Thanks for sharing :). That was pretty interesting! It makes sense to me that linen played such a big role in odor control, but I honestly wouldn't have guessed. I just keep thinking about how fast synthetic fibers can get ripe and I wonder: what if we never moved to cotton as the natural fiber of choice? As I understand it (untonuggan knows far more about this than I do, and may very much well correct me), cotton is pretty inferior to linen and wool in many of the ways that matter. I mean, cotton is helpful if you've got allergies, need to be able to wash things in boiling water, need to dye things crazy colors, and the like, but not when it comes to longevity, resources, and special traits (such as the water repelling properties of wool, or, as your linked article illustrates, the hygiene and odor control properties of linen). And, some things that cotton supposedly does well, other fibers can actually do better (like say being cool in the summer--wool can do that too). I'm making the connection between cotton and synthetic fibers because synthetic fibers are both measured against cotton and are developed to compensate for cotton's failings (both in terms of the hands-on qualities of the fiber and the ease and profitability of the production, application, and distribution of the fiber).
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Date: 2016-02-17 12:04 pm (UTC)It makes sense to me that linen played such a big role in odor control, but I honestly wouldn't have guessed. I just keep thinking about how fast synthetic fibers can get ripe and I wonder: what if we never moved to cotton as the natural fiber of choice? As I understand it (
I'm making the connection between cotton and synthetic fibers because synthetic fibers are both measured against cotton and are developed to compensate for cotton's failings (both in terms of the hands-on qualities of the fiber and the ease and profitability of the production, application, and distribution of the fiber).