Cotton

Cotton plant (Gossypium) is a genus of dicotyledonous plants from the mallow family, with large yellow, later purple flowers and capsules. The highest quality cotton comes from the furry cotton plant, which is cultivated as an annual or sometimes as a biennial shrub. This shrub reaches a height of 1.5 – 3 m. Capsules grow on the shrub, inside which there are seeds from which cotton fibers grow.

The capsule reaches the size of a walnut. After ripening, the capsule cracks open and releases tufts of cotton, which are collected by hand or with the help of combines. After ripening, seeds must be removed from the cotton. Then the fibers are sorted by their length. Very short fibers are used in coarser yarns, paper, or as a raw material for regenerated silk.

Cotton is one of the most important and oldest textile materials. The Chinese knew the cotton plant as early as 2500 BC. However, the country from which the cotton plant spread to the world is probably India. Sometime in the 16th century, Arabs brought it to Sicily and the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The Spaniards later brought it to Mexico. Initially, cotton was used only for the clothes of wealthy Aztecs. In wartime, quilted fabric was made from cotton, which fascinated the Spaniards. They replaced uncomfortable chain mail shirts with it, as the strong fabric even better caught arrows.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Aztec merchants began exporting cotton fabrics to the states of North America, and the cultivation of the cotton plant itself reached what is now the United States in the seventeenth century from the British Antilles. The European textile market was dominated for a long time by wool and flax. In 1764, a spinning machine was invented in England, which started the rise of cotton as competition to wool in the local market. In 1785, the first mechanical workshop for the production of cotton fabrics was established. By the beginning of the 20th century, cotton accounted for 80% of all fabrics used in the world. Today, it represents 50% of all fabrics, with wool making up only 4% of the global textile market.

Cotton is a seed-origin fiber. After flowering, the cotton plant produces fruits - capsules, which reach the size of a walnut. The capsule contains seeds covered with fine fluff - cotton fibers. During ripening, the capsules crack and release tufts of cotton, which are collected by hand or with the help of combines. After harvesting, the fibers are separated from the seeds by ginning machines. Then they are sorted by the length of the obtained fibers. Very short fibers are used in coarser yarns, paper, or as a raw material for regenerated silk. The color of the fibers is usually white but can have a yellow, pink, brown, or other hue.