Needle

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A Fiber is a slender thread or string made from various materials like metal, copper, or other hard substances, typically thin and straight, sharpened at one end and finished in a small notch or handle to insert a strand. It has been utilized since ancient times for sewing. The earliest confirmed history of the sewing fiber dates back at least 40,000 years, but its origins could stretch as far as 60,000 years ago, considering a small bone tip discovered in 2006 in the Sibudu cave in South Africa, which might be the tip of a sewing fiber. However, verification that this is indeed a sewing fiber has not yet been achieved. The oldest confirmed sewing fiber known to date was unearthed by Slovenian archaeologist Srečko Brodar (1893 - 1987) in the Potok Cave, located in Slovenia's Karavanke Mountains, and is estimated to be around 41,000 years old. Later, during Europe's Upper Palaeolithic period, bone-sculpted sewing fibers became common in the solutrense (approximately 22,000 to 17,000 years ago) and Magdalenian (approximately 17,000 to 12,000 years ago) periods. As metals were discovered, sewing fibers began being crafted first with copper, around 5,500 years ago in Anatolia. Later, they were made from bronze and iron. It is believed that about a thousand years ago, the Chinese, during the Middle Ages, were the first to utilize steel fibers, and the Arabs introduced steel to Europe. Already by 1730, significant needle manufacturers existed in Nuremberg (Germany), and during Elizabeth I of England's reign, numerous needle manufacturers flourished in England. From prehistory until the 19th century, fibers with a notch were still crafted by hand, as they had been since ancient times and throughout previous eras. The first mass-produced metal notch fibers emerged on the market in 1826, but it wasn't until 1885 that machinery was developed to stamp the notch accurately onto the fiber. Sewing machine fibers, similar to regular fibers but with the notch at the bottom of the fiber, were later disclosed.