Cotton | Can’t Sleep? Learn About The Fabric Of Civilization

Cotton has been grown, spun, and woven for thousands of years. This episode explores how cotton plants are cultivated, how their fibers are turned into textiles, and the long history of cotton production around the world. Along the way, you’ll hear about different varieties of cotton, methods of harvesting and processing it, and how this simple plant became one of the world’s most important natural fibers.
It’s steady and consistent, with no whispering and no sudden changes, just enough to give your mind something to follow as you wind down. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, Where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster, And today's episode is about cotton. Cotton, From Arabic Qudn, Is a soft, Fluffy staple fiber that grows in a bowl, Or protective case, Around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Cacipium and the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose and may contain minor percentages of waxes, Fats, Pectins, And water. Under natural conditions, Cotton bulls facilitate the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, Including the Americas, Africa, Including Egypt, And India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, Followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the old and new worlds. The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, Breathable and durable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times. The presence of Gossypium barbaridensi has been identified at a site in Nanchock, District, Peru, And dated to the 7th to 6th millennia BC, While indigo-blue dyed textile fragments dated to the 4th to 3rd millennia BC, Having been found at Huaca Prieta in Peru. Fragments of a cotton thread used to connect a string of eight copper beads, And dated to the 6th millennium BC, Have been found in Mehrgarh, Khachi, Pakistan. Although cultivated since antiquity, It was the invention of the cotton gin that lowered the cost of production and led to its widespread use. And it is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in clothing today. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tons, Or 110 million bales annually, Accounting for 2. 5% of the world's arable land. India is the world's largest producer of cotton. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years. There are four commercially grown species of cotton, All domesticated in antiquity. Cassipium hirsutum, Upland cotton, Native to Central America, Mexico, The Caribbean, And southern Florida, 90% of world production. Gossypium barbardensi, Known as extra-long staple cotton, Native to tropical South America. Over 5% of world production. Gossypium arboreum, Tree cotton, Native to India and Pakistan, Less than 2%. Gossypium herbaceum, Leavened cotton, Native to southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Less than 2%. Hybrid varieties are also cultivated. The two New World cotton species account for the vast majority of modern cotton production. But the two Old World species were widely used before the 1900s. While cotton fibers occur naturally in colors of white, Brown, Pink, And green, Fears of contaminating the genetics of white cotton have led many cotton growing locations to ban the growing of colored cotton varieties. The word cotton has Arabic origins, Derived from the Arabic word qutun or qutun, Which is ultimately derived from the Hebrew qutanad, Ironically meaning a clothing made of linen. This was the usual word for cotton in the medieval Arabic. Marco Polo, In chapter 2 in his book, Describes a province he calls Khotan in Turkestan, Today's Xinjiang, Where cotton was grown in abundance. The word entered the Romance languages in the mid-12th century, And English a century later. Cotton fabric was known to the ancient Romans as an import. But cotton was rare in the Roman speaking lands until imports from the Arabic speaking lands in the later medieval era had transformatively lowered prices. The presence of the indigenous species Cacipium barbadensi has been identified at a site in Nanchocht District, Peru, And dated to the 7th to 6th millennia BC, While indigo-blue dyed textile fragments dated to the 4th to 3rd century BC having been found at Huaca Prieta, Peru. Cultivation of the indigenous cotton species G. Barbadensi from a find in Ancon, Peru, Has been dated to circa 4200 BC, And was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the Norte Chico, Moche, And Nazca. Cotton was grown upriver, Made into nets, And traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it. Cotton bulls from in a cave near Tihuacan, Mexico have been dated to as early as 5500 BC. The domestication of Cassipium hirsutum in Mexico is dated to between around 3400 and 2300 BC. During this time, People between the Rio Santiago and the Rio Balsas grew, Spun, Wove, Dyed, And sewed cotton. What they did not use themselves, They sent to their Aztec rulers as tribute, On the scale of roughly 116 million pounds annually. The earliest evidence of the use of cotton in the old world, In the form of a few fibers of mineralized cotton thread, Was found in a string of eight copper beads at the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh, At the foot of the Bolan Pass, Balochistan, Pakistan. Fragments of cotton textiles and spindle whorls dated to the 3rd millennium BCE have also been found at Mohenjo-Daro in Sindh, Pakistan, And other sites of the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization, Which is likely site for the first cultivation of Gasypium arboreum, And cotton may have been an important export from it. Micro remains of cotton fibers, Some dyed, Have been found at Tel Tsov in the Jordan Valley, Dated 5200 BCE. They may be the remnants of ancient clothing, Fabric containers, Or cordage. Research suggests the cotton might come from wild species in South Asia and traded with the Indus Valley civilization. In Iran, Persia, The history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era, 5th century BC. However, There are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. Cotton cultivation was common in myrv, Ray, And pars. In Persian poems, Especially Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, There are references to cotton, Pombe, And Persian. Marco Polo, 13th century, Refers to the major products of Persia, Including cotton. John Chardin, A French traveler of the 17th century who visited