WOOLLEN AND WORSTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1925, Page 8

WOOLLEN AND WORSTED.

RESEARCH INTO PROCESSES. ACTIVE WORK CARRIED ON. J (From Our Own Correspondent.) t LONDON, April 7. " We were able last year to send somei notes indicating the lines of research being followed by the British Research Association for the woollen and worsted industry, and that covering the year 1924 sliows still further enterprise on the part of the association. During tho past year it has been able to carry into effect a decision to build and equip a separate department for the study on a large scale of the problems connected with woollen carding and spinning.

It is found that there is an increasing application of the results of the researches of the association. Publications on mildew, the action of soap on wool, and the effect of alkali are stated to be in constant use. The Huddersfield Chamber of Commerce, the British Wool Federation, and the Worsted Spinners' Federation of Bradford have recommended their members to lend active support to the association, so useful have they been. During the year proposals were under consideration by the Home Office for the further limitation of the liumidifU-atioti of mills. The suggestions as originally put forward might have had the effect of stopping 'French" drawing and spinning in hot weather. A statement of the facts was therefore given to H.M. Inspector of Factories, and forwarded by him to the Government. The proposals, the report notes, have since been very substantially modified as a result of "the representations made by the association nnd other bodies. The Medical Research Board approached the association with regard to reducin" fatigue in using machines required in the industry, but the latter replied that the number and complexity of movements in the loom, and the amount of vibration in some weaving processes were points on which investigation might prove useful, although the association was not aware that any evil results had attended operatives as a result, of their employment in this section of the industry. It should be added that the association receives State aid. which is conditioned by the amount raised by the association in subscriptions from its members.