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Central California and Australia produce some of the finest cotton in the world. The reason is that it never (well, hardly ever) rains in California and, using irrigation from the Sierras, the crop can be kept at the exact soil moisture necessary to optimize plant growth. The same situation exists in parts of Australia, where it truly never rains, but the water is supplied by Artesian wells. Never so dry that the crop is stunted or dies, never so wet so that fungus and weevils destroy the bolls. Egypt has had a similar situation for millenia.

One of the early pioneers in California was Theodore. When he moved from Colorado to California in the century-before-last and started growing cotton, he named the company The-Tell, after his hometown Telluride. (and, of course, himself).

A mere hundred years after The-Tell was founded, the then-management realized that cheap computers, with newly-developed inexpensive sensors and automated water dispensers, could actually apply the exact number of drops of water required for each and every cotton plant to maximize the quality and quantity of cotton bolls produced. So they did that. And they made wonderful cotton. Which they still do.

Unfortunately for The-Tell, about this very same time, synthetic fibers and films were developed which were both waterproof and breathable - and that's where the phrase "Cotton Kills" entered the lexicon.

So The-Tell research scientists started research to counter this synthetic threat. One characteristic of cotton is that it has a very high resistance to electricity. Hoping that a new flat-film battery technology carried by the user would allow a low-resistance fabric to cause an electric current to warm, dry and protect the outdoors user, The-Tell developed a natural optimal low electrical-resistance cotton for outdoor apparel. After years of earnest effort, they've dubbed the new technology "Papa", and called the new product "4 Ohm The-Tell Bolls".