IT IS ABOUT THE FIBRE. IT IS USEFUL FOR CLASS 8TH.

1. Fibre to fabric

2. SHEEP
Sheep are social animals,
but the most important
reason they like to flock
together is for
protection. Some breeds
of sheep are more
gregarious than others
and there are also some
solitary breeds.
Independence at birth.
Gregarious means that
they flock together or
like to be with a group.

3. YAK
The yak, Bos grunniens or
Bos mutus, is a long-haired
bovine found throughout
the Himalayan region of
south Central Asia, the
Tibetan Plateau and as far
north as Mongolia and
Russia. In addition to a
large domestic population.
In the 1990s, a concerted
effort was undertaken to
help save the wild yak
population.

4. LLAMA
• The height of a full-
grown, full-size llama
is 1.7 to 1.8 m tall at
the top of the head,
and can weigh
between 130 to 200
kilograms. At birth,
a baby llama can
weigh between 9 and
14 kilograms. Llamas
can live for a period
of about 20–30

5. ALPACA
Alpacas are kept in herds
that graze on the level
heights of the Andes of
southern Peru, northern
Bolivia, Ecuador, and
northern Chile at an
altitude of 3,500 m to
5,000 m above sea level,
throughout the year.
Alpacas are considerably
smaller than llamas, and
unlike llamas, they were
not bred to be beasts of
burden

6. CAMEL
The oldest known camel is
Protylopus, appeared 40-
50 million years ago
(Eocene) in North America.
It had the size of a rabbit
and lived in forests. Later,
camels spread to the
savanna and increased
their size. In Oligocene,
35 million years ago,
Poebrotherium had the
size of a roe deer, but
already resembled a camel.

7. What is fabric?
• You all know that food, clothing and
shelter are the three basic needs of
life. You eat food to survive and
protect yourself from diseases, you
need a house to live in. Why do you
wear clothes? You wear clothes for
protection against climate, for
modesty and beauty, and also to
show.The material that you use for
clothing is called fabric.

8. • Do you know what fabrics are
made of? Take a cloth and pull
out a thread. Untwist to loosen
this thread. You will see that it
is made up of smaller threads or
hair like strands. Pull out one of
these. This single hair like
strand is called a fibre.

10. Natural Fibres:
• Some fibres are obtained
from natural sources, that
is, from plants and animals.
Fibres from such sources
are called natural fibres.
• Some examples of fibres
from natural sources are
cotton, Jute, silk, wool, etc

11. Man-made Fibres:
• The other type of fibres are
obtained from chemical substance.
These are called manmade fibres.
They are rayon, polyester, nylon,
acrylic (cashmilon) etc.

12. Animal fibres
• Wool is obtained from the fleece
(hair) of sheep or yak. Silk fibres
come from cocoons of the silk
moth. Do you know which part of
the sheep’s body yields fibres? Are
you aware how these fibres are
converted into the woollen yarn
that we buy from the market to
knit sweaters? Do you have any
idea how silk fibres are made into
silk, which is woven into saris?

13. • Wool comes from sheep, goat, yak
and some other animals. These wool-
yielding animals bear hair on their
body.
• Why do you think these animals bear
hair on their body?

14. • The hairy skin of the sheep has two
types of fibres that form its fleece: (i)
the coarse beard hair, and(ii) the fine
soft under-hair close to the skin.
• The fine hair provide the fibres for
making wool. Some breeds of sheep
possess only fine under-hair. Their
parents are specially chosen to give birth
to sheep which have only soft under-hair.
This process of selecting parents for
obtaining special characters in their
offspring, such as soft under hair
in sheep is called selective breeding.

15. • The fleece of sheep is not the only
source of wool.
• Wool is also obtained from goat hair.
The under fur of Kashmiri goat is soft.
It is woven into fine shawls called
Pashmina shawls.
• The fur (hair) on the body of camels is
also used as wool.

17. PROCESSING FIBRE
INTO WOOLS
THE WOOL WHICH IS USED
FOR KNITTING SWEATERS
OR FOR WEAVING SHAWLS
IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT
OF A LONG PROCESS, WHICH
INVOLVED FOLLOWING
STEPS:

18. STEP I
The fleece of the sheep
along with a thin layer of skin
is removed from its body.
This process is called
shearing. Machines similar to
those used by barbers are
used to shave off hair.

19. Step II
The sheared skin with hair is
thoroughly washed in tanks
to remove grease, dust and
dirt. This is called scouring.
Nowadays scouring is done by
machines

20. Step III
After scouring, sorting
is done. The hairy skin is
sent to a factory where
hair of different
textures are separated
or sorted.

21. Step IV
The small fluffy fibres, called
burrs, are picked out from the
hair. These are the same burrs
which sometimes appear on your
sweaters. The fibres are scoured
again and dried. This is the wool
ready to be drawn into fibres.

22. Step V
The fibres can be
dyed in various
colours, as the natural
fleece of sheep and
goats is black, brown
or white.

23. Step VI
The fibres are
straightened,combed and rolled
into yarn.The longer fibres are
made into wool for sweaters and
the shorter fibres are spun and
woven into woollen cloth.

24. Shearing a sheep

25. Scouring in tanks

26. Scouring by machines

27. Rolling into yarn

28. Life history of silk moth
The female silk moth lays eggs, from
which hatch larvae which are called
caterpillars or silkworms. They grow in
size and when the caterpillar is ready to
enter the next stage of its life history
called pupa, it first weaves a net to hold
itself. Then it swings its head from side
to side in the form of the figure of
eight (8).

29. During these movements of the head,
the caterpillar secretes fibre made of a
protein which hardens on exposure to
air and becomes silk fibre. Soon the
caterpillar completely covers itself by
silk fibres. This covering is known as
cocoon. Silk fibres are used for weaving
silk cloth. Can you imagine that the soft
silk yarn is as strong as a comparable
thread of steel!
EG :- Tassar silk, Mooga silk, Kosa silk.

30. The exact time of discovery of silk is perhaps
unknown. According to an old Chinese legend, the
empress Si-lung-Chi was asked by the emperor
Huang-ti to find the cause of the damaged leaves of
mulberry trees growing in their garden. The empress
found white worms eating up mulberry leaves. She
also noticed that they were spinning shiny cocoons
around them. Accidentally a cocoon dropped into her
cup of tea and a tangle of delicate threads separated
from the cocoon. Silk industry began in China and was
kept a closely guarded secret for hundreds of years.
Later on, traders and travellers introduced silk to
other countries. The route they travelled is still

31. a) Female silkworm
moth with eggs
(c) Larva (Caterpillar/
Silkworm) feeding on
mulberry leaves
(b) Mulberry tree
Leaf of Mulberry
(d) Cocoons
Rearing silkworms