Microtechnology, even nanotechnology, are popular buzzwords these days. Some of the schemes mustering under these banners may even be feasible. In particular, tiny machines, mass-produced from photo-etched silicon and operating piezoelectrically at kilocycle or megacycle rates under computer control, are already at a pilot stage. Daedalus reckons they are needed in the textile trade.

Weaving is a macrotechnological triumph, but only with continuous fibre. It cannot imitate that mediaeval masterpiece, chain mail. This armoured cloth was made of innumerable interlinked loops of metal wire. Each loop had to be individually threaded into place and closed into a circle by thermal forging. The metal links were hard and rigid; but the mail itself was wonderfully flexible. A silicon micro-machine could replicate this structure on the ten- or hundred-micron scale, as rapidly as a conventional loom can weave. It could be fed with normal polymeric fibre, to be chopped into short lengths, bent and melt-welded into linked loops. Fine-gauge tube, slit into rings which are then sliced open, might be even better. After threading, each ring would naturally close again under its own elasticity, ready for its two ends to be melted together. A silicon loom would have thousands of such threading and closing units in a line, each receiving its own feedstock, and linking it into the growing web.

‘Micro-chaincloth’ will transform the world of fashion. For a start, it will not be limited to a ‘warp and weft’ structure. Hexagonal or even denser weaves will be feasible, as will three dimensional ones, with several layers of links coupled in thickness. And like chain mail itself, the new cloth will be amazingly tough. It will distribute any load through innumerable linkages, each always capable of a little extra yielding. Yet for all that, micro-chaincloth will be magically soft. With no stiffness above the link scale, it will have a flattering, limpid, almost liquid drape. By the same token, it will be utterly snag-resistant. Having no continuous fibre, it cannot come unravelled; local damage cannot spread. In particular, it will never fray. The edges of a garment will no longer need to be folded over and stitched firm. The widespread worry about visible panty-lines will vanish for ever.

The further Inventions of Daedalus (Oxford University Press), 148 past Daedalus columns expanded and illustrated, is now on sale. Special Nature offer: m.curtis@nature.com