Historic, Archive Document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. LIBRARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE C/^ss --SOA Book M l X TEXTILES AND CLOTHING THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO TEXTILES AXD CLOTHIXG BY ELLEX BEERS >McGO WAX. B.S. IXSTEUCTOR IX HOUSEHOLD ARTS TEACHERS COLLEGE. COLUMBIA U>aVERSITY AXD CHARLOTTE A. WAITE. M.A. HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF DOMESTIC ART JULIA RICHMAX HIGH SCHOOL, KEW YORK CITY THE MACMILLAX COMPAXY 1919 All righU, reserved Copyright, 1919, By the MACMILLAN company. Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1919. J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. ; 155688 PREFACE This book has been written primarily to meet a need arising from the introduction of the study of textiles into the curriculum of the high school. The aim has been, there- fore, to present the subject matter in a form sufficiently simple and interesting to be grasped readily by the high school student, without sacrificing essential facts. It has not seemed desirable to explain in detail the mechanism of the various machines used in modern textile industries, but rather to show the student that the fundamental principles of textile manufacture found in the simple machines of primitive times are unchanged in the highl}^ developed and complicated machinerj^ of to-day. Minor emphasis has been given to certain necessarily technical paragraphs by printing these in type of a smaller size than that used for the body of the text. The authors emphasize the finished products and their relation to the household. Chapters have been introduced on the purchase, testing and economical use of textile ma- terial, with the hope of pointing the way to a concrete and practical application of the study of textiles. The woman of to-day can no longer afford to be untrained in this respect, and because of present economic conditions a definite obliga- tion is laid upon her to understand the nature and real worth of clothing material and house furnishings, in order to buy with judgment and economy. The girl in high school has the opportunity to acquire this knowledge, which will function in her later life. We are gradually breaking away from the formal teaching of sewing as an isolated subject vi PREFACE the relation of sewing to textiles and clothing is now em- phasized from the economic and social side, as well as the practical. It is hoped that the student may be encouraged to col- lect samples of representative materials and mount them either in a book or on filing cards prepared for the purpose. These samples should be classij&ed and made of service by the addition of adequate data. Although, as has been said, this book is designed prin- cipally to meet the needs of high school students, and through them, of homemakers, it may be of service to salespeople and teachers looking for reference material on textiles for their students. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Textile Fibers Source and Composition of Textile Fibers, 2 — Classifica- tion, 4 — General Characteristics, 4 — Microscopic Appear- ance, 6 — Minor Vegetable Fibers 11. CHAPTER II Spinning and Weaving .... ... A. Early Methods of Spinning and Weaving. Early Methods of Spinning, 15 — Early Methods of Weaving, 22. B. The Industrial Revolution. Its Place in History, 30 — The Great Inventions, 31 — The Textile Industry in the United States, 36 — Results of the Factory System, 36. C. Present Methods of Spinning and Weaving. Modern Spinning Frames, 38 — Modern Weaving, 39. CHAPTER III Structure of Fabrics A. Woven Fabrics. Structural Design, 46 — Surface Design, 53. B. Knitted Fabrics. History of Knitting, 56 — Knitting Machinery, 56 — Growth of Knitting Industry, 57 — Knitted Products, 57. CHAPTER IV Cotton . Origin of Cotton, 60 — The Cotton Plant, 60 — Classifi- cation of Cotton, 62 — Countries raising Cotton, 64 — Culti- vation of Cotton, 64 — Marketing of Cotton, 72 — Manu- facture, 73 — Finishing Processes, 76 — Finished Products, 80 — Table of Materials, 92-99. VUl TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER V PAGE Flax 100 History and Antiquity of Linen, 101 — Cultivation, 101 — Processes of Separating Fiber, 104 — Further Cleaning Processes, 109 — Manufacture, 111 — Finishing, 112 — Countries Producing Flax, 114 — Finished Product, 116 — Table of Materials, 120-121. CHAPTER VI Wool 123 Animals Furnishing Wool, 124 — Countries Producing Wool, 126 — Production of Wool, 127 — Treatment in Fac- tory, 129 — Distinction between Woolens and Worsted, 133 — Preparation of Yarn, 133 — Finishing Processes, 136 — Use of Wool Substitutes, 139 — Finished Products, 141 — Table of Materials, 148-153. CHAPTER VII Silk 152 A. Natural Silk. Early History of Silk Culture, 155 — Present Status, 157 — Life of the Silkworm, 157 — Wild Silks, 159 — Raw Silk, 161 — Processes of Manufacture, 164 — Waste Silk, 171 — Finished Products, 172. B. Artificial Silk. Varieties of Artificial Silk, 175 — Properties, 176 — Uses, 176 — Production, 176 — Other Silk Substitutes, 176 — Table of Materials, 178-183. CHAPTER VIII Textile Testing . .181 Why Textile Testing is Necessary, 184 — Nature of Tests, 186 — Recording the Tests, 186 — Analysis of Fabrics, 183 — Removal of Dressing, 198 — Weighting of Silk, 200 — Fastness of Dye, 201 — Shrinkage, 202. CHAPTER IX Care and Repair of Clothing 205 Value of Care for Clothing, 205 — Care of Clothing a Duty, 206 — General Care of Clothing, 206 — Special Care of Clothing, 211 — Remodehng and Other Economies, 221. TABLE OF CONTENTS ix CHAPTER X PAGE Economics and Hygiene of Clothing 226 A. Economics. Guidance in Dress, 227 — The Cost of Clothing, 232 — Ready-made and Home-made Garments, 233 — Economics of Textile Production, 235 — The Con- sumer's Relation to the Producer, 235 — Ethics of Shopping, 239 — Bad Shopping Habits, 239 — Good Shopping Habits, 243. B. Hygiene of Dress. Importance of Dress Hygiene, 244 — Clothing and Body Heat, 244 — Clothing and Perspi- ration, 249 — Clothing and a Clean Body, 249 — Clothing and an Unrestricted Body, 250. Bibliography 253 Glossary 255 Index 261 TEXTILES AND CLOTHING CHAPTER I THE TEXTILE FIBERS Source and composition of textile fibers Vegetable fibers Animal fibers Classification Vegetable fibers Animal fibers Mineral and artificial fibers General characteristics Microscopic appearance Cotton Mercerized cotton Flax Wool and hair Regenerated wool Silk Wild or Tussah silk Artificial silk Minor vegetable fibers Jute Hemp Ramie Pineappla Coir Kapok If we look about us at the many kinds of fabrics used in our homes and for our clothing, or if we think of the infinite B 1 2 TEXTILES AND CLOTHING variety of textile goods to which most of the space in our great department stores is given, we wonder where so much material comes from. Certainly these hundreds of products must mean many sources. How surprising it is to discover that, in the main, only four groups of living things — the cotton and flax, the sheep and the silkworm — supply the world yearly with its textile materials. What wonderful ingenuity man has shown in manufacturing from these few sources fabrics simple and elaborate, cheap and priceless — from six-cent cheesecloth to Gobelin tapestries and the rugs from Eastern looms ! To trace the steps which convert textile fibers into fabrics is a study full of interest. Source and composition of textile fibers. — Let us begin our study with the fibers, those tiny products of plant or animal life which are the basis of spun and woven material. Vegetable fibers. — The principal fiber plants are cotton and flax. Cotton is the fiber of almost universal utility and enters into nine-tenths of the textile material of everyday use. Flax is the fiber of luxury. It is called linen when made into the thread or fabric. Cotton pnd flax fibers are quite dissimilar in manner of growth and appearance. The cotton plant is a bush}^ shrub. Its seeds are inclosed in round pods or bolls. Each seed is covered with white or creamy hairs which grow from its outer coat. These are the cotton fibers. When the time comes for the bolls to burst open, the ripe cotton looks Uke masses of snow among the green leaves. Those fibers which, like cotton, grow from the skin covering of seeds are called seed hairs. Flax is not a seed hair, but a part of the stem of the flax plant. Flax seeds Are sown thickly, in order that the plants may grow too closely for branching. This gives a long, straight stem and fibers to correspond. A branching shrub, like cotton, would not yield long fibers. The flax fibers THE TEXTILE FIBERS 3 are found just under the bark of the stem, and are as long as the height of the plant will allow. The flax fiber is made up of a series of tiny cells, while the cotton fiber is composed of a single cell. In composition, cotton is a pure form of cellulose, a sub- stance composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, belong- FTom Brooks' Cotton, Courtesy American School of Correspondence Fig. 1. — Cotton on the Seed, ing to the group of compounds in which starches and wood are found. Flax is not naturally so pure. The stem of the flax plant contains woody tissue or lignoceUulose, and the fiber must be separated from this b}^ many processes. In its purified form, as fine or hnen, it is chemically the same as cotton. Animal fibers. — The fleece of sheep and goats furnishes wool and hair fibers, and through the spinnerets of the silk- worm is produced the long, lustrous silk filament. Since : 4 TEXTILES AND CLOTHING these are of animal origin, they contain nitrogen, an element common to animal bodies, in addition to the elements found in cotton and linen.