Only A Pillow

Katie Peterson
December 2, 2013
Big History, FYE 2000, section 1










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When looking at one small object today one may not think of its entire history but
many aspects of the object can be connected back to the beginning of time. An average
pillow, used by millions all over the world is made up of cotton and polyester however its
history is not just from the first pillow made from these two materials. The history of its
particles, the sewing machine, the growing of cotton, scientific advances to create synthetic
materials, and even more lead to aspects that connect to each of the eight thresholds of
history from big bang to present. Being away from home, at college, is difficult but my
pillow gives me a small piece of home. It is something I can hold when I feel scared, I can
dream on it, it holds my laptop while I type an essay in bed, and so many other uses.
The beginning is something not many know about but for scientists today it is
known as the big bang. Indeed, the very idea of a before may be meaningless, as it is
possible that time itself was created in the big bang along with space, matter, and energy
(Christian 2014). The Perfect conditions, known as the goldilocks conditions, were present
to set free the rapidly expanding universe that now holds all matter and energy and that
makes up our current universe. Gravity was one of the four fundamental forces created
during the big bang that some may forget about but is very important. It is the pull that
would make the creation of all other things possible. The most miniscule building blocks of
all elements and matter, we know today, were created during this time.
Threshold two and three are of creation. Before this most atomic matter existed in
the form of vast clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms (Christian 2014) the intense heat
and density caused protons, electrons, and neutrons to collide and smash together to create
Hydrogen and helium. These two elements, by gravitational pull towards one another,
became more dense and formed clouds of very concentrated elements. As the atoms
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become closer together gravity rises. Without gravity the elements would not condense.
Slowly, as the matter concentrates into an even smaller space the matter will become a star
if Goldilocks conditions, a perfect combination of temperature, density, and mass, are
present. Stars after being lit up from the exertion of so much heat and energy began
forming new elements. The hotter a star burns the faster and easier the hydrogen and
helium collided to make new elements up to Iron on the periodic table. A star will not
create elements higher on the table because it would lose energy in the process. Only when
a star goes supernova and explodes is there enough energy to create all other elements.
My pillow is made up of cotton and polyester, which both contain elements that
were created during the first three thresholds but also some that are man mad in a
laboratory. Polyester is made up of Carbon, Hydrogen, oxygen, and hydrocarbons. The
hydrocarbons were not created in any of these three thresholds however. Cotton is made
up of elements that were created in stars including hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. None of
the fundamental elements in my pillow need a super nova to be created however the
machinery, people, life, laboratory, etc. needed to make this product can rely on elements
created from supernovas.
After supernovas blasted out all of their elements all over the universe the matter
began to clump and orbit around stars. It was a mixture of different and heavier elements
and matter that formed together into new objects different from stars with more
complexity and physical properties that later expand into greater complexity. This is where
the sun and earth are formed. All of the matter that orbits stars can become planets. When
you include planets, their astronomical objects called moons, asteroids, and the sun they all
orbit it is called a solar system. The earth began as a big ball of lava because all of the
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elements it contained were very hot as they became one. The earth was cooler on the
outside and hotter in the core. This fact is still true but the surface is now cool enough to be
a solid. Even though it is a solid crust it is in plates that slowly move over time.
Earth is a necessary aspect of my pillow, without the earth there would be no person
to need pillows while they sleep, no plants to grow cotton, no soil for cotton to grow, no
water for plants, no nothing. Earth laid out the groundwork for future needs of my pillow
creation. Earth did not begin in a state that was able to house life but eventually after the
molten crust cooled the atmosphere, the oceans, land, etc. were all created. It continuously
stays very hot in the core but the outer crust is cool. These things are all very significant in
the layout of when life was created in threshold five.
The more complex chemicals along with energy bound together to create live cells.
These cells capable of reproduction, maintaining an internal balance, contain complexity
and order, have a metabolism are what encompass the creation of life. All life has evolved
from these beginning cells. There is a gap in science for exactly how the chemicals bond to
come to life but it is there. Eventually with evolution and natural selection different
organisms were created. The evolutionary process of all creatures is caused by natural
selection of organisms over a very long period of time. Natural selection is when one
attribute possessed by various individuals and it provides them with an advantage over
others and they can effectively reproduce than those without that certain trait. Mostly in
the beginning of life there was only single celled organisms but after a outrageous amount
of time many other more complex organisms evolved including plants and animals.
Cotton is a product of a cotton plant that is then picked and transformed by humans
into different materials such as the one of my pillow. Cotton remains the most miraculous
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fiber under the sun, even after 8,000 years. No other fiber comes close to duplicating all of
the desirable characteristics combined in cotton (National Cotton Council of America
1953). It is so different from anything else grown in nature and only in recent times has
there been a synthetic version of it. There are only two types of cotton that are native to the
Americas. (Francis 2009). Plants evolved after the creation of life but plants had to evolve
over an enormous amount of time to become the astonishing cotton plant we know today.
Humans are also a very important life form that would not be present today without the
beginning growth of living organisms. Homo Sapiens emerged in the very latter part of life
creation but had common ancestors during this time as well.
The emergence of hominines during the sixth threshold was just the beginning
development of humans. Many different species evolved changing the characteristics that
made them similar and creating many new species. Once Homo sapiens differentiated they
advanced and collective learning appeared as well as complex languages were formed
leading humans to change the world. Many of the pre-Homo Sapiens species are extinct
however some primates shared a common ancestor with human beings and are till alive
today including Gorillas and Chimpanzees. The brains of humans were larger in
comparison to the body size, differences between males and females decreased, the jaw
reduced, and they were even more adapted to bipedalism. They were living in small groups
and living as mostly hunter-gatherers. Human beings were the first animals to make more
advanced pillows others have been know to use items in nature as headrests while they
sleep.
We are very complex creatures that have evolved from slightly less complex
creatures but once we completely became a new species Homo sapiens outgrew their close
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relatives. Humans use pillows while hey sleep to support their heads and keep their necks
from hurting. They may not have used pillows during this time but eventually they will.
Collective learning enabled humans to pass on information to future generation without
the time consumption of solely evolution. During this time humans lived mostly in harmony
with nature unlike in the future years where they will change everything around them.
Threshold 7 is the time of complexity that focuses on agriculture and the further
development of Human beings. The capacity for humans to extract energy and food
increased as well as the population. People began to live in larger groups and settling
because the agriculture farms allowed for more food production. Innovations continued to
change the way crops were being grown so they could yield more but also people could
make money. However with the increasing agriculture the impact on the earth also
increased. Grasslands, forests, and other places were transformed to mile and miles of
fields taking away animals habitats, changing the soil, and many other consequences.
Cotton is just a plant but has made a huge impact on the history of humans and the
earth. Cotton is normally grown in very large fields and must be irrigated for it to survive.
These aspects changed the lands from natural spaces to farmland and this changed people
as well. By the early 1840s, the demographic profile of the Old Southwest began to reflect
the emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in which large plantations with many slaves
fashioned the social and economic base of the regions identity (Rodriguez 2007). The
United States went to war in 1861 largely because of slavery. The main purpose of the
slaves was for growing cotton and tobacco without having to pay for labor. Cotton, even
before the Civil War and to this day is very important in trade all over the world.

