The History of Elastic and Its Use in Clothing

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Elastic is a small narrow loop of rubber or similar material used for tightening, gripping, and holding of things with ease purposes. It has the quality of being stretched and then returning back to its original shape. Elastic has different names like rubber bands, gum bands, binder, and lacquer band.

The history of elastic has its roots back to thousands of years. The modern elastic band goes back to the mid 19th century. From the very beginning, man knew there were certain objects that would spring back to their original shape when the pressure applied on them was removed.

At first, this thing annoyed man but with the invention of fire and creating the wheel, man also thought of using elastics in his life. This property of elasticity was commonly showed by the animal parts, which man ate. Thus, the first elastic strings were born, which were made from animal gut to hold things together. With the passage of time, man realised that these strings of elastic could also be used as weapons. When a bullet was loaded in to these elastic strings, they were thrust through the air at a great velocity. This resulted in the invention of bow and arrow.

Rubber is a very popular elastic material. Many of the products made from rubber are bounced around, stretched, and pounded, and since they are elastic they return to their original shape. Because of this property, people use rubber in a lot many ways. It was named rubber because people found out it could rub the pencil stains. Rubber was used by the Early American Indians before Columbus even set his foot there. They called it Caoutchouc derived from the word cahuhchu meaning weeping wood.

This substance was obtained from the sap of the rubber tree. The original rubber bands in older days were made from the latex sap of rubber trees. However, today rubber bands are made from technology that is more modern and materials. The Mayans also added juice from vines to the rubber sap to create a durable and elastic material to bind things together. This was the first type of the rubber band. Later in 1845 modern rubber band was invented. In 1923, first mass production of rubber bands was started by William Spencer.

Other elastic materials have also several uses. Rubber has various uses in today’s world. Rubber is used for tires, elastic bands and other bouncy and stretchable objects. Elastic materials are also used in sports. Insulated, elastic balls are essential to many sports as non-elastic balls would deform when used. Basketballs, volleyballs, and soccer balls have to be elastic to allow them to their normal shape.

Elastic is used in clothing as well mostly for fitting purposes. Elastic provides a room for stretch ability and recoverability of clothes. The elastic waistbands are especially very much in use. They help you choose pants, trousers, etc of size smaller than your original waist, thus making you look slimmer. In addition, they can be used for a longer period, since they don’t get wasted if you gain or lose weight. They are adjustable. Elastics are also used for chest fitted gowns or shirts. They also act as an accessory to create various designs on your shirts. The elastic laminated sheet is also used in many articles of clothing. Such articles include shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, socks, athletic wear, swimsuits, shorts, medical and surgical garments et cetera. The stretch ability and recoverability in these clothes because of elastic sheet helps movements easy and make clothes more durable since they don’t get torn or ruptured.

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