Lecture 7: Cotton Flashcards
cotton seed
excellent in cooking but has high saturated fat level and is unhealthy
-hundreds of hairs made from cellulose
adaptive value of long seed hairs
protection against herbivores and rewarding for birds as nesting material
repel light rain and absorb heavy rain
-hairs trap moisture to aid germination
environmental problems
one pair of jeans requires 8500L of irrigation water
200L to process and dye
3000L to wash jeans over lifetime
another cotton problem
cotton uses 25% of world pesticides
70% of worlds cotton is GMO
problem is gene movement from field to wild plants
political problems
19th century: slavery in southern US, child labour, satanic mills of england
21st: child labour in manufacturing and fields
ex. uzbekistan
2 main cotton examples
gossypium
hirsutum
peruvian coloured cotton
gossypium barbadense
when did cotton clothes first arrive in europe?
romans and greeks wore linen not cotton
linsey-wooley - half linen and half wool
cotton cloth introduced from muslim clloth and damascene
damus fammo
columbus exchange introduced world to cotton
King cotton
before 18th century coto was made in peoples houses - cottage industry
-fibres were manually separated from seed, spun into thread and woven
cotton is special
-flying shuttle - wooden device with pointy ends that you whip across cloth while looming
-spinning jenny engine - allowed 8 threads to be spun at once
-water frame - 128 threads at once, water power
rich arkwright
jefferson davis and cotton bond
offered 7% cotton bond
7% interest was collateral, you could convert bond to real cotton at pre war prices
make it more attractive and CSA throttled supply of cotton
cotton famine
protests
workers wrote letter to ab lincoln, responded with famous letter
statue in manchester because of this
cotton in manchester
population grew from 17,000 to 180,000 (176-1830)
industrial output increased by 40 then 47%
only limit was raw cotton from southern us
invention of cotton gin (eli whitney) - made cotton and slavery profitable
