A Historical Overview of Textiles: Their Production, Properties, and Preservation - Prof. , Sintesi del corso di Biomateriali E Tessuti Biologici

Scarica A Historical Overview of Textiles: Their Production, Properties, and Preservation - Prof. e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Biomateriali E Tessuti Biologici solo su Docsity! Caring for the Textiles The term “textile” can be used to cover a very wide range of objects. A history of textiles is virtually a history of civilisation, for man, all over the world, has made textiles from earliest times: nets to catch food and fabric to cover himself. It is not known exactly when man began to weave but there are cave pictures from about 5000 B.C., which show primitive looms. Greek and Roman writers have described, with admiration, Babylonian tapestries, which they said, depicted rich garments, heavily embroidered and interwoven with gold. This would have required weaving of an advanced and sophisticated kind. There are wall paintings and decorations, which show that even everyday clothes of the time were decorated with patterns in different colours. Balls of coloured wools, dating back to 2000 B.C. were found in Egyptian tombs and burial clothes have been found in grave as far apart as Scandinavia and Peru. Very few ancient textiles have survived and those which have were, for the most part, found in tombs. The Egyptian tombs in particular had conditions very favourable for the safekeeping of textiles, namely, cool and dark with even temperature and humidity and unpolluted air. During the Middle Ages, textiles, particularly tapestries and bed hangings, were of such importance that they were always put at the head of the list of valuables in wills and inventories. Many of the earliest textiles, which have survived in this country are tapestries, which have always been very costly and therefore treasured, and ecclesiastical embroideries which again were valuable because of the materials used, including gold and silver. The latter survived also because of the care they received from Church or religious orders to which they belonged. From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, England was famous all over Europe for embroidery of remarkable beauty. Known as Opus Anglicanum – English work – this embroidery used materials of great value such as gold and silver threads, and the design and workmanship was of the highest quality. The output of the workrooms, staffed by professional, for the most part male, embroiderers who had served a seven-year apprenticeship, was sold by merchants who made this their special trade. Most of the embroiderers were of religious subjects and were sold to churches. Embroidery was also done by nuns. For many generations, English gentlewomen were taught to embroider as part of their education. Some great houses employed professional designers and embroidresses, and ladies at court and in great houses and castles throughout the land spent many hours at their needlework. Fibres All textiles are made from fibres which can be animal, vegetable or man-made. There fibres might be matted together to form a material in the way that wool can be matted to form felt, or they might be pulped with water and ten beaten out into a cloth, as the Indonesians do with the tree-bark fibres from which they make tapa-cloth. More familiarly, fibres can be spun into yarn and the yarn can be fashioned into lace, knitted or crocheted, made into net or knotted into trimmings and decorations as in tatting or macramé. But, most common of all, fibres can be spun into yarn and woven on a loom to make a fabric. The properties and characteristics of the fibres from which a textile is made will always play some part in its reaction to the treatment it receives and the environment in which it is kept. Textiles made earlier than the middle of the nineteenth century were almost certainly constructed from natural fibres. These fibres are not, of course, designed by nature to be made into fabrics but have their own natural functions and, because of that, they will always retain some of the characteristics required to fulfil those functions, even though man has taken the fibres and used them for his own purposes by treating them, spinning and dyeing them and weaving them into material. 1. Wool Wool is, by nature, intended to keep the animal on which it grows warm and dry, and it will, even spun and woven into a material, still retain the ability to absorb up to one-third of its own weight in water without feeling damp to the touch. Indeed, wool needs an atmosphere in which there is a certain degree of moisture if it is not to become hard, dry and brittle. In their natural state, wool fibres are elastic and spring back after being stretched. Woollen material, too, resists being pressed into sharp folds and tends to spring back again. For instance, permanent pleating of woollen material, like permanent waving of human hair can only be achieved by irreversibly damaging the cell structure of the fibres of wool and hair. Wool tends to decompose under the action of strong sunlight and reacts unfavourably to heat but it will last and store well in favourable conditions. Wool is also liable to be attacked by moths and mildew and, because of their cell structure, wool fibres shrink and mat together if washed and rubbed in hot soapy water. With care, however, wool will wash successfully. Wool does not burn very readily but if it comes into contact with a naked flame, its fibres decompose, giving off a smell similar to that of feathers burning. If the flame is removed, the wool does not continue to burn, but each fibre forms a black charred knob. 2. Silk Silk is a natural thread which is spun by the silkworm, Bombyx mori, into a cocoon to protect itself while a pupa and from which it emerges as a moth. Silk fibres are slightly less elastic than wool, but, because they are so long, smooth and fine, they can be woven into a soft, luxurious material. In manufacture, the gum-like sericin which holds the silk threads together in the cocoon is removed from the natural silk and this loss may be replaced in various ways, sometimes with metallic salts which produces weighted silk. This presents problems in the care of silk material, especially if the amount of weighting is considerable. Weighted silk can seldom be successfully washed. Sunlight and hot dry conditions cause silk to become dry and brittle but pure silk and good quality silk have longer lasting qualities. If silk comes into contact with a flame it will burn giving off a similar singed smell to burning hair or horn. 3. Linen Linen is made from fibres, which originally held the stems of the flax plant upright and carried moisture up from the roots through the plant to the leaves and flowers. Linen fibres, produced from the retted stems of the flax plant, even when woven into cloth, will always attract and carry moisture along themselves. Linen is always stronger when wet then when dry and washes well and can be dry-cleaned. 4. Cotton Cotton fibres come from the seed heads or bolls of the cotton plant. It has a greater resistance to heat than most other fibres and can be kept in storage for a long time without deterioration. Sunlight causes gradual loss of strength in cotton and yellowing of white cotton fabrics. Cotton fibres, like linen, are stronger when wet then when dry and, indeed, humidity is necessary when weaving cotton as anyone who knows the traditional cotton-weaving industry of Lancashire will testify. Cotton burns very readily if brought into contact with a flame. It can be dyed successfully, but dyeing other vegetable fibres, especially linen, has not always been successful. Cotton is fairly resistant to solvents and generally will dry-clean successfully. 5. Man-made Fibres Man-made fibres fall into two main groups, depending on the origin of the materials used to make them. There are those fibres made from materials with a natural origin such as cellulose or protein, and rayon is an example of a material made from these fibres. The other consists of synthetic fibres made from simpler substances, and polyester and nylon are examples of this group. Identification is not easy and man-made fibres are now so many and varied that it would be impossible to do more than advise that one should determine the characteristics of each before choosing one to use. Deterioration of Textiles All textiles start to suffer from deterioration from the moment they are made. The greatest enemy of all textiles is light, not only visible light but also the ultra-violet radiation in