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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.
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 BritishThe word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK): i. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 1927), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ( 1801- 1927) or the United Kingdom of Great Britain ( 1707- 1801). Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution is the name given to the massive social, economic, and technological change in 18th century and 19th century Great Britain. It commenced with the introduction of steam power (fuelled primarily by coal) and powered, automated mach, when the invention of the Spinning JennyThe spinning jenny is a multi-spool spinning wheel, invented by James Hargreaves in Standhill, near Blackburn, circa 1764. The device dramatically reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a single worker able to work eight or more spools at ( 1764Events January 19 John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons for seditious libel February 15 The American city of St. Louis is established. Births February 11 Joseph Chenier, French poet (+ 1811) March 13 Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister) and Arkwright's spinning frame ( 1769Events Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen exhibits the " Mechanical Turk", a chess-playing machine May 14 Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlem) enabled cheap mass-production in the UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly. Production capacity was further improved by the invention of the cotton ginThe Cotton gin is a machine invented in 1793 purportedly by American Eli Whitney (granted a patent on March 14, 1794) to mechanize the production of cotton fiber. The machine quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seedpods and the sometim by Eli WhitneyEli Whitney ( December 8, 1765 January 8, 1825) was an American inventor and manufacturer who is credited with creating the first cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin was a mechanical device which removed the seeds from cotton, which until that time was ext in 1793.
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