Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having a long fiber: a commercial term applied to cotton of a superior grade, also called sea-island cotton. See cotton-plant.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having relatively long fibers
Examples
“Once it was established that this meant the producers could grow high-quality, long-staple cotton she was able to design the fibre into her new collection, as a series of cotton dresses.”
The Guardian: Give farmers a break ? treat cotton as a luxury
“Linen yarns, too, are spun out of both short-staple fibers, called tow, and long-staple fibers, called line.”
“Combed cotton fabric is made of combed yarns that contain the longest of the long-staple cotton fibers.”
“Cotton fabrics generally have low luster, but those made of long-staple cotton fibers have higher luster.”
“It engages, moreover, to establish on the long-staple cottons of the United States which after the exchange of the ratifications of the present convention shall be brought directly thence to France by the vessels of the United States or by French vessels the same duties as on short-staple cotton.”
“Mammy spun the candle wicks -- from long-staple cotton, drawing it out thick, and twisting it barely enough to hold together.”
“At all times since its settlement, Mesa has prospered, but its prosperity has been especially notable since the development, a few years ago, of the Pima long-staple cotton.”
Mormon Settlement in Arizona A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert
“In long-staple wool the amount of yolk is comparatively small.”
“An improved form of the roller gin is at present used for cleaning the long-staple Sea Island cotton.”
“The long-staple Egyptian and Sea Island cotton, so twisted as to leave the fibers as nearly loose and parallel as possible, show the best results.”
Lists
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My Modern Job in the Past
Words I come across at work.
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chained_bear "... the decline of the rice barons began with Eli Whitney's cotton gin. Cotton had long been grown in South Carolina, but only on the islands between Charleston and Savannah, where the 'long-staple' variety of the plant did well, staple being the fiber or wool in the boll. This premium strain would not grow in the rolling piedmont of the upstate, where only 'short-staple' cotton, with its coarser, shorter fiber, thrived. Short-staple cotton required never-ending handwork to clean, because its fibers clung to the seed more firmly than those of the long-staple variety, so the more common plant did not catch on—that is, until the invention of the cotton gin. Eli Whitney's cotton gin, with its revolving cylinder lined by teeth, pulled the seed from the raw fiber, and made the piedmont cotton profitable."
—Edward Ball, Slaves in the Family (NY: Ballantine Books, 1998), 300–301
This development, incidentally, also helped grow the domestic slave trade and perpetuate slavery, which many leaders of the 1780s and 1790s felt was on the verge of dying out in the United States. Oct 12, 2009