Osnaburg

Last updated

Osnaburg is a general term for coarse, plain-weave fabric. It also refers specifically to a historic fabric originally woven in flax but also in tow or jute, and from flax or tow warp with a mixed or jute weft.

Contents

Historic osnaburg

Osnaburg fabric may have been first imported into English-speaking countries from the German city of Osnabrück, from which it gets its name. [1] Scottish weavers produced a coarse lint- or tow-based linen imitation in the later 1730s, which quickly became the most important variety in east-central Scotland. Sales quadrupled, from 0.5 million yards in 1747 to 2.2 million yards in 1758. It was exported mainly to England, the Netherlands, and Britain's colonies in America. In the Atlantic plantation complex, prior to the abolition of slavery, osnaburg was the fabric most often used for slave garments.

It was in widespread use worldwide for general utility and housework, with finer varieties used as common sheeting. Grades contained from 20 to 36 threads per inch and 10 to 15 picks per inch.

In culture

Modern osnaburg

Fabric sold today as "osnaburg" is typically an unprocessed, relatively stiff cotton twill. Though rough by modern standards, it is much finer and softer than historic osnaburg.

The Spanish word "osnaburgo" is still commonly used in Chile for coarsely woven cotton or linen fabric. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Textile</span> Various fiber-based materials

Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the only manufacturing method, and many other methods were later developed to form textile structures based on their intended use. Knitting and non-woven are other popular types of fabric manufacturing. In the contemporary world, textiles satisfy the material needs for versatile applications, from simple daily clothing to bulletproof jackets, spacesuits, and doctor's gowns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linen</span> Textile made from spun flax fibre

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jute</span> Bast fiber from the genus Corchorus

Jute is a long, rough, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus Corchorus, which is in the mallow family Tiliaceae. The primary source of the fiber is Corchorus olitorius, but such fiber is considered inferior to that derived from Corchorus capsularis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tow (fibre)</span> Coarse and broken fibre

In the textile industry, a tow is a coarse, broken fibre, removed during processing flax, hemp, or jute and separated from the shives. Flax tows are often used as upholstery stuffing and oakum. Tows in general are frequently cut up to produce staple fibre. The very light color of flax tow is the source of the word "towhead", meaning a person with naturally light blond hair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish linen</span>

Irish linen is the name given to linen produced in Ireland. Linen is cloth woven from, or yarn spun from, flax fibre, which was grown in Ireland for many years before advanced agricultural methods and more suitable climate led to the concentration of quality flax cultivation in northern Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hessian fabric</span> Woven fabric from jute or sisal

Hessian, burlap in the United States and Canada, or crocus in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, is a woven fabric made of vegetable fibres, usually the skin of the jute plant or sisal leaves. It is generally used for duties of rough handling, such as making sacks employed to ship farm products and to act as covers for sandbags, and for wrapping tree-root balls. However, this dense woven fabric, historically coarse, more recently is being produced in a refined state, known simply as "jute", as an eco-friendly material for bags, rugs, and other products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mackinaw cloth</span> Dense woolen cloth used to make jackets

Mackinaw cloth is a heavy and dense water-repellent woolen cloth, similar to Melton cloth but using a tartan pattern, often "buffalo plaid". It was used to make a short coat of the same name, sometimes with a doubled shoulder. These jackets have their origins on the Canadian frontier and were later made famous by Canadian and American loggers in the upper Midwest as workwear during the mid-19th century logging boom.

Dowlas was a strong coarse linen cloth of the 16th and 17th centuries, and initially, it was manufactured in Brittany. In the 18th century the fabric was also produced in England and Scotland. Dowlas was identical to sailcloth. The cloth was also imitated in cotton for the same use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linsey-woolsey</span> Coarse woven fabric of linen and wool

Linsey-woolsey is a coarse twill or plain-woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woollen weft. Similar fabrics woven with a cotton warp and woollen weft in Colonial America were also called linsey-woolsey or wincey. The name derives from a combination of lin and wool. This textile has been known since ancient times; known as shatnez (שַׁעַטְנֵז) in Hebrew, the Torah and hence Jewish law explicitly forbade wearing it.

