Word: cottons
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Colombians had offers from New Orleans ice-cream makers to import the country's exotic curuba fruit juice; Esteve Brothers in Dallas were thinking of investing in a cotton project; Cerro de Pasco Corp. was hoping to put new money into Colombian copper mines...
...China & Cotton. The changes are the price of survival for the old leaders. For years the biggest firms made only three standard types of carpets, all of them woolen and all on looms. The grades ranged from a low-price Axminster weave to a more expensive velvet weave, and a Wilton weave, costliest of all. The best wool for these rugs came from China, India and Pakistan. But in 1950 China slapped an embargo on all wool exports; India and Pakistan followed with stiff quotas on shipments, thus cutting off nearly 30% of the best grade of U.S. wool imports...
...South manufacturers of chenille bath mats started making full-scale cotton rugs with fast tufting machines in which 730 huge needles did the work of the old-fashioned looms. Instead of a bobbin and shuttle, the new machines pushed loops of yarn back and forth through a mat like a sewing machine, and did it seven to eight times faster than looms...
Using cheap cotton, the Southern firms made rugs that cost as little as $4 a sq. yd. ($10 for the best grade), compared to $9 and $15 for good-quality wool rugs. The new cotton rugs matted easily, soiled faster and absorbed more moisture than wool, but they could be cleaned at home. U.S. housewives found cotton rugs a good substitute, and rushed to buy. One former carpet salesman named Eugene Barwick started a company in Georgia on only $4,500, now has expanded his business into a whole line of tufted rugs with annual sales of $32 million...
Moths & Saran. Today, such firms as Masland, Firth, and Artloom have all switched over to the new tufted rugs. Besides cotton, the industry is now using new synthetic yarns. Masland has an allrayon rug that, it says, wears better and stays clean longer than cotton and has about the same resiliency as wool. Cost: about $10 a sq. yd. Firth has coated wool with vinyl plastic to make it wear longer; Nye-Wait and others have brought out nylon rugs that cost more than wool ($15 to $45 a sq. yd.) but wear better, are mothproof, and have a rich...