Textile materials are of interest to everyone, for they play a most important part in civilised life as we know it today. Throughout the past centuries a few simple fibres, particularly cotton, linen, wool and silk, have been used mainly for clothing purposes. Today these fibres, with the possible exception of silk on account of its scarcity and high price, are being widely utilised for various industrial purposes; some examples being the use of cotton for reinforcing motorcar tyres and plastic materials, linen wing coverings on aeroplanes, and the use of wool felt as heat and sound insulating materials in building construction.

Various processes by which fibres are obtained and then made into useful textile materials have been described to enable, everyone to understand them and so appreciate better the effort and skill that goes into the manufacture of fabrics and garments of all kinds.

The present book focuses mainly on textile fibres, as these are useful for clothing and domestic purposes. The book will be of immense use to all those concerned with textiles in general and the manufacture of fabrics and garments in particular.

PROF. P.V. VIDYASAGAR was born in Karnataka and obtained his Textile Engineering degree in 1978. He was Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Textile Technology at the University of Bradford, and took voluntary retirement in 1989. During this period he travelled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East and the United States of America on consultation work. His research work over the years has concentrated on the integration of surfactants with dyestuffs and the effect of surfactants on the carbonisation of wool, and he has written numerous articles on the subject.

Textile materials are of interest to everyone, for they play a most important part in civilised life as we know it today. Throughout past centuries a few simple fibres, particularly cotton, linen, wool and silk, have been used mainly for clothing purposes. Today these fibres, with the possible exception of silk on account of its scarcity and high price, are being widely utilised for industrial purposes. With the use of cotton for reinforcing motor- car tyres and plastic materials, with linen wing coverings on aeroplanes, and the use of wool felts as heat and sound insulating materials in building construction. But, in this book, we are concerned with textile fibres only in so far as they are useful for clothing and domestic purposes.

It will be seen how, of the many fibres available from natural sources, only a very small number have proved useful or durable enough to satisfy our requirements. Actually there is scarcely any other fibre which can complete in usefulness with cotton, wool, linen and silk. It is surprising that just these four fibres 'fit the bill' for modern textile purposes.

The advantages to be obtained from man-made fibres are obvious. Not least is that they can be made in the size and shape best adapted to the machinery available to convert them into yarns and fabrics. The natural fibres vary considerably and are affected by climatic conditions over which man has no control, but the rayon fibres can be produced with uniform dimensions and having strength, lustre, handle and dyeing properties as desired. Moreover, the cost of these new fibres has been kept low and materials made from them are well within the reach of everyone of average means.

The fact is that, so far, no one has been able to suggest any better method of making a serviceable fabric than by interfacing in the form of a warp and weft, or in the form of stitches, threads which have first been formed by laying together, more or less parallel, the individual fibres and then twisting these about each other in this form to obtain satisfactory strength and elasticity. Fabrics have been made by a method of perforating film material but they have been found quite unsatisfactory in use.

The result is that, today, although we have available for our use a wide variety of textile materials, further improvements can be anticipated, perhaps at a rate greater than ever before.

Various processes by which fibres are obtained and then made into useful textile materials are described, not in detail that would be too much for a book of this size and character, but sufficiently to enable everyone to understand them and so appreciate better the effort and skill which is given to the manufacture of fabrics and garments of all kinds.