In the context of materials, stuff can refer to any manufactured material. This is illustrated from a quote by Sir Francis Bacon in his 1658 publication New Atlantis: "Wee have also diverse Mechanicall Arts, which you have not; And Stuffes made by them; As Papers, Linnen, Silks, Tissues; dainty Works of Feathers of wonderfull Lustre; excellent Dies, and many others." In Coventry, those completing seven-year apprenticeships with stuff merchants were entitled to become freemen of the city.

The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clothing in ancient Rome</span>

Clothing in ancient Rome generally comprised a short-sleeved or sleeveless, knee-length tunic for men and boys, and a longer, usually sleeved tunic for women and girls. On formal occasions, adult male citizens could wear a woolen toga, draped over their tunic, and married citizen women wore a woolen mantle, known as a palla, over a stola, a simple, long-sleeved, voluminous garment that modestly hung to cover the feet. Clothing, footwear and accoutrements identified gender, status, rank and social class. This was especially apparent in the distinctive, privileged official dress of magistrates, priesthoods and the military.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clothing in the ancient world</span> What people wore in antiquity as inferred from archaeological and historical evidence

The preservation of fabric fibers and leathers allows for insights into the attire of ancient societies. The clothing used in the ancient world reflects the technologies that these peoples mastered. In many cultures, clothing indicated the social status of various members of society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Road</span>

According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, there were two trails that may have been known as the California Road at the time of the California Gold Rush. A southerly route, which ran through present-day Oklahoma, along the Canadian River. A northern route was usually called the California Trail.

Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human activities. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving to create cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. Cloth is finished by what are described as wet process to become fabric. The fabric may be dyed, printed or decorated by embroidering with coloured yarns.

Many materials have been used to make garments throughout history. Grasses, furs and much more complex and exotic materials have been used. Cultures like the Arctic Circle, make their wardrobes out of prepared and decorated furs and skins.[1] Different cultures have added cloth to leather and skins as a way to replace real leather. A wide range of fibers, including natural, cellulose, and synthetic fibers, can be used to weave or knit cloth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heckling (flax)</span> Combing process used to clean and straighten scutched flax or other bast fibers

Heckling is the last of three steps in dressing flax, or preparing the fibers to be spun. It splits and straightens the flax fibers, as well as removes the fibrous core and impurities. Flax is pulled through heckling combs, which parts the locked fibers and makes them straight, clean, and ready to spin. After heckling and spinning, flax is ready to be woven into linen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crash (fabric)</span> Woven textile

Crash is a coarse fabric with a rough, irregular surface, made from thick, uneven yarns. Crash fabric is coarse linen based rugged material made from both dyed and raw yarns. The yarns used are often grey or white in color. Crash fabrics are indistinct woven. Linen is generally used for the warp, while blends of linen and jute, cotton, and wool, etc. were used for the filling. The weave structure may vary from plain, twill to fancy. Crash fabric was very thick, strong, rough and because of linen's characteristics it is absorbent also.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negro cloth</span> A coarse, strong and inexpensive cloth used for slaves clothing

Negro cloth or Lowell cloth was a coarse and strong cloth used for slaves' clothing in the West Indies and the Southern Colonies. The cloth was imported from Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Epingline (Epingh) was a silk, or rayon, and wool fabric with fine cords. It was formed with a structure that was similar to a crepe.

References

  1. Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Osnaburg". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  2. McCarthy, Cormac (1995). Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West. Modern Library. ISBN   978-0-679-64104-9.
  3. Gregg, Josiah A. (1844). Commerce of the Praires. Pantianos Classics. ISBN   9781545314265.
  4. Marcy, Randolph B., Capt. (1859). The Prairie Traveler. Applewood Books. ISBN   9780918222893.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Abrams, J. J (2013). S. Mulholland Books. ISBN   978-0316201643.
  6. "Diccionario de uso del español de Chile" (PDF). Academia Chilena de la Lengua. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2016.