...
Water-soluble fiber to prove original Finnish textile
www.perniaspopupshop.com/ency...
www.ksicsilk.com/Home/About
news.mit.edu/2023/fiber-barco...
Wool Acts: burial shroud requirements
www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
nursingclio.org/2020/05/21/we...
www.hungerfordvirtualmuseum.c...
[Trivia Question]
“Cappers Act” of 1571 in England required males to wear woolen caps
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1...
[Fact Off]
Indigenous Aymara weavers and pediatric cardiologists co-created a medical textile for congenital heart defects
jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...
edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learnin...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3379209/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NB...
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healt...
www.ted.com/talks/franz_freud...
Creating experimental antimicrobial underwear for astronauts or space laundry machines
www.livescience.com/astronaut...
www.cnet.com/science/astronau...
phys.org/news/2021-05-spacesu...
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...
www.iflscience.com/space-laun...
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...
apnews.com/article/laundry-wa...
[Ask the Science Couch]
History of knitting machines
invention.si.edu/knitting-sto...
www.nottsheritagegateway.org.u...
Crochet vs. knit stitches
• Can Crochet Be Done By...
akaspar.pages.cba.mit.edu/tex...
Crocheting hyperbolic space models
www.ams.org/publicoutreach/ma...
www.cabinetmagazine.org/issue...
www.theiff.org/oexhibits/oe1e...
[Butt One More Thing]
Art project that extracted cellulose from cow manure to make a semi-synthetic fabric
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
www.huffpost.com/entry/poop-c...
jalilaessaidi.com/cowmanure/
#scishow #podcast #comedy #science #education #scishowtangents

[@RoxanneRichardson]

"Stuff" comes from the French word étoffe, which means "fabric." Historically, "stuff" referred to textiles that could be made into clothing, so they were ruling out the deceased wearing any garments made of non-wool fabric. Also: wool was incredibly important to the economy of England for centuries. Fabric was extremely valuable.The industrial revolution began in the textile industry. Fortunes were made in the mills of northern England. When you can make cloth more easily, it becomes cheaper, which means more clothing is manufactured, which means there are more rags which can become paper, which can become books, which can teach children to read.

[@juniper8875]

Bless you @RoxanneRichardson, I paused the video to come down and comment about the way "stuff" was used. Fashion history nerds unite :)

[@darcieclements4880]

​@@juniper8875this is my favorite newly learned thing in a while. Gonna dive into the history after this

[@VGlauren]

The reason you can't make a crochet machine isn't necessarily because knitting is simpler than crochet, it's because knitting keeps all of the live stitches on hard anchor point (in the case of hand knitting, a needle, and in the case of machine knitting, a series of hooks and pins that hold each individual stitch in place.) These hard anchor points make it easy for a machine to precisely pick up a live stitch and work into it. Crochet on the other hand only has a single live stitch, and you make the next stitch by pushing the hook through the fabric in a precise spot. The lack of hard anchor points that knitting has make it really hard for a machine to be able to accurately target the right spot. Without hard anchor points for every stitch, the fabric is flexible, and there isn't a way for a machine to be able to reliably insert the hook at the same exact spot every time.

[@bcase5328]

Machines can't do all knitting stitch styles. The (knitting) "Nupp" stitch still can't be duplicated by a machine. The technique of the craft "Nålbinding" can't be done by a machine.

[@TheBusyJane]

This.

[@darcieclements4880]

We have found the true use for ai androids at last.

[@thatkidmorganmariah]

It might not be *because* knitting is simpler than crochet, but loops are factually simpler than knots.

[@CatBarefield]

Ceri being a hobby kid is such an endearing tidbit about her 😂

[@katherineannerivera1926]

I got to visit a medical device factory (Cook Medical) where they had a clean room where a bunch of people were hand sewing heart stents and grafts

[@lisanorwoodtreefarm]

I was very surprised by how long it took for knitting/crochet to come up lol y'all should check out Abby Cox's video essays about the downfall of hats, and also the one about historical laundry and how linen shifts managed hygiene for European

[@KathrynsRavens]

There's a fabric often called Lindsey-woolsey that's linen and wool that sometimes was also called stuff. Even in Victorian England stuff referred to some woven fabrics. Also, a Monmouth cap is fulled/felted and they're so comfy and cozy! They're also pretty water resistant

[@GiddyGarlos]

Crochet also involves picking up the yarn from a variety of angles to form those loops, which is less predictable than knitting. Once robots can reliably "see" where the yarn is and pick it up correctly each time, we might have a crocheting machine on our hands. Until then, granny squares can only come from grannies (or us grannies at heart ❤)

[@fantasticalfascination]

This is the perfect episode to listen to while crocheting a blanket!

