History of Natural Fibers

Abstract Nature, as though aware of the importance of textiles, has long provided an abundance of fibers—plant, animal, and mineral—of different dimensions and properties. Beginning in prehistory, the natural fibers have served man's textile needs for thousands of years. The Swiss Lake Dwellers in 8000 BC cultivated flax and wove linen into fabrics. By 3000 to 2000 BC, the use of fibers was well developed, and the weaving of cotton was well established in India and Pakistan. Improvements in machines for spinning, weaving, etc., beginning in the 1700s, revolutionized the processing of fibers. Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793 helped cotton become king of the fibers. In recent decades the textile industry was revolutionized again by many technological developments, including the creation of synthetic and modification of natural fibers. Today the world and United States fiber markets are dominated by the natural and man-made fibers, respectively. In spite of gains by the man-made fibers, both the world and United States production of cotton increased during the decade of the seventies.