Human beings first used natural fibers as raw materials for spinning and weaving, which was earlier than the invention of words (see World Textile History and China Textile History). In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China had already used the hand spinning wheel for spinning. By the Song Dynasty, it had invented a large hydraulic spinning wheel with more than 30 spindles. In 1769, the Englishman, R. Akwright, made the hydraulic spinning machine. In 1779, the Englishman S. Crompton (Samuel Crompton) invented the walking spindle spinning machine. After it was introduced into the United States, J. Thorpe, an American, invented the ring spinning machine in 1828. Because of continuous spinning, the productivity increased several times. Looms in the Warring States Period in China have already used the lever principle to drive the heald frame to complete the opening action with the pedal connecting rod. In 1733, the Englishman J. Kay invented the shuttle to strike the shuttle, which made it fly at high speed and doubled the productivity of the loom. In 1785, E. Cartwright, an Englishman, invented the power loom. In the same year, Britain built the world's first cotton textile mill powered by steam engine, which was a turning point in the transition of textile industry from workshop handicraft to large-scale industrial production. The progress of human society and the increase of population have promoted the development of textile industry and the improvement of textile machinery. The energy reform (replacing manpower and animal power with steam power) laid the foundation for modern textile machinery.

The advent of man-made fibers at the end of the 19th century broadened the field of textile machinery and added a category of chemical fiber machinery. The growth of people's demand for synthetic fibers has promoted the development of synthetic fiber spinning equipment in the direction of large-scale (the diameter of spinning screw reaches 200 mm, and the daily output of a single spinning machine reaches 100 tons) and high-speed (the spinning speed reaches 3000~4000 meters/minute). The country with the fastest development of synthetic fiber industry in the world updates its equipment almost once in 5 to 6 years, and the number of machines doubles in 10 years. In the past 20 years, the spinning and weaving equipment has made many local improvements to adapt to the pure spinning of chemical fibers or the blending of natural fibers, such as expanding the range of suitable fiber length of the drafting mechanism, eliminating static electricity on the fiber, etc. In the field of dyeing and finishing, high-temperature and high-pressure dyeing equipment, heat setting equipment, resin finishing equipment and loose finishing equipment have been developed.

Human beings have been spinning and weaving with traditional methods for more than 6000 years. Up to now, spinning and weaving machines designed according to traditional principles are still the main equipment in the world textile industry. However, since the 1950s, some new technological methods have been created, partially replacing the traditional methods, to produce textiles with much higher efficiency, such as rotor spinning and nonwoven fabrics. New technological methods breed new textile equipment, and the maturity and promotion of new textile equipment also promote the further development of the textile industry.