Cotton
Textiles Project
History of Cotton
Cotton can be tracked back to a far as 4500 BCE. Cotton was first spun by machinery in England in 1730. Eli Whitney secured a patent on the cotton gin in 1793. Whitney's invention of the cotton gin made it possible to supply large quantities of cotton fiber to the fast-growing textile industry. Within 10 years, the value of the U.S. cotton crop rose from $150,000 to more than $8 million. Today, the world uses more cotton than any other fiber, and cotton is the leading cash crop in the U.S.
Characteristics
The bales are opened by machines, and the lint is mixed and cleaned further by blowing and beating. The cotton goes into a carding machine which cleans the fibers some more and makes lie side by side. The combing action of the carding machine finishes the job of cleaning the fibers, and makes them into a soft, untwisted rope called a silver. Cotton weighs about nothing, but a bale of cotton weighs about 500 pounds. Cotton is really soft and light in weight.
A bale of cotton
Weighs about 500 pounds
Eli Whitney
Invented the cotton gin
Cotton
A cotton field
Uses
Cotton is used in many different clothing that people all around the world wear today. Cotton is also used fro industrial purposes such as, tents, hotel sheets, tarpaulins and army uniforms. Cotton an be woven of knitted into fabrics such as, flannel and velvet. Cotton is also used in fishnets, coffee filters and towels. Clothing an household items are the largest uses, but industrial products account from many thousands of bales.
Interesting Facts about cotton
Cotton grows in warm climates. Most of the worlds cotton grows in the U.S. Uzbekistan, the People's Republic of China and India. Other leading cotton-growing countries are, Brazil, Pakistan and Turkey. Cotton is hypoallergenic since it does not irritate sensitive skin or cause allergies.