HISTORY OF COTTON 


The history of Cotton goes as far as thousands of years for  growing and using it for the purpose of wearing. But the changes and developments in techniques have been the same for both cotton and cloth; cotton was being grown, spun and woven into cloth. 

During the stone age, when people were using animal hair and wool, primitive samples of yarn and cloth were found at Frigia region dating back to 8000 A.C.,Çatalhöyük 6000 A.C., in Anatolia, in Mexico 5800A.C., Pakistan and China 3000 A.C.

Asur king Sennacheib’s historical event inscription described cotton a fruit that has wool inside it 700 A.C. Herodot had written notes about India saying that the growing wild trees had got fruits which is a beautiful product and has more quality than sheep wool for making cloths

At the first century A.C., weaving of silk and cotton was being carried on from silk way to west. Cotton in India became widespread during first century A.C. in India. After 12^th Century, standard horizontal weaving machine was started to be used instead of vertical one, Indians invented pedal twisting machine which became widely used instead of women handicrafts.

 When Columbus first discovered the new continent in 1492, he saw Bahaman Indians in cotton cloths. This idea had given him that he reached India Ocean. Because, until that time everybody assumed that only India had got soil suitable to grow cotton.

 At 17^th century, the highest quality cotton were found in West India. England, France and Holland build companies in East India at the same century. Magnificently printed and painted Indian cloths build the way to Europe. Cotton being light, easily-washable, shiny and exotic designs were suitable for covering, cloths and dressing gowns.

 Cotton industry effected the industry revolution much more at 18^th century. The first bobbing yarn machines were invented in 1764, the first mechanical weaving machine in 1785, and the first ginning machines in 1793. These machines were protested during the French Revolution by poor people because of unemployment. Invention of mercerized cotton was a turning point in 1844. With this process, cotton yarn became hard twisting, strong, thin and shiny. indigo was invented as a synthetic in 1870 which was very important for painting cotton yarn.

 Although synthetic methods improved various yarns and cloths during 20th century, cotton did not lose any economic value. Cotton growing fields were 16 million hectare in 1925. These areas decreased  5 million hectare in 1960, but the yield increased very much. Nowadays, although there are many developments in synthetic lints, usage of cotton lint comprises 49% of total textile lints. Therefore domination of cotton still continues in spite of  developing technology.