| Cotton Fiber Definition : Definitions for the Clothing & Fabric Industry | |||
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Cotton Fiber Directory Organic Cotton Definition Cotton Prices Cotton Tapes Cotton Picture Benefits of Cotton Fiber Directory Fabric Directory Definition List Fashion Industry News Fashion News Articles Cotton News | |||
Cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant . The fibre is most often spun into thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Cotton is a valuable crop because only about 10% of the raw weight is lost in processing. Once traces of wax, protein, etc. are removed, the remainder is a natural polymer of pure cellulose. This cellulose is arranged in a way that gives cotton unique properties of strength, durability, and absorbency. Each fibre is made up of twenty to thirty layers of cellulose coiled in a neat series of natural springs. When the cotton boll (seed case) is opened the fibres dry into flat, twisted, ribbon-like shapes and become kinked together and interlocked. This interlocked form is ideal for spinning into a fine yarn. History Cotton has been used to make very fine lightweight cloth in areas with tropical climates for millennia. Some authorities claim that it was likely that the Egyptians had cotton as early as 12,000 BC, and they have found evidence of cotton in Mexican caves (cotton cloth and fragments of fibre interwoven with feathers and fur) which dated back to approximately 7,000 years ago. There is archaeological evidence that people in South America and India domesticated independently different species of the cotton plant thousands of years ago. The earliest written reference is to Indian cotton. Cotton has been grown in India for more than three thousand years, and it is referred to in the Rig-Veda, written in 1500 BC. A thousand years later the great Greek historian Herodotus wrote about Indian cotton: "There are trees which grow wild there, the fruit of which is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep. The Indians make their clothes of this tree wool."
By the end of the 16th century
BC, cotton had spread to
warmer regions in Americas,
Africa and Eurasia.
The Indian cotton industry was eclipsed during the British Industrial Revolution, when the invention of the Spinning Jenny (1764) and Arkwright's spinning frame (1769) enabled cheap mass-production in the UK. Production capacity was further improved by the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793. Production
Today cotton is produced
in many parts of the world,
including Europe, Asia,
Africa, the Americas and
Australia, using cotton
plants that have been selectively
bred so that each plant
grows more fibre. In 2002,
cotton was grown on 330,000
km of farmland. 47 billion
pounds (21 million t) of
raw cotton worth 20 billion
dollars US was grown that
year.
The cotton industry relies heavily on chemicals such as fertilisers and insecticides, although some farmers are moving towards an organic model of production, and chemical-free organic cotton products are now available. Historically, one of the most economically destructive pests in cotton production has been the boll weevil. Most cotton is harvested mechanically, either by a cotton picker, a machine that removes the cotton from the boll without damaging the cotton plant, or by a cotton stripper which strips the entire boll off the plant. Cotton strippers are generally used in regions where it is too windy to grow picker varieties of cotton and generally used after application of a defoliant or natural defoliation occurring after a freeze. Cotton is a perennial crop in the tropics and without defoliation or freezing, the plant will continue to grow. Cotton is a close relative of okra and hibiscus. The logistics of cotton harvesting and processing have been improved by the development of the cotton module builder, a machine that compresses harvested cotton into a large block, which is then covered with a tarp and temporarily stored at the edge of the field. Uses
In addition
to the textile
industry,
cotton is
used in
fishnets,
coffee filters,
tents and
in bookbinding.
The first
Chinese
paper was
made of
cotton fiber,
as is the
modern US
dollar bill
and federal
stationery.
Fire hoses
were once
made of
cotton.
Denim, a type of durable cloth, is made mostly of cotton, as are T-shirts. The cottonseed which remains after the cotton is ginned is used to produce cottonseed oil, which after refining can be consumed by humans like any other vegetable oil. The cottonseed meal that is left is generally fed to livestock. | |||
Genetically modified cotton
GM cotton was developed
to reduce the heavy reliance
on pesticides. GM cotton
is widely used throughout
the world with claims of
requiring up to 80% less
pesticide than ordinary
cotton. The
International Service for
the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech
Applications (ISAAA)
said that worldwide GM cotton
was planted on an area of
67,000 km
in 2002. This is 20% of the worldwide total area planted in cotton. The US cotton crop was 73% GM in 2003. The introduction of GM cotton proved to be a commercial disaster in Australia - the yields were far lower than predicted, and the cotton plants cross-pollinated with other varieties of cotton potentially causing many legal problems for unsuspecting farmers. However the introduction of a second variety of GM cotton led to 15% of Australian cotton being GM in 2003 with an expectation of 80% in 2004 when the original variety will be banned Organic cotton
Organic cotton is cotton
grown without pesticides
or chemical additives to
fertilizer, relying instead
on
methods with less ecological
impact
(
http://www.sustainablecotton.org/BASIC/index.html
). Organic
cotton is used to manufacture
everything from handkerchiefs
to kimono robes. Different
levels of
certification
(
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm
) exist,
but at a minimum, a crop
must be grown in soil that
has been chemical-free for
at least three years.
Cotton Processing
After
cultivation,
cotton is harvested
at the farm, and goes through
multiple processes.
Before processing, there
are 3 stages:
After weaving, cotton typically fabric passes through several processing stages. After some stages the fabric can be directly used in the final product, for example unbleached cloth is used in grain bags. Typical stages are:
Old British cotton yarn measures
Fair trade Cotton is an enormously important commodity throughout the world. However, many farmers in developing countries receive a low price for their produce, or find it difficult to compete with developed countries. This has led to 'fair trade' cotton clothing being available in some countries.
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