US paper currency isn't paper at all... it's a blend of 75% cotton lint and 25% linen. A 480 pound bale of cotton can be made into 313,600 $100.00 bills!
Sheer cotton muslin, woven in ancient India, was so fine that 73 yards of it weighed one pound!
In ancient Egypt, only the High Priest was allowed to wear a cotton garment.
Cotton is a member of the Mallow family of plants. The Arabic peoples called it "Qutun," which is where we get the word "Cotton."
Eli Whitney's cotton gin wasn't a new idea. The "Churka," invented in India 3,500 years earlier, was very efficent at ginning long staple cotton but ineffective on the short staple variety. Whitney's gin was the first gin to process short staple cotton.
Mills in Lancashire, England exported 7,000,000,000 yards of cotton fabric in 1913. That's an amazing 221.97 yards per second!
Between 1920 and 1922, the Boll Weevil caused cotton production in South Carolina to drop 70 percent!