MAKING "SHODDY"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 17 November 1928, Page 20

MAKING "SHODDY"

AN AMERICAN INVENTION Bradford spinners are interested in news of an American invention which may revolutionise the "shoddy" industry, and thus have an indirect effect upon the wool trade (writes the London correspondent of the Melbourne "Argus"). The new machine is called the Thompson unravoller, after its inventor, Df; Lewis Thompson, of Los Angeles. Itiis said to grind rags for remanufact'ure in such a way that the length of ' natural fibre is preserved. The rave^ wool^ produced has three times the 'wearing qualities of shoddy produced by existing ragi-grinding machines. The Thompson nnraveller produces not a fluffy material representing separate fibres, but collections of fibres still held together in a thread, and for this reason it may be unsuitable to'the: scribbling machines tat present in use in Yorkshire, as the fibre may not be sufSeiently broken up. The American scribbling machines can deal with a thread-like material unsuitable 'to British machines. There-seems to be no doubt that the running costs of tho Thompson unraveller are less than those of the English.-; rag-machine, but Yorkshire shoddy-makers aro waiting for further information before they seriously consider installing the invention.. As the "Yorkshire Post" points out, shoddy prices must be kept within wool prices, or the'demand for shoddy will cease.. Years of experience have shown shoddy-makers how to blend new wool with the old material when a finer quality of cloth is desired, and such adjustments may not be possible with the Thompson unraveller.