[@c1osmo]

Yep, knitting and crochet are definitely textile. Hank is wearing a knitted jumper, Ceri a knitted hoodie.

[@denisehunley9583]

right! my knitterly heart was pumping so hard for this one!

[@booklover900]

same but knitting

[@Favian2814]

Yes! That’s what I’m doing too!

[@kida4star]

Fiber nerd here, I loved this episode. Especially Ceri’s fact. Love this! Also, I think the history of textiles inspiring tech is fantastic and worth exploring.

[@LawTaranis]

Ceri and i would have been "friends" (picking up on each other's hobbies, but almost never talking about normal things)

[@user-vr5cb8ye8t]

40:00 the hobbies are what keep me going too!

[@nesmarilivengood6305]

Hank, when the needle goes down, the bobin wraps around the working thread to keep it in place

[@thezaftigwendy]

Actually, a hook under the sewing machine bed grabs the needle thread, making a loop which it pulls over the entire bobbin, then when the needle goes up, the lifter arm re-tightens the needle thread, which pulls up on the bobbin thread, locking the two threads together in between the layers or fabric.

[@nataliefoley1117]

15:15 I've heard this is why Converse have fuzzy bottoms - so they can be considered slippers for tariffs

[@wyattlewis4069]

And it's a significant reduction in tariffs, from over 30 percent to 3-13 percent according to Puget Sound University

[@ZaneFall]

Machine crocheting is also more difficult because instead of "holding" the live loops in a set place like you can do in knitting, you have to have an ability to sense where to insert the hook in a previous stitch in order to start it. This adds complexity that is technically possible but requires more nuanced elements like optical sensors.

[@victoriaeads6126]

I recently noticed (as I was finally moving them onto the felt textile banner 😉) that Sam designed some of the Bizarre Beasts pins. I love them, Sam!

[@reginat5749]

The first sewing machines were basically "simple" crochet-machines, that used a chain-stich to join fabrics together with one thread. Newer ones loop two threads around each other to do that.

[@victoriaeads6126]

Veritasium recently did a really cool video on how sewing machines work and how they were developed.

[@osmia]

+

[@W9e0e2e3e4pizza]

My grandfather died of that exact congenital heart defect, his was a very small known issue that never got fixed and eventually killed him. He lived beyond the average life expectancy of someone with the issue. Thanks to the American healthcare system it was a known issue that never got solved.

[@Steph-zo5zk]

Wow I want to watch a whole documentary about those hand woven stents, like how do they make it, what are the qualities that make it more suitable than other textiles, who figured it out and how? I'm very interested in both medicine and textile history so I can't believe I never heard of this. Thanks Ceri!!

[@osmia]

+

[@prophetessoftroy]

Best example I’ve personally experienced of shoes with cloth on the bottom (so they’re taxed as slippers instead): Converse All-Stars. Particularly after Nike bought the mark and moved manufacturing to China. The tariff is a big part of why there’s that felt layer on the bottom of the sole.

[@halem6580]

Oh hey that's my question! Thanks for answering it. As someone who both knits and crochets, I just keep failing wrap my head around why one is easier to replicate than the other. I wonder if maybe Tunisian crochet would be easier (I've never done it, so I don't really know how it compares to regular crochet)?

[@kray3883]

It would have the same problem. You basically do one row of regular crochet and then one row of almost-knitting and just keep alternating.

[@thezaftigwendy]

To make a crochet machine, you'd have to have some sort of hooks that hold the closed top Vs of completed stitches in place and other hooks that draw the new stitches through. It would be extremely complicated, like a combination knitting/sewing machine. It's possible, but no company is going to pay for it as long as they can pay poor women poverty wages to get expertly crocheted pieces.

[@slagathor91]

I can validate the thoughts about basketry. I just got back from a trip to Washington D.C. and the Smithsonian Modern Art Museum had an entire textile exhibit and one room was dedicated to basketry!

[@kassywilson7292]

textile: filaments woven, knit (using the term loosely), or matted into a fabric(cated) sheet. Stuff was a specific kind of textile I believe it was a kind of canvas like textile made from wool.