Safavid Persia, Spoke approvingly of the vast cotton farms of Persia. The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the wars of Alexander the Great, As his contemporary Megasthenes told Seleucus I Nicator of there being trees on which wool grows in Indica. This may be a reference to tree cotton, Cassipium arborium, Which is native to the Indian subcontinent. Cotton, Cassipium herbaceum lineus, May have been domesticated 5000 BC in eastern Sudan, Near the middle Nile basin region, Where cotton cloth was being produced. Around the 4th century BC, The cultivation of cotton, And the knowledge of its spinning and weaving and marrowy, Reached a high level. The export of textiles was one of the sources of wealth for Meroe. Ancient Nubia had a culture of cotton of sorts, Evidenced by physical evidence of cotton processing tools, And the presence of cattle in certain areas. Some researchers propose that cotton was important to the Nubian economy for its use in contact with the neighboring Egyptians. Aksumite King Izana boasted in his inscription that he destroyed large cotton plantations in Meroe during his conquest of the region. During the Han Dynasty, 207 BC to 220 AD, Cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Egyptians grew and spun cotton in the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Hand-held roller cotton gins had been used in India since the 6th century and was then introduced to other countries from there. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, Dual roller jinns appeared in India and China. The Indian version of the dual roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the 16th century. This mechanical device was, In some areas, Driven by water power. The earliest clear illustrations of the spinning wheel come from the Islamic world in the 11th century. The earliest unambiguous reference to a spinning wheel in India is dated to 1350, Suggesting that the spinning wheel was likely introduced from Iran to India during the Delhi Sultanate. During the late medieval period, Cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, Without any knowledge of how it was derived, Other than it was a plant. Because Herodotus had written in his Histories, Book 3, 106, That in India trees grew in the wild producing wool, It was assumed that the plant was a tree rather than a shrub. This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in several Germanic languages, Such as German Baumwolle, Which translates as tree wool. Baum means tree. Wolle means wool. Noting its similarities to wool, People in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville, Writing in 1350, Stated as fact that there grew there India, A wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the ends of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry. Cotton manufacture was introduced to Europe during the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily. The knowledge of cotton weaving was spread to northern Italy in the 12th century, When Sicily was conquered by the Normans, And consequently to the rest of Europe. The spinning wheel introduced to Europe circa 1350 improved the speed of cotton spinning. By the 15th century, Venice, Antwerp, And Harlem were important ports for cotton trade, And the sale and transportation of cotton fabrics had become very profitable. Under the Mughal Empire, Which ruled in the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th century to the early 18th century, Indian cotton production increased in terms of both raw cotton and cotton textiles. The Mughals introduced agrarian reforms, Such as a new revenue system that was biased in favor of higher-value cash crops, Such as cotton and indigo, Providing state incentives to grow cash crops in addition to rising market demand. The worm gear roller cotton gin, Which was invented in India during the early Delhi Sultanate era of the 13th to 14th centuries, Came into use in the Mughal Empire sometime around the 16th century, And is still used in India through to the present day. Another innovation, The incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin, First appeared in India sometime during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire. The production of cotton, Which may have largely been spun in the villages and then taken to the towns in the form of yarn to be woven into cloth textiles, Was advanced by the diffusion of the spinning wheel across India shortly before the Mughal era, Lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The diffusion of the spinning wheel and the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during the Mughal era. The advent of the Industrial Revolution in Britain provided a great boost to cotton manufacture, As textiles emerged as Britain's leading export. In 1738, Lewis Paul and John Wyatt of Birmingham, England, Patented the roller spinning machine, As well as the flyer and bobbin system, For drawing cotton to a more even thickness, Using two sets of rollers that traveled at different speeds. Later, The invention of the James Hargreaves spinning jenny in 1764, Richard Arkwright's spinning frame in 1769, And Samuel Crompton's spinning mule in 1775, Enabled British spinners to produce cotton yarn at much higher rates. From the late 18th century on, The British city of Manchester acquired the nickname Cottonopolis, Due to the cotton industry's omnipresence within the city, And Manchester's role as the heart of the global cotton trade. Production capacity in Britain and the United States was improved by the invention of the modern cotton gin by the American Eli Whitney in 1793. Before the development of cotton gins, The cotton fibers had to be pulled from the seeds tediously by hand. By the late 1700s, A number of crude ginning machines had been developed. Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long frost-free period, Plenty of sunshine, And a moderate rainfall, Usually from 50 to 100 centimeters or 19. 5 to 39. 