Forensic Science Project Part II:Hair/ Fiber Analysis

Major Types of Fibers

Fibers today are an important essential in the world today because it helps in the making of clothes, rugs, mattress, and several of other objects. Forensic scientist should learn about the different fibers such as cotton, polyester, silk, nylon, and wool. There are very beneficial to them so they know how to tell what different fibers are collected from a crime.

Cotton

                 Cotton is a soft fluffy looking capsule that grows around the seeds of a cotton plant. Cotton has dated back to the 1600s and 1700s. In the seventeen hundreds machines were made to spin thread and weave cloth in huge bundles. Therefore, production will be more expedient. Even in 300 B.C., Alexander the Great brought cotton to the country of Europe but the price was too high. There is a process of producing cotton. The first step is when the cotton comes it goes into a specific machine that does the cleaning and picking of all the dirt out of the cotton. A carding machine separates cotton fibers from long to short . Then there is another process called spinning. In the process of spinning there are three procedures which are  draft , straighten, and then cotton is made for weaving into clothes. After the cotton has been inspected , then it is sent through gase flames to take off the fuzz off the cotton. The cotton boils in alkaline solution to get rid of discoloration. Finally, the cotton is bleached through other chemicals and dyed in a machine. Cotton has many uses and one of my favorite fibers. Cotton production companies put cotton under sweaters to keep me warm. Cotton is used for abundant of warm clothing and does not irritate my skin. In my personal opinion, cotton is very soft upon the skin and very valuable in modern day world. The main point that forensic scientist students need to know is that cotton is a very popular fiber and the fiber goes through a procedure in order for the cotton to be in clothing.

                                                                                                                        This is a picture of wool.

Wool can come from different animals such as sheep, rabbits, camels, and goats. Mostly wool comes from sheep. There are four processes of wool including shearing, sorting and grading, yarn, and fabric. First, you have to shear a sheep for its wool. The second step is sorting and grading of cotton. This means that you have to pick out all the dirt from the wool. This also means to separate all the wool fibers from bad to good. Next, the wool is washed in yolk to remove remaining impurities and then wool fibers are sent into a carding machine that untangles the fibers. After that fibers are made into a web. Then the web is transformed into ropes called silvers. The process of creating yarn relies on how long the fibers are. Lastly, the fiber weaves the yarn into different fabrics including jackets, pants, sweaters, and dresses. Wool in my opinion is warm to wear but can be irritating to the skin. I do not have an abundant amount of wool clothing because I think wool is not that popular to wear. Wool is used to make comfortable hats, scarf, and gloves so I have an absolute reason to appreciate wool.

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                                                                                                                This is a picture of silk.










                                                                                                               This is a picture of nylon.

Nylon is the second most important fiber in the U.S. Nylon was first used to make pantyhose stockings for women. The development of cotton came from the Chemist William H. Carothers. Nylon has very strong texture and is not heavy at all. Nylon is made by using molten nylon through a system called a spinneret. The nylon becomes hard by the cool air. Then the nylon fibers are wound into bobbins and are stretched after they cool. The stretching process of the nylon makes the nylon become elastic. Nylon is elastic, stretchable, not effected by heat, and quickly dries. Nylon is used for clothing such as swimwear, leggings, and pantyhose stockings.

                                                                                                                            This is a polyester fiber.

Polyester is the most used fiber in the world and was first created by company named du Pont de Nemours Company. Polyester  is the linking of several esters within a fiber. The chemical process to create polyester contains ethylene glycol and dimethyl terephthalate .These two chemicals together create a reaction that results in bisterephthalate . Polyester is resistant to mildew, shrinking, wrinkles, and most chemicals. An unfamiliar fact about polyester that I did not know that it is made from the same substance as plastic drink bottles. Polyester was created in Britain in the 1940s, then in 1950s it became popular household products such as drapes. In my personal opinion, I think polyester is irritating to the skin for me. Polyester also does cling to different objects.

All of tese fibers help me in my everyday life. These fibers can help people in case they are murdered they link these fiber to a suspect of the crime. These fibers are extremely important to me. I did not know Nylon is used in stocking and leggings. This was a very enriched insight detailed research about fibers. I knew that fibers could create  cloth but I did not know what types of clothing. For instance I did not know that Polyester was made out of the same substance as plastic drinking bottles. I thought to myself this is very weird but very insightful.Silk which is very pretty but is very irritating to my skin. I feel like i know so much about fibers than I knew before.

Citations for Research

"Cotton." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton>.

This website above gets the credibility of showing the true definition of what cotton is.

"Textiles." Oracle Think Quest, Education Foundation. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://library.thinkquest.org/C004179/textiles.html>.
This website gets the credibility for all of the research about wool,cotton,plyester,silk,and nylon.

Citations for pictures

"Microscope." Carpet and Furniture Cleaning, Disaster Restoration, Contract and Facility Cleaning Technical Bulletins. Web. 02 Dec. 2011. <http://www.cleanprosonline.com/microscope.html>.

This website gets the credibility of the visual image of nylon under a microscope.

"» Why Rugs Are Not Cleaned in the Home. RugChick.com." RugChick.com. Web. 02 Dec. 2011. <http://www.rugchick.com/2011/04/why-rugs-are-not-cleaned-in-the-home/>.

This website gets the credibility of the image that was wool shown under a microscope.

"Cloths under the Microscope." The Wonderful Microworld. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. <http://microbeauty.blogspot.com/2009/08/cloths-under-microscope.html>

This website gets the credibility of the visual image of cotton, silk, and polyester under the microscope.

 Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyester

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wool

Silk is very soft pretty,  slippery, and a fiber that dates all the way back to the 27^th century when Chinese had received  silk from silkworms. What the Chinese would do was break apart a silkworms cocoon and takes the silk fibers that were left in it. Chinese people would raise silk worms and this made the Chinese community be very wealthy because of this trade. The silkworm is fed with mulberry leaves, which can be yellow, green, or white with a sweet flavor. The production of silk goes into specific procedures. First, silkworms are fed with mulberry leaves. Second, silk can have a different grade such as low or high by what the silkworms are fed. Domestic tree leaves that are fed to silkworms produce a higher grade of silk. Silkworms that feed on oak leaves have a medium grade of silk. Next the silkworm has to be spun by tops of loose straws and   then the protecting coverings  are killed by a heating process. Lastly, silk is used for curtains, draperies, scarves, and dresses. Silk is a smooth, cool and very comfortable material. There is a sensation that I get from silk. Silk is a very beautiful piece clothing fiber to wear to any function to look extremely nice in.