The Alpaca

Alpacas have co-existed with mankind for 5,000 years. The Incan civilization from the Andes Mountains in Peru elevated the Alpaca to an exalted position in their society. The imperial Incas clothed themselves in garments made from Alpaca and Vicuña. Museums throughout the Americas display textiles made by Peruvian culture named "Paracas" from Alpaca, Vicuña and original Peruvian cotton fibers.

The Spanish conquerors failed to appreciate the value of Alpaca fiber preferring the wool of the merino sheep from their native Spain. For a time Alpaca fiber was a well kept secret; however, beginning in the mid 1800's Alpaca was rediscovered by Sir Sirus Salt of Bradford, England and the the exporting of this fabric called " the other Inca gold" started and continues until the present.

The newly industrialized English textile industry was at its zenith when Sir Sirus began studying the unique properties of Alpaca fleece. He discovered that alpaca fiber was stronger than sheep wool and that it's strength did not diminish with fineness of the yarn. The Alpaca textiles he fashioned from the raw fleece were soft and lustrous and quickly made their mark across Europe. Today the center of the alpaca textile industry is Peru that has 3.5 million alpacas. Yarn and other products made from Alpaca have been marketed primarily in Japan and Europe, and with the new trade cooperation agreements with the Andean nations there is an increase on the development of markets for Alpaca garments in North America.

Today alpacas have found their way into the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England and various parts of Europe. A shipment of alpacas was smuggled out of South America in the 1860’s but it was not until 1984 that the first serious attempt was made to import alpacas into North America. The South American alpaca population has grown to several million, the population in the rest of the world is less than 10% of this total. Compared to the number of alpacas on native Peruvian soil the number of alpacas in other countries is minimal. Some references indicate over 80 percent of the alpacas world population is located in Peru.

The Peruvian alpaca knitters come from families with many generations of experience working the alpaca fleece and they receive support from Peruvian government to reach new markets.

The Spanish conquistadors failed to appreciate the value of Alpaca fibre preferring the wool of the merino sheep from their native Spain. For a time Alpaca fibre was a well kept secret; however, beginning in the mid 1800's Alpaca was rediscovered by Sir Sirus Salt of Bradford, England.

The newly industrialized English textile industry was at its zenith when Sir Titus Salt began studying the unique properties of Alpaca fleece. He discovered that alpaca fibre was stronger than sheep wool and that it's strength did not diminish with fineness of staple. The Alpaca textiles he fashioned from the raw fleece were soft and lustrous and quickly made their mark across Europe, see the whole story at the end of this document. Today the center of the alpaca textile industry is in Arequipa, Peru. Yarn and other products made from Alpaca have been marketed primarily in Japan and Europe.,

Compared to the numbers in their native South America, the number of Alpaca in other countries are somewhat nominal. Some references indicate over 99 percent of the World's three million Alpacas are found in Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

The Story of Salteire. A British town that was social conscious and devoted to the alpaca fiber.

Salts Mill Specialisation - WorstedSir Titus Salt was a social reformer. But he didnt see himself as such, just a liberal man who look for better working conditions for his workers.

Salt's success lay partly in specialisation of worsted wools and his particularly blending of alpaca and mohair with cotton warps. (the Salt and Silver book by Greenhalf is excellent here for clearly explaining the worsted production process and Salt's blending also of silk in combination with alpaca to produce the renowned stripped waistcoats - the historical analysis and blending of the characters of Salt and Silver, however, is umm a little odd).

Sir Titus Salt 1803–76, English textile manufacturer and inventor. He invented a machine for making worsted from coarse wool and a process for spinning and weaving alpaca. In 1851 he started to build, on the Aire River, extensive textile works and a model manufacturing town, called Saltaire, in which he attempted to embody his conceptions of ideal factory conditions for workers.

British Import of Alpaca Fiber on the 19 century.

1834 to5,700lbs

Salt undoubtedly became the leading manufacturer of alpaca since, although other manufacturers were involved in the developing trade, Salt's experience with Donskoi wool made him the leading manufacturer of mixed fabrics (a wool weft on a cotton or silk warp) and thus of the most favoured fashion textile. Alpaca imports equalled 199,00lbs

1835 Alpaca imports 184,400lbs

1839 1,325,500lbs of alpaca wool imported

Great Exhibition in London it is noted that of the worsted department: The most remarkable exhibition....is that referring to alpaca and mohair goods, or mixtures of these with cotton or silk; the trade in which has sprung up within a comparatively short period, and progressed with a rapidity and success unparallelled in the history of manufactures. One town alone, Bradford,has risen from the obscurity of a mere manufacturing village to the position of one of the busiest and wealthiest communities in the country yet its operations in trade are almost entirely confined to(this) class of goods

The Daybook of Sir Titus SaltSir Titus Salt (1803-1876) was a Bradford textile manufacturer. The daybook is a small notebook in which he recorded personal notes of special transactions and experiments between 1834 and 1837. The section of the book which researchers have considered to be most significant covers his experiments with "Peruvian wool" (alpaca). Salt had seen this wool in Liverpool in 1834 and became interested in its use. The hair of the alpaca, a relative of the llama, had been used for weaving as a warp or with a worsted warp but the resultant cloth had little to recommend it. Titus Salt and his assistants spent over a year working on the problems involved in spinning alpaca, then pioneered the use of alpaca weft with cotton or silk warps ; this produced a durable lightweight fabric with a sheen. The cloth became very popular and was the foundation of Salt's great success.

"Appreciated for its soft touch and variety of natural shades ... alpaca cloth is, in my judgment, the finest lightweight in the world. Alpaca is pure, it's resilient, it breathes. " John le Carré in "The Tailor of Panama".