Added: 10/25/2005 |
Today you can meet fine wool in many parts of your clothingWool is wonderful material and it has been used by man for a very long time. Things from clothing to carpets are made from it. Although the process of making is long and complicated, the wool is pretty cheap material. Nowdays fine wool is obtained not only from sheep fleece but also from such exotic animals
like lamas. Achievements in chemistry allowed to have also another sort of wool.Apart from organic wool there is also mineral wool.
At that period people were already breeding sheep and other domestic animals. That was wool history's beginning.Improvements were made in many ways later to the process of organic wool making itself during that time. Great number of methods and techniques of making wool products were duly developed. In medieval times the technology of processing coarse, rough raw wool into fine wool derivatives gained momentum.Organic wool weaving was so developed, that trading in woollen fabrics became a serious business. It gained such importance, that many European countries introduced special legislation, regulating controls and ways of wool trading.
Special law was introduced in 1699 by England, prohibiting its American colony trading in wool with anyone but United Kingdom. Since these days wool did not loose its importance as material and is used in many different sectors of economy. Textile industry was a principal fine wool consumer ever since. Enormous quantity of types of clothing/garments are made from wool today. Raw wool is produced in many regions world wide. The best quality fine wool comes probably from high altitude regions. Although almost all the countries in the world have ability to breed sheep and make wool. The most renowned wool producers are situated in Australia and New Zeeland. It's because of wonderful climate and great ecological conditions that the wool of Australian grown sheep is considered to be the best in the world. The very fine wool is made of raw Australian wool. This fine wool is used for production of most delicate garments, like fine wool shirts, for example. Such fine wool needs a special care, but sensation that it gives is just exquisite.
Latest achievements in chemistry give us a chance to use not only organic wool, made of sheep or other animals' fleece, but entirely different sort of wool. It is called mineral wool. Strange as it may sound, but this fascinating material is made of stone. Certain minerals, or mixtures of several minerals are melted at about 1600 degrees Celsius temperature. After that a strong flow of air, or very hot steam passes trough it. Under these conditions long mineral fibers are being formed. The process of making these fibers is similar to how candy floss is made. After that mineral wool fibers are fused together, forming entirely new materials, and that can be used for fabrics weaving. Mineral wool is not used often, because other synthetic and man made fibers were and are continuously invented for all types of clothing to be comfortable to the utmost.
Working with wool is a very competitive business nowdays. Fine organic wool is constantly replaced by new composite materials. Industrial wool garments manufacturing is still a major source of employment for millions of people in many countries. Huge outsourcing effort undertaken by Western countries affects seriously labor conditions in clothing industries of Europe, for instance, where wool garments production stopped and went offshore.
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