Gauze is a thin, translucentfabric with a loose open weave. In technical terms, "gauze" is a weave structure in which the weft yarns are arranged in pairs and are crossed before and after each warp yarn, keeping the weft firmly in place.[1] This weave structure is used to add stability to the fabric, which is important when using fine yarns loosely spaced. However, this weave structure can be used with any weight of yarn, and can be seen in some rustic textiles made from coarse hand-spun plant fiber yarns. Gauze is widely used for medical dressings.
The English word for "gauze" comes from Gaza, Palestine, which has a long history of textile production.[3][4][5] In the Middle Ages, Arab traders imported Asian silkworms (dudat al-qazz) to Palestine, with sericulture undertaken domestically in nearby Ascalon and silk weaving in both it and Gaza itself. A particular type of coarse silk fabric that was mixed with wool was alternatively called qazz or bi-harir, and a thin, sometimes almost transparent version of it was used in clothing, drapery and even as medical dressings. Exported from Gaza's port to various destinations in Europe, it also came to be known as qazz or gauze or gaza there.[6][7][8]
In 1678, the lexicographer Charles Du Cange suggested a medieval European ancestor for gaze (and therefore, for gauze). The 1279 Council of Buda banned clergy from wearing "black burnet, garzatum, and all other fine cloths",[9] and the term garças is known in Italian texts from c.1250.[10][11] However, there is no evidence to connect gauze and garzatum,[12] and a relationship is considered unlikely because gaze and gauze entered lexicons long after garzatum had been abandoned.[13] Modern scholars derive garzatum from Italian garzare, and describe it as a napped[14][15] or carded cloth.[16] Indeed, the 1525 municipal code of Belluno equates pano garzato with pannum garzatum,[17][16]garza is reused in modern Italian to represent gauze.[18] Du Cange further suggested that garzatum itself derived from the city of place nameGaza (Arabic: غزةghazza), emending it to gazzatum.[19][20]
Gauze was originally made of silk and was used for clothing. It is now used for many different things, including gauze sponges for medical purposes. Modern gauze is also made of synthetic fibers, especially when used in clothing.
Woven versus non-woven
Gauze may be woven or non-woven. Woven gauze is loosely woven, usually from cotton fibers, allowing absorption or wicking of exudate and other fluids. Gauze can be woven with fine or coarse mesh; coarse gauze is useful for medical debridement, while fine gauze is better for packing wounds. Woven gauze is less absorbent than non-woven, and may leave lint in a wound, especially if cut.[29]
Non-woven gauze is made from fibers that are pressed together rather than woven, providing better absorbency and wicking than woven gauze. Non-woven gauze is usually made from synthetic fibers such as rayon or polyester, or a blend which may include cotton. Non-woven gauze is stronger, bulkier and softer than woven gauze, and produces less lint.[29]
Medical use
When used as a medical dressing, woven gauze is usually made of cotton. It is especially useful for dressing wounds where other fabrics might stick to the burn or laceration. Many modern medical gauzes are covered with a perforated plastic film such as Telfa or a polyblend which prevents direct contact and further minimizes wound adhesion. Also, it can be impregnated with a thick, creamy mixture of zinc oxide and calamine to promote healing, as in Unna's boot. Gauze is also used during procedures involving accidental tooth loss; either the gauze is used to provide pressure as the tooth is moved back into its corresponding socket, or the tooth is wrapped in gauze and placed in milk or saline to keep it alive while the tooth is being transported and prepared for re-insertion.[30]
↑Lowdermilk, W.C (1944). Palestine, land of promise. p.61. Silk weaving and dyeing is often recorded. In fact, we read of entire villages in the south which were engaged in the latter industry. It has been suggested that the existence of densely populated cities—Kurnub, Khalassa, Ruheeba, Isbeita—in the deserts along the southern route from Aqaba to Gaza can be explained in part by their industrial activities, especially the unraveling of raw silk imported from India and the weaving of mixed silk and linen fabrics. Our word "gauze" comes from Gaza which manufactured and dyed silks and cotton.
↑Abu Khalaf, Marwan. "Textiles | Country: Palestine". The Encyclopedia of Crafts in WCC-Asia Pacific Region (EC-APR). Retrieved 2024-07-30. Textiles have been known as a traditional craft in Palestine since the thirteenth century. They are of two types: Majdalawi textiles and the yarning textile. The Majdalawi textile originated from the Palestinian village of al-Majdal in the southern part of Palestine, not far from Gaza. It is woven by a male weaver on single treadle loom, using black and indigo cotton threads combined with fuchsia and turquoise silk thread. Gaza also was famous as a centre for fine silk production known as gazzatum. This fabric later gave its name to be loose weave fabric known today as 'gauze'.
↑Jacoby, David (2017). Medieval Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond. Taylor & Francis. ISBN9781351583688. "Sericulture, the growing of silk worms, was practiced in northern Syria and in the area of Ascalon. Cotton, flax and silk fibers were used in textile manufacture in Antioch, Aleppo, Damascus, Ascalon, Gaza and some other cities." (in the 11th century)
↑Weir, Shelagh (2008). Palestinian Costumes. p.28. Garment fabrics were woven on simple treadle looms by professional male weavers who worked in a number of towns and small villages, mainly Safad, Nazareth, Nablus, Ramallah, Beit Jala, Bethlehem, Hebron, Gaza and Mejdel. The greatest variety of local fabrics, and the finest, were produced in Gaza, Mejdel and Bethlehem using yarns imported from Egypt, Syria and Britain. Gaza and Mejdel were the largest weaving centres in Palestine. Fifty looms were operating in Gaza before the First World War, and five hundred looms in Mejdel in 1909, of which only two hundred remained only a few years later. Weaving continued in both places, albeit on a smaller scale, through the Mandate period; in 1927 there were 119 weaving establishments (employing 440 people) in the Southern Subdistrict of Palestine, the great majority of which were in Gaza and Mejdel.
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