[@Dizographies]

Can you please do an episode about learning/Memory (if you haven't already)

[@yeat7264]

fun language fact about fabric: In danish it's called "stof" which is related to the english word "stuff", as in things. The problem is that the danish word for drugs is "stoffer" which is just plural of "stof", so if you have many different types of fabric, you might accidentally say that you have a lot of drugs. Usually context makes it make sense, but still lol

[@Alice_Walker]

Ceri!!!! 🤯🤯🤯🤯What an AMAZING fact. I had to immediately rewind and relisten to it! 💜

[@childkreature8039]

I knew the fabric on the soles of shoes thing was true because when I had to get cheap shoes as a kid, the fabric on the bottom almost caused many playground injuries because they were so slippery

[@tylercreates27]

hehe im finishing a secret vest for my boyfriend today!! what a perfect episode to have on 😄🕺👍

[@HotelPapa100]

As for "stuff" meaning "material" in general: I think this is the origin of the word. Only in recent times it has become a somewhat derogatory term, meaning "all the things cluttering up my room". Its German equivalent "Stoff" still mostly has that meaning. it's the root of many German chemical names: "Wasserstoff" (hydrogen): The material used to make water (hydrogen means something similar), "Stickstoff" (nitrogen), material that will suffocate you. "Sauerstoff" (oxygen) the material that makes acids. In addition, it also is the German word for 'fabric', very fitting for today's episode. (It's also a slang term for drugs.)

[@jacquelynsmith2351]

My dad's heart hole didn't close as he grew up. And I'm watching this as I'm knitting some lace. Knitting machines can't make Estonian lace with nupps, which was developed as a way to prove it was handmade

[@annasfischer]

nudist moon colony? also I am a weaver and former hobby kid too, and I am listening to this while weaving a scarf for my sister!

[@bcase5328]

What about Star Trek's sonic shower as a basic idea for a washing machine on the moon, as a first stage?

[@bcase5328]

Historically, clothes were sometimes dry cleaned by using fullers earth. "Fuller's earth is a term for various clays used as an absorbent, filter, or bleaching agent. Products labeled fuller's earth typically consist of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite.[1] Primary modern uses include as absorbents for oil, grease, and animal waste (cat litter), and as a carrier for pesticides and fertilizers." Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuller%27s_earth

[@osmia]

+

[@erikakrause3044]

As a professional seamstress I was skeptical of hanks fact of water dissolvable fiber. Can you imagine the possibilities?! My coworkers and I have often dreamed of a solution that could dissolve thread to aid in seam ripping

[@kray3883]

Exactly how I knew it was false, they would be selling that for five billion dollars per spool to do basting.

[@ericakusske3321]

Really? A quick search says that "superior threads" has one they call "Vanish". Amazon has a water soluble thread too. But the Flemmish origin story is the false part.

[@user-gn7ol4jy9o]

I'm still a hobby kid! 😂 Re: stuff, I do know that "stuff" was a term for a particular type of fabric historically, although I don't remember if it was used that way in the 1600s.

[@richardreardon9948]

when people were buried it was just for long enough for the flesh to decay away. After that they were exhumed and placed in a crypt so yeah, the were handling the corpses a few years later.

[@julescaru8591]

Love the show guys !

[@kingsrook9866]

Sam, your washing machine goes "kechunk kechunk kechunk" because it is unbalanced. A washing machine is a centrifuge for clothing, and the astronauts use centrifuges all the time. All unbalanced centrifuges vibrate an make noises. hence rumble motors for game controllers and mobile phones

[@athanatic]

I have a friend from High School with a Dacron patch in his heart wall because of a similar congenital defect.

[@disky01]

Sam, that was a great fact, don't sweat it.

[@LeroyMustang]

Hmm, I think a huge discussion on the importance of textiles to most of human innovation is missing here. The first paper, papyrus, was a textile. Also our relatively bald hides required us inventing clothing for reasons of temperature regulation, so our spreading , and population booms, cities, and most human advancement was tied to our ability to produce fabric/textiles instead of being only reliant on pelts. If you read about the importance of clothing it could be said that besides farming innovations, textiles were the most important innovations. Now we might say computers BUT most of the advancements in programming and assembly were directly preceded by inventions for the industrial manufacturing of textiles. Including highly complex looms which could be fed many different patterns “programming“ to embroider automatically. So maybe much more important than assumed by most.

[@kameradave]

If the space station had a spin cycle, it would make the whole space station spin slowly in the other direction. Newton! Equal and opposite! That's how reaction wheels work to rotate spacecraft.

[@redheadfaerie]

I usually listen on Spotify but you came up in my feed and I know youtube pays better so I'll try watching in the future, but I listed to my podcasts on 1.5 speed and it is so weird to hear people's natural cadence, but also for the podcast to last its actual length. Hahaha

[@osmia]

You can change your settings in the KZbin player to speed it up

[@chrismacmillan9000]

So what I heard is…Hank is going to crochet some perks for the P4A this year?!? Anyone else get that subtext??

