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Alex has spent a lifetime in the sewing industry and is considered one of the foremost experts of pioneering machines and their inventors. He has written extensively for trade magazines, radio, television, books and publications world wide.
Have you ever asked yourself how old is cotton?
Well let me tell you. Scientists in Mexico found pieces of cotton cloth that were at least 7,000 years old. They also found that the cotton was very similar to that grown today.
Wild Cotton Bud
The first spinning wheel was
thought to have originated in India about 500 years before Jesus was
born. from that point on cloth was available to all and reels of thread
in various forms followed.
Cotton seeds are believed to have been planted in Florida around 1556 and in Virginia in 1607.
By 1616, colonists were growing cotton along the James River in Virginia.
By the 1450's, cotton was known throughout the
world.
Much was made of the American Civil war and the part the precious resource of cotton played in it. History of sewing threads.
A Massachusetts man, Eli Whitney, secured a patent on the cotton gin in 1793. Though patent records show that the first cotton gin could have been built by Noah Homes two years before Whitney’s patent was filed.
The
cotton gin, where we get the abbreviation of en-gine, could work 10 times faster than
hand.
Today cotton is still one of the finest, natural and most durable of materials, even though it does crease like crazy.
Well that's all folks, I did say a brief history...
For more information about British thread history click on the Coats badge or click on the links below.
Fancy a funny read: Ena Wilf & The One-Armed Machinist A brilliant slice of 1940's life: Spies & Spitfires
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CONTACT: alexsussex@aol.com Copyright © |
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