Robert Klingensnit, age 13, of Gastonia, N.C., for his question:

WHEN WAS COTTON FIRST USED IN CLOTHING?

About 8,000 years ago the Aztec Indians grew cotton for textile purposes in Mexico. Ancient Persians also brought cotton growing methods from India about 5,000 years ago.

Many ancient people used cotton for clothing, binding sandals and even for harnesses for elephants. Early Greeks and Romans called cotton the fleece of tiny lambs growing on trees.

Alexander the Great first brought cotton goods into Europe in the 300s B.C. By the A.D. 700s, Italians and Spaniards were weaving cotton but the art didn't start in England until the 1600s.

In the 1700s, using cotton from the American southern colonies, English textile manufacturers developed machines that made it possible to spin thread and weave cloth in large quantities.