[@konohappiness7481]

I love scishow tangents✨

[@user-fy8dg5xq4s]

Interesting. We have machine " crocheted" hats and yarmulkas that look like the real thing. I have no idea how they are manufactured but apparently the are machines that can do basic crochet stitches.

[@osmia]

Luv the thumbnail

[@HotelPapa100]

Crocheting machines for simple designs do exist, they just aren't called that. The very first sewing machines locked the stitch under the fabric by crocheting the loops in a chain stitch. The same principle is still used in machines used to close paper sacks. They are locked in a chain of loops. If you get hold of the end of te string you can pull and open the sack. Yet, just pulling through the final string will lock the stitch, it then has to be loosened deliberately. Sewing machines use a different technique today, employing an additional thread and a circular "shuttle" bobbin underneath. The edge of narrow textiles (ribbons) is also crocheted to lock the looped weft. It can again, be a simple chain stitch, but there are also more involved stitches used to make more robust edges that don't unravel that easily when worn down. And then there is what is called "weft knitting" which is, if you look at the "knitted" part more closely, really a crocheting technique. What is NOT done meachanically are the lace-like crocheting techniques. The doilies many associate first with crocheting. Thanks for a fascinating episode. Your podcast aways sweetens my commute.

[@kray3883]

I've always felt kind of dubious about calling just chain stitch by itself as crochet... Sort of like casting on and immediately binding off probably shouldn't count as knitting. I feel like to be crochet probably requires at least a little bit of single/double/nth crochet stitch in there.

[@David-bs6bv]

The chicken tax and the inport of small trucks

[@JHaven-lg7lj]

MedLifeCrisis recently did a video on the patent hole in babies’ hearts

[@nancyreid8729]

Many shirts are non-woven, i.e. knitted. Crochet also creates fabric, as do a bunch of other non-traditional techniques like nalbinding.

[@Leabluebell]

Astronaut Spin Cycle™ is a pretty good band name tho 😂

[@victoriaeads6126]

I feel like "textile" has a clinical, industrial feel, while "fabric" is more general and impersonal. "Cloth" or "material" feels more neutral, while specific adjectives are what give the warmth or lack thereof to descriptions of specific items. A soft silk night shirt sounds better than a scratchy woolen night shirt, for example.

[@rebekahcastro5430]

Weird but hank why when I watch a Scishow Tangents episode I get only Scishow Tangents recommendations for the next few days it's wild

[@beamteammom5431]

I’m pretty sure stuff referred to a type of fabric and later came to mean all kinds of other things.

[@kelleenbrx6649]

Stoff is a material/cloth in German...20:30

[@paulkinzer7661]

When the woolen caps law was passed -- and repealed -- England had a queen, not a king. Just saying. I don't see Elizabeth I wearing a woolen cap, so that exception for nobles was a good idea.

[@curiousfirely]

Ah ha ha! I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice this. Science nerdery and history nerdery are not mutually exclusive! ❤

[@geoffreymartin6363]

Hankbucks inflation at an all time high

[@torisandifer518]

something going into a black hole undergoing spaghettification then becoming long, could theoretically then be woven together into a textile....

[@Conus426]

helloooo new york!!!!!!!!!!!!! how are y'all how are how is everyyone!!!? MR WORLDWIDE

[@andrewspohrer7183]

Looks like someone is a real gumshoe

[@yellowflowerorangeflower5706]

Cool

[@toddturnbaugh4451]

The medical devices spoken of are nothing new and have been around for at least 2 decades if not longer, the hospital I worked at was, at the time, a clinical research site for these devices prior to their approval.

[@natepellegrino7974]

HEY

[@ArtichokeHunter]

Is textile not related to techne, meaning skill? I thought that as the link between leaving and text.

[@victoriaeads6126]

That's why crochet is better 😁

[@jbrecken]

I don't think Ceri should paint her wall that color - it would just make the room too dark.

[@jebus456]

wudup!?

[@thatkidmorganmariah]

wait just one moment......... do women not get real pockets that can conceal even a small hand due to some stupid tariff?? can we discus this? or can i get a link to somewhere to research this properly?

[@Followmybliss2013]

Banana Republic used to be a great clothing and just odd stuff store until I assume it was bought by someone who turned it into a clone of crappy clothes stores.

[@UhOhUmm]

Crocheting machines are not impossible to make, a modern robot arm can easily manipulate a crochet needle. The problem is that the economy of scale doesn't exist, you would have to program each different item all over again which would take many expensive automation technician hours, but most crochet items are low volume and are mostly appealing because they were hand made.

[@theemeralddragon9224]

I love yall but 2 fashion kids have decided that leather is a textile (we aren't experts we're just opinionated)