Pillow History

Pillow:

A pillow, or toss pillow, is a small, decorative type of pillow. No one really knows when the throw pillow was invented. We do know a few fun facts about pillows: The Chinese invented silk pillows, the ancient Egyptians actually slept on pillows of stone, Back in the day, some pillows were filled with straw instead of feathers or down, and the Industrial Revolution brought about the mass production of pillows (among other things).

pillows are usually placed on sofas or armchairs but are also frequently used on beds and day beds. Pillows serve both an aesthetic and a functional purpose. Decorative pillows are commonly used to tie in color accents within a room, often drawing on the colors in drapes, walls or area rugs. From a functional perspective, throw pillows provide back, neck and head support.

Pillows come in various sizes and shapes. The most common size pillow is 16 to 18 inch square. However, cylindrical (or bolster pillows), circular and rectangular pillows, are also popular. Outside the United States, pillows are more commonly referred to as cushions.

Pillow and decorative cushions are made from a wide range of textiles including silk, leather, microfibre or faux sude, cotton, solution-dyed acrylic, linen, and hemp. In recent years, decorative pillows have been revived as an artistic medium. Fashion designers have become increasingly attracted to the lucrative home textiles or furnishings market and this has led to a wide range of more embelished looks and styles.

Company logo pillows, sport theme pillows, and photo pillows can be silk-screened onto throw pillows for the personalized and custom unique look.

The Pillow Background

All people use throw pillows in some way - whether it is on their bed, office, or at home on the furniture as toss pillows. People usually have a few pillows on their bed and furniture. Today, pillows are stuffed primarily with materials such as polyester (a synthetic), down (very popular), standard feathers, or a combination of the latter two. The least expensive pillows to manufacture are polyester due to the competitive cost of polyester. Even though polyester pillows are the cheapest route to go, they are the most durable, easily washed, and cause the least amount of allergic reactions. The most expensive is the down pillow filled with goose down. Feathers are a moderately priced stuffing. Some higher-end pillows can be filled with a combination of goose and down feathers. The actual fill ratio of the pillow may be varied extensively according to price point (the more down fill, the more expensive). The custom pillow filling is distinguished by the tag on the pillow casing, which must be there by law in the event that the consumer may be allergic to the contents.

Pillows are still manufactured in great quantities in the U.S. They are also produced outside the country, but pillows are generally not imported to the U.S. Most transportation companies measure by volume making indoor and outdoor pillows extraordinarily expensive to ship. Some manufacturers in the U.S. have tried to have custom and stock pillows made out of the country where labor is cheaper in order to save money.

The shape and contents of throw pillows have varied little over time. The wealthiest rested their heads and feet upon richly custom cushions and bolster pillows. The Egyptians, regarding the head as the seat of life, lavished much attention, detail, and money on pillows for the dead. The Chinese, however, thought that soft pillows robbed the body of vitality, and their pillows were made of wood, leather, and ceramic materials. Some were even filled with herbal remedies to cure disease, turn white hair black, restore lost teeth, and inspire the sweetest of dreams.

For centuries, people slept fairly upright with not only a pair of pillows on the bed but a large, cylindrical bolster pillow as well. These bolsters, sometimes nearly the width of the bed, were stuffed with down or some other type of filling and closed up. They were placed against the headboard and were the foundation for the bed pillows. Then, a pair of pillows was placed upright against the bolster. The sleeper would prop himself up against these pillows, resulting in a sleeping position that was closer to sitting than reclining. Until about the mid-1800s it was thought this position was better for the body. How times have changed!

Other fancy toss pillows were found on beds of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sometimes large, square pillows were placed within a decorative pillow cover and then placed against the pillows actually used for sleeping on a bed. These were often taken away from the bed before going to sleep. Until cotton became easy to obtain in the mid-1800's, American women showed their sewing skill by carefully hand weaving and sewing linen pillow cases and marking them with their initials and the number the case was within a set of pillow cases. As the American textile industry flourished throughout the 1800s, covers for pillows went from utilitarian linen to the sturdy cotton ticking, still seen on pillows and in fabric stores.

The traditional filler for pillows was, until recently, down and feather. However, as fabrics changed, so too did yarns. Synthetic polyester filling has replaced natural batts as it is has acceptable loft and shape retention, is relatively inexpensive, may be washed, and few people are allergic to it.

The batting, or filling, itself is the most important part of the pillow. The most expensive filling is down. This is the light, fluffy undercoating of waterfowl, consisting of clusters of filaments growing from a central quill point. Down has a quill point but no quill shaft and is more resilient as a result. It is three-dimensional and therefore has more loft. Thousands of clusters are found in down that trap warm air to prevent heat loss. Duck down is smaller, more plentiful, and less expensive. It is important to note that not all down is the same. Down is rated by fill power, which is the volume of space in a calibrated cylinder that 1 oz (28 g) measures. The higher the number, the better the fill power.

Feathers are the principal covering of birds. They are flat and two-dimensional with a hard, tubular quill shaft that runs from one end to the other. Because they are flat, they are unable to effectively trap air and warmth. Feathers are strong, but not terribly soft. Duck feathers are the most common type of feather used in American pillows. Many manufacturers combine down and feather to make an affordable, comfortable pillow.

