Kapas (dari bahasa Hindi kapas, sendirinya dari bahasa Sanskerta karpasaJames A. B. Scherer, Cotton as World Power) adalah serat halus yang menyelubungi biji beberapa jenis Gossypium (biasa disebut "pohon"/tanaman kapas), tumbuhan "semak" yang berasal dari daerah tropika dan subtropika. Serat kapas menjadi bahan penting dalam industri tekstil. Serat itu dapat dipemintalan menjadi benang dan dipenenunan menjadi kain. Produk tekstil dari serat kapas biasa disebut sebagai katun (benang maupun kainnya).
Serat kapas merupakan produk yang berharga karena hanya sekitar 10% dari berat kotor (bruto) produk hilang dalam pemrosesan. Apabila lemak, protein, malam (zat) (lilin), dan lain-lain residu disingkirkan, sisanya adalah polimer selulosa murni dan alami. Selulosa ini tersusun sedemikian rupa sehingga memberikan kapas kekuatan, daya tahan (durabilitas), dan daya serap yang unik namun disukai orang. Tekstil yang terbuat dari kapas (katun) bersifat menghangatkan di kala dingin dan menyejukkan di kala panas (menyerap keringat).
Sumber utama serat kapas komersial (perdagangan) adalah empat jenis Gossypium, yaitu
* Gossypium, asli Meksiko,Amerika Tengah, Karibia, dan Florida, menghasilkan 90% serat yang diperdagangkan
* Gossypium, asli dari Amerika Selatan tropika
* Gossypium, asli dari lembah Sungai Indus di Pakistan dan India
* Gossypium, asli dari wilayah Levantia (hulu Sungai Tigris)
Berkas:Mandeville cotton.jpg in the 14th century]]
Cotton has been used to make very fine lightweight cloth in areas with tropical climates for millennia. Some authorities claim that it was likely that the Egyptians had cotton as early as 12,000 BC, and evidence has been found of cotton in Mexico caves (cotton cloth and fragments of fibre interwoven with feathers and fur) which dated back to approximately 7,000 years ago. There is clear archaeological evidence that people in South America and India domesticated different species of cotton independently thousands of years ago.
The earliest written reference to cotton is in India. Cotton has been grown in India for more than three thousand years, and it is referred to in the Rig-Veda, written in 1500 BC. A thousand years later the great Ancient Greece historian Herodotus wrote about Indian cotton: "There are trees which grow wild there, the fruit of which is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep. The Indians make their clothes of this tree wool". (Book iii. 106)
During the late mediaeval period, cotton became known as an imported fibre in northern Europe, without any knowledge of what it came from other than that it was a plant; people in the region, familiar only with animal fibres (wool from sheep), could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville, writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew there India a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie.". This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in many European languages, such as German language Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool".
By the end of the 16th century AD, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions in Africa, Eurasia and the Americas.
The Indian cotton processing industry was eclipsed during the Britain Industrial Revolution, when the invention of the Spinning Jenny (1764) and Arkwright"s spinning frame (1769) enabled cheap mass-production of cotton cloth in the United Kingdom. Production capacity was further improved by the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793.
In the United States, growing the three crops, cotton, indigo dye and tobacco historically were the leading occupations of slaves. After emancipation, the share cropping system evolved which in many cases differed little from the systems of slavery.
-->
Berkas:Baumwoll-Erntemaschine.jpeg
Sekarang ini kapas diproduksi di banyak tempat di dunia, termasuk Eropa, Asia, Afrika, Benua Amerika, dan Australia, menggunakan tanaman kapas yang telah dipilih jadi dapat menghasilkan lebih banyak fiber. Pada 2002, kapas ditumbuhkan di 330.000 km² ladang, 47 milyar pon kapas mentah seharga 20 milyar dolar AS ditumbuhkan tahun tersebut.
After cultivation, cotton is harvested at the farm, and goes through multiple processes. Before processing, there are 3 stages:
# Ginning
# Weaving
After weaving, cotton typically fabric passes through several processing stages. After some stages the fabric can be directly used in the final product, for example unbleached cloth is used in grain bags. Typical stages are:
-->
Sebagai tambahan dari industri tekstil, kapas juga digunakan dalam jaring ikan, saringan kopi, tenda, dan pembatas buku. Uang China pertama terbuat dari fiber kapas, dan juga uang dollar AS modern.
Denim, sebuah jenis pakaian "durable", sebagian besar terbuat dari kapas, dan juga kebanyakan T-shirt.
Efek lingkungan atas pertumbuhan tiap jenis varitas tiap kapas adalah berlainan sekali. Pengetahuan atas sifat-sifat pembawaan dapat kemungkinan untuk mengetahui dasn mengenalsifat-sifat lain yang tidak di inginkan, terutama telah didapatkan satu antara masina-masing tanaman.
Cotton is an enormously important commodity throughout the world. However, many farmers in developing countries receive a low price for their produce, or find it difficult to compete with developed countries. This has led to "fair trade" cotton clothing being available in some countries.
*1 thread = 54 inches (c. 137 cm)
*1 skein or rap = 80 threads (120 yards or c. 109 m)
*1 hank = 7 skeins (840 yards or c. 768 m)
*1 spindle = 18 hanks (15,120 yards or c. 13.826 km)
-->
* The Thames and Hudson Manual of Dyes and Fabrics, Joyce Storey, 1978
* Photo documentation and commentary on collateral damage to the environment from cotton spraying
* Cotton Incorporated - a cotton industry trade group
* New York Cotton Futures Prices (30 Minute Delay)
* New York Board of Trade
* Cotton on the Net: The Cotton Market Directory
* USDA AMS - Market News Reports - Cotton Reports
* Commodity Futures & Financial Market Charts
* U.S. Department of Agriculture
* Cotton Council International
* Cotton Foundation
* ACSA International Cotton Institute
* The Supima Association
* American Cotton Shippers Association
* American Textile Manufactures Institute
* Cotton Incorporated
* International Cotton Advisory Committee
* Cotton on the Net Home Page
* National Cotton Council News and Current Events
* The Land of Cotton News Magazine
* The Seam
* eCotton
* Plains Cotton Cooperative Association
* American Cotton Shippers Association
* Agricultural Marketing Service
* International Cotton Association
Mapyourinfo translations allows you to search a foreign language with your own language (translate search) and receive the content also in your language