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sofa throws - have been discovered in Egypt. Woolen textiles from the early Bronze Age in Scandinavia and Switzerland have also been found. Cotton has been spun and woven in India since 3000 B. C. , and si_lk has been woven in China since at least 1000 B. C. About the 4th cent. A. D. , Constantinople began to weave the raw si_lk imported from China. A century later si_lk culture spread to the Western countries, and textile making developed rapidly. By the 14th cent. splendid fabrics were being woven on the hand looms of the Mediterranean countries in practically all the basic structures known to modern artisans, and there has been no change in fundamental processes since that
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time, although methods and equipment have been radically altered. Synthetic fibers made from cellulose or textiles woven from such fibers; more rayon is manufactured than any other synthetic fiber. The name was adopted (1924), in preference to artificial si_lk, by the U. S. Dept. of Commerce and various commercial associations. As early as 1665 the English naturalist Robert Hooke had suggested the possibility of making artificial si_lk, but the first artificial textile fiber was produced in 1884 by a French scientist, Hilaire de Chardonnet, and was manufactured by him in 1889. Unpopular at first because it was too lustrous and laundered poorly, it has been steadily improved.
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