For one-term/semester, sophomore/junior-level introductory textiles courses. Designed for an interactive, analytical approach to learning the basics of textile structures and textile performance, this text helps students understandnot just knowhow the components of textilesfiber, yarn, fabric, dye, and finish contribute to the performance of products for specific end uses.

PREFACE The purpose of this book is to provide a common background for students who are making a study of textiles. Some students may be planning to enter one of the many career areas that require some knowledge about textiles. Others may be interested in becoming better-informed consumers. Whatever may motivate students to enter an introductory course in textiles, certain basic concepts are essential to their understanding of the subject. It is our hope that these concepts are presented in a clear, logically developed format. The text begins with an overview of the textile industry. The majority of students are likely to begin their study of textiles without any prior knowledge of the origin, manufacture, and distribution of the wide variety of textile products they use daily. The first chapter presents an overview of the journey of textile products that begins with fiber production and goes on to manufacture of yarns or other components, to fabric production, to design, and to manufacture of the final product. It is our intention to set a context for the chapters that follow in which basic processes, rooted in science and technology, are explored in depth, beginning with the basic building blocks of fabrics: fibers. In subsequent chapters emphasis is placed on the interrelationships of fibers, yarns, fabric constructions, dyes, and finishes. What is known about each of these components is applied to the understanding of textile behavior and performance. The chapters build on each other, much as the textile structure itself is built, and summaries at various stages in the text review the properties that affect performance. We reinforce this view of analyzing component parts of a textile by case studies of particular end use products. Diagrams and photographs have been selected with care to illustrate the concepts and processes described in the text. Many students study in parts of the country where they have no access to field trips to textile manufacturing sites; therefore, we have included photographs of various types of machinery. Each chapter includes review questions that invite students to summarize and apply the concepts presented in the text. The recommended readings at the end of each chapter have been selected to complement the subject matter of the chapters. We have made a conscious effort to include both relatively elementary and highly technical material so as to introduce students to the variety of resources in the field. We have also tried to include readings from the most widely used periodicals in the field. An extensive bibliography, broken down under special subject headings, appears at the end of the book. After chapter 1 introduces the reader to the various elements from which textiles .are made, their historical development, and the present-day organization of the textile industry, chapter 2, a combination of the second and third chapters of the last edition, establishes the relationship of fiber properties to fiber behavior. It includes the chemical and physical concepts basic to understanding the behavior of textile fibers, and is written for the reader who has had little previous chemistry training. Students should be able to gain some understanding of these elementary concepts and to appreciate not only the integral role that chemistry plays in the manufacture and finishing of textile products but also the role of chemistry in the use and care of textiles by consumers. Often this kind of material is integrated into varying parts of a text. We have not done so here because a separate chapter on the subjects offers a better opportunity to explain elementary chemical and physical terminology and concepts and to relate these concepts to the science of textiles in later discussions. Some instructors may prefer to emphasize this chapter a great deal, whereas others may wish to discuss it only briefly. Either approach may be taken, and the chapter is divided in