ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on fibre-reinforced materials. The concept of fibre-reinforced materials had its origin in nature in the structure of wood. In metallic structures, the building unit is the crystal whilst a polymer is an agglomeration of large numbers of long thread-like molecules. A glass consists of a mass of fairly large silicate units which are too sluggish in their movements to be able to crystallise. In living matter, both plant and animal, the simplest unit is the cell. As a tree grows, the wood tissue forms as long tube-like cells of varying shapes and sizes. These are known as tracheids but we may regard them as fibres which are arranged in roughly parallel directions along the length of the trunk. The chapter reminds the Pharaoh's directives to the taskmasters of the Israelite slaves some 3400 years earlier.
