Introduction
Very long and very thin, fibres take many forms. Eat an orange and you may get fibres between your teeth. Houses are insulated with fibres. Clothes are made from them. Pages you write notes on are just thin flat sheets of matted fibres. Fibres are everywhere.Keep this question in mind as you work: Where do they come from? This page will give you links to information about many types of fibres and you are asked to work out at least one way to classify them. Show your results as a table. Be prepared to justify your schemes.
- Explore these
Internet sites looking for facts, quotes, examples, images, sound
clips, videos, and animations that you think are important aspects of
the topic.
- Check for a copyright notices (usually at the bottom of
the page). Most of the time, you can use images, etc. for classroom use
only. If there is an e-mail link on the page, you can ask for
permission to use the work. Be prepared to cut anything that copyright
owners don't want you to use.
- Copy text by dragging across the words, right click and
choose Copy from the menu OR highlight and use the Edit - Copy command
on the menubar. Paste what you highlighted into a basic text editor,
word processor, desktop publishing program or multimedia program.
- Save images by right-clicking and downloading them. Save the images in a folder until you're ready to use them. Remember to name them using the proper three letter extension at the end of the file name.
- Once you have collected your information and examples, consider why you collected them and why they are important.
- Additional Resources at the bottom of the page can be used to find factual information on your topic.
The Internet Resources
- DIscovering Natural Fibres - another page in this reource which details many aspects of natural fibres
- Natural Fibre properites - Table comparing propeties of fibres and associated worksheet (pdf 32.5kB)
- Cotton ready for harvest and Field of cotton - Cotton fibres are attached to the surface of cotton seeds. When the seeds are removed the fibre is ready to be dyed and spun or used in good quality paper.
- Abaca or Manila Hemp and Abaca Natural Fiber, Manila Hemp - A very strong cream coloured fibre. You have probably met it as a manila folder. It is also used to make rope.
- Alpaca and Alpaca wool - These South American relatives of camels grow soft wool which is very warm. Several natural colours are available.
- Asbestos fibres and Handling asbestos fibres - used for many years to make Fibro cement building board, the fibres unfortunately caused cancer when inhaled into the lungs so synthetic fibres are now used.
- Banana Silk Yarns - banana stalks and leaves have long been used for fabrics, modern methods for processing banana fibers yield what is technically a rayon fiber.
- Carbon Fibre textile - Carbon fibre is very useful but how is it made?
- Optical fibers and Optical fibers - The Internet would not be possible without these fibres.
- Polyester Fibre in engineering - We are all used to warm fleecy jackets made of polyester but it has other used.
- Rock wool and Rock wool - visit Wikipedia entry, to find out how this product is made.
- Silkworm cocoons and Silk Sliver - silk "worms" are really moth caterpillars, when ready to change into adult moths they spin silk fibres to make a cocoon.
- Sisal plants, Wet sisal fibres and Sisal fibres drying - these plants are members of the lily or agave family and grow in tropical areas with hot, moist climates.
- Spider fibres used in technology, The wonders of spider silk and Spider silk - A very modern use for spider web is shown in this image.
- Stainless steel fibres and Stainless steel fiber - Used where high heat resistance is needed. Kitchen steel wool is not stainless and goes rusty very quickly.
- Textile hemp - Some interesting questions about hemp here.
- Unspun hemp fibres, Fine hemp and Hemp rope - Hemp (Cannabis sativa) The web page tells us 'This quality textile grade hemp fibre for handspinning has been combed and very well cleaned. Enzyme retted, vanilla beige in colour, slightly coarser than our very fine grade roving, the fibre has a very springy hand.'
- Wensleydale Sheep wool - Notice how long the fibres are, using the size of the hand as a guide, guess how long the fibres are.
- Wool fleece - This picture shows wool that has been shorn but not washed or treated.
- Cashmere
Directories and Finding AidsReference
- Ask Jeeves
- A natural language search engine that lets you type in a question.
- Librarians' Internet Index
- Large collection created by Librarians.
- MSN Encarta Encyclopedia Article Center
- MSN Encarta Encyclopedia
- KnowPlay Reference
- Nicely formatted mega-search page
- Askanexpert.com
- Expert volunteers answer your questions for free!
- How Stuff Works
- Great illustrations and animation often accompany the facts.
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