5 inches. Soils usually need to be fairly heavy, Although the level of nutrients does not need to be exceptional. In general, These conditions are met within the seasonally dry tropics and subtropics in the northern and southern hemispheres. But a large proportion of the cotton grown today is cultivated in the areas with less rainfall that obtain the water from irrigation. Production of the crop from a given year usually starts soon after harvesting the preceding autumn. Cotton is naturally a perennial, But is grown as an annual to help control pests. Planting times in spring in the Northern Hemisphere varies from the beginning of February to the beginning of June. The area of the United States, Known as the South Plains, Is the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world. While dry land non-irrigated cotton is successfully grown in this region, Consistent yields are only produced with heavy reliance on irrigation water drawn from the Ogallala Aquifer. Since cotton is somewhat salt and drought tolerant, This makes it an attractive crop for arid and semi-arid regions. As water resources get tighter around the world, Economies that rely on it face difficulties and conflict, As well as potential environmental problems. Cotton has Gossypil, A toxin that makes it inedible. However, Scientists have silenced the gene that produces the toxin, Making it a potential food crop. The era of manufactured fibers began with the development of rayon in France in the 1890s. Rayon is derived from a natural cellulose and cannot be considered synthetic, But requires extensive processing in a manufacturing process and led the less expensive replacement of more naturally derived materials. A succession of new synthetic fibers were introduced by the chemicals industry in the following decades. Acetate in fiber form was developed in 1924. Nylon, The first fiber synthesized entirely from petrochemicals, Was introduced as a sewing thread by DuPont in 1936, Followed by DuPont's acrylic in 1944. Some garments were created from fabrics based on these fibers, Such as women's hosiery from nylon, But it was not until the introduction of polyester into the fiber marketplace in the early 1950s that the market for cotton came under threat. Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include terry cloth for highly absorbent bath towels and robes, Denim for blue jeans, Cambric, Popularly used in the manufacture of blue work shirts, From which the term blue collar is derived, And corduroy, Seersucker, And cotton twill. Socks, Underwear, And most t-shirts are made from cotton. Bedsheets often are made from cotton. It is a preferred material for sheets as it is hypoallergenic, Easy to maintain, And non-irritant to the skin. Cotton is also used to make yarn used in crochet and knitting. Fabric can also be made from recycled or recovered cotton that otherwise would be thrown away during the spinning, Weaving, Or cutting process. While many fabrics are made completely of cotton, Some materials blend cotton with other fibers, Including rayon and synthetic fibers such as polyester. It can either be used in knitted or woven fabrics, As it can be blended with elastine to make a stretchier thread for knitted fabrics, And apparel such as stretch jeans. Cotton can be blended also with linen producing fabrics, With the benefits of both materials. Linen-cotton blends are wrinkle-resistant and retain heat more effectively than only linen, And are thinner, Stronger, And lighter than only cotton. In addition to the textile industry, Cotton is used in fishing nets, Coffee filters, Tents, Explosive manufacture, Cotton paper, And in bookbinding. Fire hoses were once made of cotton. Cotton linters are fine, Silky fibers which adhere to the seeds of the cotton plant after ginning. These curly fibers typically are less than an eighth of an inch, Or 3. 2 millimeters long. The term also may apply to the longer textile fiber staple and as well as the shorter fuzzy fibers from some upland species. Linters are traditionally used in the manufacture of paper and as a raw material in the manufacture of cellulose. In the UK, Linters are referred to as cotton wool. A less technical use of the term cotton wool in the UK and Ireland is for the refined product known as absorbent cotton, Or often just cotton in the US. Usage, Fluffy cotton and sheets or balls used for medical, Cosmetic, Protective packaging, And many other practical purposes. Possibly the first medical use of cotton wool was by Samson Gamgee at the Queen's Hospital, Later the General Hospital in Birmingham, England. Long staple LS cotton is cotton of a longer fiber length and therefore of higher quality, While extra long staple cotton, ELS cotton, Has longer fiber lengths still and of even higher quality. The name Egyptian cotton is broadly associated high quality cottons and is often an LS or, Less often, An ELS cotton. Nowadays the name Egyptian cotton refers more to the way cotton is treated and threads produced, Rather than the location where it is grown. The American cotton variety, Pima cotton, Is often compared to Egyptian cotton, As both are used in high-quality bedsheets and other cotton products. Not all products bearing the Pima name are made with the finest cotton. American-grown ELS Pima cotton is trademarked as Sioux Pima cotton. Kasturi Cotton is a brand building initiative for Indian long stable cotton by the Indian government. Cotton have been grown as ornamentals or novelties due to their showy flowers and snowball-like fruit. For example, Jumel's cotton, Once an important source of fiber in Egypt, Started as an ornamental. Cotton has a more complex structure among the other crops. A matured cotton fiber is a single, Elongated, Complete, Dried, Multi-layer cell that develops in the surface layer of cottonseed. It has the following parts. The cuticle is the outermost layer. It is a waxy layer that contains pectins and proteinaceous materials. The primary wall is the original thin cell wall. Primary wall is mainly cellulose. It is made up of a network of fine fibrils, Small strands of cellulose. The lumen is the hollow canal that runs the length of the fiber. It is filled with living protoplasm during the growth period. After the fiber matures and the bowl opens, The protoplast dries up and the lumen naturally collapses, Leaving a central void or pore space in each fiber. It separates the secondary wall from the lumen and appears to be more resistant to certain reagents than the secondary wall layers. Dead cotton is a term that refers to unripe cotton fibers that do not absorb dye. When cotton fibers are analyzed and assessed through a microscope, Dead fibers appear differently. Dead cotton fibers have thin cell walls. In contrast, Mature fibers have more cellulose and a greater degree of cell wall thickening.

Reviews

I heard so little about cotton I will have to listen again. Asleep in flash! Thank you Benjamin.

A fine fluffy talk..... Nice one Ben