Short answers, pulled from the story.
Spinning is a twisting technique used to form yarn from fibers. The fiber is drawn out, twisted, and wound onto a bobbin. In ring spinning, one of the most common methods, a traveller rotating on a ring is dragged by the yarn itself, and the difference in speed between the traveller and the spindle is what inserts the twist.
The oldest known twisted fiber was found in southern France and is believed to date to around 50,000-40,000 BCE. Archaeologists consider it evidence that fiber-twisting originated in multiple cultures around the world long before the common era.
Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule in 1779. It produces a softer, less twisted thread than ring spinning, making it favored for fine fabrics and for weft.
Mule spinning is an intermittent process descended from Crompton's 1779 device; it produces finer, softer, less twisted thread suited for weft. Ring spinning, descended from the Arkwright water frame of 1769, is a continuous process that creates coarser, stronger, more tightly twisted yarn better suited for warp.
The spinning jenny and spinning mule, invented in the late 1700s, made mechanical spinning far more efficient than hand methods and made cotton manufacturing one of the most important industries of the Industrial Revolution. Production concentrated in areas with water, raw materials, and labor, particularly West Yorkshire, and the British government restricted export of the technology to protect its industrial advantage.
Natural fibers come from animals (sheep, goat, rabbit, silkworm), minerals (asbestos, gold, silver), or plants (cotton, flax, sisal, hemp, jute). Artificial fibers such as rayon, acetate, nylon, and polyester are made by extruding a polymer through a spinneret; wet spinning produces rayon, dry spinning produces acetate and triacetate, and melt spinning produces nylons and polyesters.