The Cotton Fiber Research Laboratory began in the Physics Department under the direction of Kenneth Hertel in the late 1930s. It was originally housed in the Geology department, but later moved to the new Physics building with the rest of the Physics department. When Hertel retired in the 1960s, Kermit Duckett (who studied under Hertel during his PhD program) assumed the directorship. When the United States Department of Agriculture constructed a research station on the University's Agricultural Campus, the Cotton lab moved to an adjacent building. It remained at this location until shortly before it was discontinued in the late 1990s.

The bulk of the lab's work throughout its existence concentrated on developing three instruments to measure the quality of cotton: the fibrograph (designed to measure length and length uniformity), the stelometer (designed to measure fiber strength and elongation), and the arealometer (designed to measure fineness and maturity). The lab also worked on an instrument to measure shear friction. Much of the research concentrated on building more accurate versions of these instruments, which were manufactured at Spinlab, a company started by one of Duckett's former students. The lab's work attracted the attention of several major textile and clothing manufacturers for its work in advancing the testing of cotton quality, and the lab entered into contracts with several of these organizations, including Cotton Incorporated.