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Fiber To Fabric

The document discusses different natural fibres like wool and silk. It describes the processes of obtaining wool from sheep like shearing and scouring. For silk, it explains the life cycle of the silkworm and production of silk including rearing silkworms and processing cocoons.

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Rachit
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42 views4 pages

Fiber To Fabric

The document discusses different natural fibres like wool and silk. It describes the processes of obtaining wool from sheep like shearing and scouring. For silk, it explains the life cycle of the silkworm and production of silk including rearing silkworms and processing cocoons.

Uploaded by

Rachit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SUBJECT: SCIENCE

CLASS VII

Fibre to Fabric (Notes)

Fibres:

• Fibres are very thin, thread-like strands from which fabrics (or cloths) are made. Some
examples of fibres are cotton, wool, silk, flax, jute, nylon, polyester and polyacrylic.
• There are two types of fibres, i.e. natural fibre and man-made fibre.
• Natural fibres are the fibres which are obtained from natural sources like plants and animals.

Wool

• Wool is obtained mainly from animals like sheep, yak, camel,llama, alpaca and goat. Wool is
acquired from the fleece or hair of these animals.
•
The wool yielding animals bear a thick coat of hair on their body. The hair which gives us wool
and keeps them warm during the cold winter season. The hair (wool) on the body of wool-
yielding animals trap a lot of air. Since air is a poor conductor of heat, the air trapped in hair
shields the body from cold and keeps them warm in winter.

Rearing & breeding of sheep

• There are two types of fibres in sheep's hair:


* The rough beard hair.

* The soft under-hair close to the skin.

• Selective Breeding: Sometimes sheep are selected to gain a breed that has only fine soft hair
on the skin and less or no hard hair. This process is called Selective Breeding.
• Mostly sheep eat grass, legumes, forbs, and other pasture plants.
• Sheep are reared (breed and raised) all over India in order to acquire wool from them such as in
Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

The process of obtaining wool from the hair of the animals.


Step 1: Shearing
It is a process of removing the fleece of the sheep along with a thin layer of its skin. Shearing is
conducted generally in hot weather so that the sheep do not feel cold and can survive easily. The
shearing process does not hurt the sheep because the upper part of the skin is normally dead skin.
Step 2: Scouring
It is a process of removing dirt, grease and dust from the hair removed from the sheep. It is generally
done with the help of machines.
Step 3: Sorting
It is the process of separating the hair of the sheep according to their textures.
Step 4: Removing of burrs
In this step, the burrs or small fibres present on the hair are picked out. Then the hair is cleaned and
dried out. The product so obtained is the wool that can now be converted into fibres.
Step 5: Coloring of woollen fibres
In this step, the fibres are dyed in different colours.
Step 6: Rolling of wool
In the last step, the fibres are straightened ,combed and then rolled into yarn.

Note:

• Angora wool comes from the Angora rabbit.


• Mohair wool comes from the Angora goat.

• The finest and softest sheep's wool is Merino which comes from the Merino sheep. It is the
most popular breed of sheep used for clothing and produces the most luxurious wool,
famous for its fine staples at about 20-25 microns in diameter.

• The Bactrian camel gives the best-quality wool.Wild Bactrian camels (Camelus ferus)
are found in the Gobi desert of Northwest China and Mongolia. The Bactrian camel is
extremely well adapted to the harsh desert climate.

Occupational Hazard
• In some industries, the workers have to face risks of getting diseases and sometimes death.
These are called occupational hazards.
• Sorter’s disease is an occupational hazard associated with the production of wool. The people
who sort the wool can get infected by a disease called Anthrax. This bacterium infects the
blood of the person which can lead to fatal death.
• Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by a rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus
anthracis. Anthrax can be found naturally in soil and commonly affects domestic and wild
animals around the world. This bacterium infects the blood of the person which can lead to
fatal death.

The Production of Silk


• Silk is obtained from silkworms.

• Sericulture: is the breeding and raising of silkworms in order to obtain silk from them.
Life Cycle of Silk Moth

• The female silk moth lays eggs on mulberry leaves.


• The eggs are hatched into very small larvae within a week.
• The larvae of silk moth are called caterpillar or silkworm.
• The silkworms feed on the leaves of mulberry tree and grow bigger in size.
• When the silkworm (or caterpillar) is ready to enter the next stage of its development called
pupa, it first weaves a net to hold itself.
• Then, it swings its head from side to side. During these movements of head, the silkworm
secrets fibre made of protein which hardens on exposure to air and becomes silk fibre (or silk
thread).
• Soon the silkworm (or caterpillar) covers itself by silk fibres and turns into pupa. This covering
is known as cocoon.
• The silkworm continues to develop in the form of pupa inside the cocoon to form the silk moth.

The process of obtaining silk from silkworms


For obtaining silk, silk moths are reared and their cocoons are collected to get silk thread.
• Rearing Silkworms
A female silk moth lays hundreds of eggs at a time. The eggs are stored carefully on strips of
paper or cloth and sold to silkworm farmers. The farmers keep eggs under hygienic condition.
They warm them to a suitable temperature for the larvae to hatch from egg.
• The larvae are kept in clean bamboo trays along with young and freshly chopped mulberry
leaves. After 25-30 days, the silkworms stop eating and start spinning the cocoons. Small racks
or twigs may be provided in the trays to which cocoons get attached.
• Processing Silk
The cocoons are collected and boiled in water to kill the insect inside them. The resulting fibre
is known as raw silk. The silk fibres separate out.
• Reeling the Silk
The process of taking out fibres from the cocoon for use as silk is known as reeling the silk.
Reeling is done in special machines. Silk fibres are spun into silk threads which are woven into
silk cloth by weavers.

Extra Question
Q1. What is wool?
ANSWER: Wool is an animal derived fibre. Wool grows in the form of a thick coat of hair on certain
animals and is usually an adaptation to help animals keep their body warm in cold climates.
Q2. What are the health hazards involved in sericulture?
ANSWER: Health hazards caused by sericulture are:
1. Workers are often prone to infections due to blisters and injuries that occur while dipping their
hands in the hot water to check whether the filaments have loosened enough to wound.
2. Vision disorders and backaches are caused by standing continuously, for 12 -16 hours in a day,
reeling the silk thread.
3. The noise from the machines weaving the fabric can cause hearing impairments.
4. The diesel fumes from the machines and the vapours from the boiling cocoons can cause
respiratory disorder.

Q3. What is silk? Give some characteristics of the silk fibre.


ANSWER: The fibre produced by silkworms is known as silk.
• Silk is the strongest natural fibre.
• It is a protein fibre and is a bad conductor of heat.
• It is very soft and lustrous.

Q4. Differentiate between shearing and reeling.


ANSWER:
Shearing Reeling
This is the process of removing This is the process of removing filaments
fleece from the body of an animal. from the cocoons of silkworms.
This is an important stage in the This is an important stage in the production
production of wool. of silk.

Q5. How can we distinguish between natural silk and artificial silk?
ANSWER:
Natural silk Artificial silk
It smells like burning hair, when burnt. It smells like a burnt paper, when burnt.

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