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Lifestyle changes, increased population, cities, states, different social relationships,
and an increase in the use of resources mark the beginning of the eighth threshold. This
threshold is not over but continuing through current times. It is considered modern times
where people can live in cities and the lifestyle during the Paleolithic time has mostly
disappeared and changed into something completely different. There was the industrial
revolution that began in Britain that transformed the entire world with the revolutionary
new technologies that only continued to advance.
The groundbreaking time of the industrial revolution in Great Britain changed the
way cotton was made forever. However, the cultivation of cotton in the United States
impacted not only the economic power of the united states, but also much of the
international trade during the antebellum era (Rodriguez 2007). The cotton gin was
created and vastly amplified the amount of fabric that could be produced in a certain
amount of time. During the many years to follow new inventions continued to enhance the
way people lived and how products were made. Factories were and still are used today to
house the machinery and are where fabric is made.
During this time, in the twentieth century, was when chemists learned to
synthesize substances that had never before existed and to specify their properties. With so
many different plastics available to us we no longer recall just how radically such materials
as vinyl and polyethylene extended the limits of possible (Meikle 1995). Polyester was a
monumental step in creating synthetic material. It was not only new but mimicked cotton,
which no other natural thing could do. Fossil fuels are not in my pillow but to use the
machinery to sew the cotton, many aspects that go into the creation of polyester, and other
things as well there must be fossil fuels to run them. The fuels that burn in not only the
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creation of my pillow but in many other places all over the world have caused a change in
the environment.
Trying to picture the future of the world is like writing your own fiction story and
piecing it together with every other futuristic idea and putting all of them together. I mean
who is to say that something that we call science fiction will not eventually come true.
Pillows are not a new concept; they existed before cotton and polyester were even used for
them. People have already invented pillows of different materials to enhance the benefits
for their users but they could advance even further. Innovation, the concept and activity
that made Dr. Johnson shudder, has turned out to be a distinguishing characteristic to the
United States. It is not simply invention; it is inventiveness put to use (Evans 2004). The
United States has and will continue to invent objects that are mindboggling and people
keep implementing the technology into everyday use. Eventually people could make
pillows be shaped to fit each individuals head or built into the mattress or one that is
mechanical and eliminates nightmares. Pillows will most likely always exist as long as there
are humans who sleep but they could eventually be changed to eliminate the use of cotton
and polyester. Who knows? The future holds the answers that have not even had the
questions asked yet.
Today scientists can categorize time into so many different parts but one way they
can spate it is by complexity thresholds. Our textbook puts all of time into 8 major
thresholds starting from the big bang. One may think that a simple pillow made of cotton
and polyester would not be able to connect to some part of each but it can be in some way
or another. Pieces of the particles of every object today, with mass, were created almost
immediately after time was created. Then with the formation of planets and earth, which
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eventually led to the beginnings of life. The cotton plant is alive and lives on earth, which
may seem like an obvious statement but what if there was no Earth or life? On earth life
grew in complexity until very recent years when humans came into existence. People
cultivated lands to grow cotton and ultimately invented polyester. There are still advances
being made by companies to improve pillows. In future years they may not look anything
like what they do today but will be used for the same purposes, or different ones like for
me. The now have light up pillows that play music, ones in the shapes of pets, ones with
hard surfaces to use as table desks, what will come next?















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Christian, David. (2014) Big History Between Nothing and Everything. 2 Penn Plaza, New
York. McGraw-Hill Education.
Evans, H., Blucklang (2004) They Made America: From Steam Engine to the Search Engine:
Two centuries of Innovaters. New York: Little, Brown
Francis, J. Michael, Cotton Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. Santa
Barbara; ABC-CLIO, 2005. Credo Reference. 7 Jan 2009. Wed. 30 Sept. 2013 <http://
ezproxy.dominican.edu/login?quil=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abciba
mrle/cotton>
Meikle, J. L. (1995). American plastic: A cultural history. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers
University Press
National Cotton Council of America., & Cotton-Textile Institue, (1953) Cotton from field to
Fabric Memphis.
Rodriguez, Junius P., Short-Staple Cotton Slavery in the United States: A social, political
and Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Credo Reference. 25
May 2011. Web. 30 Sept. 2013<http://credoreference.com/entry/abcslavery/short
staple_cotton>