Interesting facts about cotton
1. Cotton is a completely natural fabric. It is a soft, fluffy staple fiber (elementary textile fiber of limited length). The term "cotton" refers to that plant fiber that coats the seeds of the Cotton plant, the Malvaceae family. After collecting this fiber, yarn is made from it, from which a soft and durable fabric is made later. Thus, cotton is a completely natural fabric, like silk and wool.
2. Cotton has a fairly long growing season, about 200 days. The plant needs a relatively high temperature during the long growing season, as temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius slow down growth, especially during the flowering and seed pod formation phase.
3. The first known use of this fiber dates back to ancient times, as early as 6000 BC. Archaeologists have discovered fragments of cotton fabrics belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization in India and Pakistan dating back to 3000 BC. They also found products made from this fiber at the sites of the first civilizations in the Andes, dating back to 6000 BC.
4. It comes in different varieties and each has its own characteristics. There are 50 different natural types of cotton, but only a few are widely used in the industry. These grades have fiber lengths and oil levels that justify large-scale cultivation and processing.
- The most popular cotton varieties include:
- Pima Variety, growing in South America and in the southwest of America. Pima is one of the best varieties due to its very soft fibers. The textile material created from this variety is quite thin, light and pleasant to the body.
- Egyptian cotton, very similar to Pima, but grown in the Nile River valley. It is considered by many to be the best variety because of its softness, length and strength of the fibers, and because it is hand-picked so there is less strain on these fibers. In addition, a longer fiber means a stronger fabric. Therefore, Egyptian cotton is often used to create quality sheets, etc.
- In third place is Upland cotton, which is characterized by very short fibers. This variety accounts for about 90% of the total world production.
And, of course, let’s not forget about “Bavovna” variety that became popular during the russian war against Ukraine in 2022. It is currently a popular meme that is used to describe explosions caused by Ukraine Military Forces against russian troops/weapons/bases in temporarily occupied territories. The matter is that the russian propaganda forbids its mass media to admit any explosions and they have to name them “bangs” or “claps”. When trying to translate from russian to Ukrainian in order to spread disinformation on our (Ukrainian) territory, these “clever” guys got it automatically translated as the word “cotton” in Ukrainian, i.e. “bavovna”.
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Bang sounds like “khlopOk” in russian, and cotton sounds like “khlOpok” – different emphasis, but the same spelling in russian. So, they happened to spread info about “cotton/bavovna” instead of bangs because of the automatic translation… And now we are enjoying news about Bavovna cotton variety on the territory that is hopefully to be Ukrainian again soon.
5. It is one of the top five soft goods. The top five soft commodities (the term usually refers to commodities that are grown rather than mined), in terms of annual consumption, are cocoa, coffee, wheat, sugar and cotton.
6. Its tiny seeds appeared thousands of years ago, but in the modern era have become a staple of textile production. It currently accounts for about 40% of the clothing produced worldwide. This material gained such popularity due to its properties of absorption, softness, strength and ease of care. In addition, the natural fiber is hypoallergenic, so people with sensitive skin can wear clothes made from this fiber.
7. Another unique use of cotton is the manufacture of banknotes. Most of us think that money is made of paper. But it's not. If banknotes were made of paper, you would not be able to use them after getting even a small amount of water on them. And after a few folds, plain paper would have torn long ago.
In most countries of the world, cotton paper is used to make banknotes. For example, in the United States, a mixture of 75% cotton and 25% linen is used to make dollars.
8. Generally, most types of fibers become weaker when wet. But this rule does not apply to cotton. When wet, on the contrary, it becomes stronger. This is because the hydrogen atoms in the water form additional bonds with the cellulose atoms present in the cotton. Theoretically, when it is wet, it becomes 10-20% stronger than when it is dry.
9. It is highly recyclable. Recycled cotton is obtained from textile waste, used clothing or leftover yarn from a garment factory. But it is worth noting that recycled cotton is not as durable as new.
After processing, it is most often used to create wiping materials, polishing cloths, etc. In addition, it is used to produce high quality paper.
But even if it is not processed, then there is nothing to worry about. It is a fully biodegradable material that does not harm the environment.
10. The largest producers of this fiber are India, the United States of America, China, Brazil and Pakistan.
11. Many developed countries such as the USA, Australia and some European countries use automatic cotton picking machines. There are two types of cotton pickers: cotton picker and cotton gin.
But unfortunately, developing countries around the world do not have such equipment and use workers to pick cotton manually.
12. Unlike synthetic fibers, it does not release any harmful chemicals into the environment when burned.
Cotton is ubiquitous in everyday life, starting from the sheets on your bed and the towels you use after your morning shower, up to the fabric of your underwear, jeans and your favorite T-shirt. But what do we know about cotton? Where does it come from? How long has a person been using this material and what are its main areas of application.
And today we decided to take a closer look at this fiber of plant origin. We have prepared the most interesting facts about cotton in this article.
