WOOL FROM BLUESTONE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 147, 21 June 1917, Page 6

WOOL FROM BLUESTONE.

A NEW AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY, A less likely substance from which to spin wool than basalt rock, or, as it ia popularly called, blucstone, could hardly be found. Yet this unpromising material is being turned by the ton into pure white fleecy mineral .wool, and has an ever-increasing demand as an ator for packing machinery ot ice" chests','"' and as a substitute- for asbestos. The ' making of this wool is a new industry recently started in Victoria by an eif- ■ ferprising' American firm at YaTravlße, just across Williamstowri, within, the Werribee shire boundary. This mineral wool had long been made in Germanjfi but this, it is understood, is the first attempt" in Australia. The Footscray district, tfith its vast masses oi basalt, m an ideal spot for such an industry. The process of making is by the -melting down of ordinary Milestone with a proportion of freestone and limestone. Through the resulting fluid steam is forced at' an immense pressure,' arid the liquid stone thus aerated falls in flakes about the room in which the process. Is carried out. The wool thusformed lias a staple of about lAiri to. 2in. It is easily adaptable for engine packing, and is already in use in Yarraville factories; it can be moulded into sheets like asbes- , tos, to which, in view ijf the expense and difficulty of dbtaining first -grade' qualify, it is superior as a fire-proof material, and only the shortness of the staple militates against its use for. weaving. About 35 men are employed in manufacturing this novel Australian product.