An other type of filling is polyester, a synthetic material. The cheapest polyester used for pillows is a continuous solid filament polyester which has good initial shape but loses loft fairly shortly. A better grade of polyester is called hollofill, which is also a continuous filament fiber but has a hollow core that gives the pillow more loft for a greater period of time than cheaper grade polyester.

The pillow filling determines the fabric chosen for the pillow casing. While the casing is generally cotton or cotton-polyester, the weight and closeness of the weave varies according to filling. The feather and down filling require a more expensive, very dense, tightly woven fabric that will keep the feather shafts from poking the sleeper and keep the fine down from working its way through the cloth. Polyester batts do not require such closely woven fabrics. These fabrics may have a starch placed on them during their manufacture to make them stiffer and more resistant to penetration. The only other material required for pillow manufacture is a sturdy thread for sewing the pillow itself.

The following process will describe the construction of a polyester-filled pillow, an inexpensive and commonly produced pillow. It is a small-medium size operation which produces between 2,000-3,500 pillows every day. The largest manufacturers of American-made pillows produce between 10,000-15,000 pillows each day.

1. The pillow covering must be constructed first. Sturdy cotton or cotton-polyester fabric is shipped to the factory in huge bolts. The fabric must be treated or calendared so that the sewn casing may be blown apart and easily separated during filling. Once calendared the fabric is taken to huge tables and cut apart—dozens of layers at a time—with either heavy shears or fabric cutting machines.

2. Stacks of rectangular-shaped fabric are taken to the sewing machines. In fully automated plants, automatic sewing machines are used to grab the fabric and sew them together. These machines are quite expensive and many plants still opt for people to do this work. In this case, a machine operator takes two pieces and sews them together around the edges, leaving a space of approximately 6 in (16 cm) open in order to stuff the pillow. As the operator sews the edges together, the tag that lists the pillow's contents is attached. The operator then turns the pillow covering inside out so that the seams are on the inside of the case.

3. The casings are moved to the pillow machine, which blows the polyester filling into the pillows. The machine has been loaded with polyester in one of two ways. More expensive machines need only to have an entire bale (about 600 lb [272 kg]) of polyester inserted into the machine and the machine unloads and combs it. Less expensive machines require an operator to unload the blowing machine blows polyester filling into a pillow case. The blowing machine blows polyester filling into a pillow case and baled and tightly packed polyester by hand. Once the polyester is inside the machine, the blowing machine combs the polyester so it is fluffy and has some loft. The 6-in (15-cm) opening in the pillow covering is slipped onto a tube on the machine. Then, a blower pushes the polyester into the casing. Some machines can fill up to 100 pillows an hour.

4. When the pillow is filled, it is taken to another station and workers close the opening in the pillow case using an industrial sewing machine. The pillow is weighed at that time to ensure that it includes the requisite amount of batting.

5. The completed pillows are moved to machines for bagging them. The machine blows air into thin plastic bags to open them up and then inserts individual pillows. The bagged pillows are placed into boxes, ready for shipping.

The process described above is really quite labor-intensive as it includes many workers on the floor of the factory in order to fulfill the requirements of manufacturing pillows. As a result, these operators are able to scrutinize the quality of virtually all aspects of the manufacturing process. Operators are vigilant that the dozens of layers of fabric are carefully put down on the cutting table so that the fabric is not askew prior to cutting. This guarantees that the casings can be quickly and evenly sewn. Sewing the casing of the pillow requires careful work and is monitored by supervisors as well as sewers. Polyester batting must be de-baled by hand (metal bands are removed from the large bales) and are examined to ensure that the quality is suitable for pillow inclusion. As operators load the blowing machine with polyester they examine the equipment for defects and inefficiencies. Workers are present as the pillows are blown with batting. Then the stuffed pillows are weighed to ensure that they are the weight represented in the labeling.

The primary byproducts of the polyester-filled pillows is the metal baling bands used to bundle and transport the polyester batt. This metal is desirable for recycling; one company has neighborhood recyclers pick this up free of charge and recycle it (they may be paid a fee for the scrap metal). Cartons are picked up for recycling a well. Because the fabric is generally produced and calendared elsewhere, bleaches and finishes are not a part of this operation. Polyester fibers themselves are not prone to becoming minute airborne fibers. The 2-in (5.8-cm) or 3-in (7.6-cm) cut lengths of fiber generally do not get into operators' lungs and are not the health-hazard that other fillings are. Down, with its very short filaments, creates a great deal of down dust, and it is imperative to use masks to protect the lungs when working with down and, to a certain extent, feathers.

Pillows have varied little since they were first used. They are now also made with blends of hypo-allergenic fibers so that even people with allergies or extremely sensitive skin are able to enjoy their comfort. In this age of therapeutic remedies, some pillows are reverting back to the Chinese method of including herbs to relieve aliments and give a better nights rest. Orthopedic pillows are also advancing rapidly. They are filled with or surrounded by foam (some even contain gel or water that can be heated or cooled) that is either already formed or forms around the head, to fully support the neck. These pillows help to relieve neck, back, and lumbar pain. Some help to keep the head elevated to relive congested lungs, sinus problems, and puffy eyes. One company even markets a pillow with an undetectable speaker built in that plugs into the headphone outlet in a stereo.