14 DAY TRIAL // The oldest known textiles are some sail pieces, made 7,000 years ago. The first textile fibers used by humans were flax and wool, but today a large array of natural and synthetic fibers are employed.
The sheep wool is made of keratin, the same protein found in the nails, horns, feathers, reptilian scales and the upper layer of the skin. All hairs have the same protein in their composition, like mohair (coming from Angora goats), cashmere (coming from Kashmir goats), or those coming from the camel, llama, horse, musk ox or rabbit.
Silk is obtained from the cocoon of the silkworm (the caterpillar of the silk moth). The worms expel a liquid protein which hardens as soon as in contact with the air, turning into fibroin (the same protein is found in the spider silk). Each worm produces a sole fiber of fibroin, several kilometers long, which it will wrap around its body to form a cocoon. Silk is obtained by unwrapping the cocoons.
Plant fibers are made by cellulose, the material making the cell walls of the plants. The most important plant fiber is cotton, each fiber being a cylindric elongated cell. The husk of the seeds produce thousands of cotton fibers. Flax fibers come from the plants' stems. Jute and hemp fibers are used for making sack sails and ropes, while fibers made of sisal (an Agave species) leaves are used for making ropes.
The first synthetic fiber was viscose, used at the end of 19th century for making artificial silk. Plant materials, like wood, are treated with chemicals that extract cellulose. This solution is used for achieving pure solid cellulose, employed for making viscose fibers. Wood is the raw material for another two synthetic fibers: cellulose acetate and cellulose triacetate.
Nylon represents forms of artificial polyamides (amides are simple small proteins). For obtaining nylon, small granules of polymers are molten then pressed through a tube. The long filaments are cooled and solidified.
Acrylic fibers are used for clothes, carpets and synthetic furs. Modacrylic fibers have the advantage that they are not inflammable. Extremely resistant ropes are made of polypropylene, polyester and polyethylene.
There are three classes of textiles: knitted, woven and other types. In the case of knitted and woven textiles, fibers are spun to get filaments which are intertwined. Through spinning, a mass of fibers is twisted for forming a continuous fiber.
Woven textiles are made on machines called looms. The fibers stretched along the fabric are called abb fibers. Weft fibers can be added on the width of the fabric and woven in various ways, resulting textiles of various degrees of density.
Knitted fabrics are made by forming locks that intertwine one or several fibers. For mass production, knitted textiles are made by machines endowed with many hooked needles. Some machines have up to 2,500 needles and form 3,000,000 loops per minute.
Other textiles are made using fiber bands. Fibers are united via resins. When the resins are fixed, fibers and resins are treated thermally (through heating) for increasing their resistance. In some fabrics, fibers are united by being pressed through two hot metallic rolls. The fibers melt and form strong bonds between them, which keep their resistance after cooling the fibers. Another method of making fabrics is through seaming.
"Composed" modern textiles are made of combinations of materials and have the properties of all the chemicals they comprise.
The printing of the models is made using machines. The material passes through metallic rolls covered by colorants in the desired models.
Strainer decoration uses ink that reaches the fabric through a pattern of artifices making a drawing. In the past, the pattern was made of silk, while currently it is made of nylon, polyester or metal. The metachromic procedure employs dye applied on paper. Paper and textile pass through a press heated at 200 degrees C, which makes the dye evaporate and transfer to the fabric.