WOOL-WASHING MACHINERY AT COLBINALLBIN.

Bruce Herald, Volume II, Issue 41, 19 January 1865, Page 8

WOOL-WASH ING MACHINERY AT COLBINALLBIN.

(From the Australasian.) Ambngs!; other .undertakings and experiments of the enterprising- proprietors of this station is one .of much importance to the. wool-growing 1 ' interest in these colonies— namely, the testing*, .practically, and on a large scale, whether sheep cannot be most advantageously .shorn, in the grease, and the wool scoured on each station largely enough to allow of the ouilay on machinery. Thus only, wherevfJTß; c the scouring is performed, cap. the. wool be got up in the condition most suitable for the English market! The question of whether sheep can be /most profitably shorn in the grease or after having been washed, is being answered, by. the gradual abandonment by jthe owners of, the washing part of the business, and the sending to town each year of a greater proportion of greasy wooK 'This mode. of proceedingsaves trouble arid loss of time to theslieepowner, and the wool can be sent home to the manufacturer in. 2l be,tter state for him than if it had been partially washed on, the sheep's back ; for. only partially washed can it be without" the. use of soap and hoc water. No arrangement of soaking, pens or length of swim can 'compensate: for" the absence of these. ; /Qoarse wool can. be thus/effectually cleaned on the sheep j but not merino wool,.,the yolk of which, iSjJt-QO abundant, and too .insoluble when^)^g v secreted and hard irom exposure . touue thus removed. . The best system, of spoutwashing cleans it thoroughly,, but not without much injury and knocking" about of the sheep during the process. When the more soluble, part of the } r olk has been washed away in cold water, the final removal^of the residuum and of the stainsfrom it is rendered more .difficult; therefore the manufacturer prefers fine, wopl y either in the grease or after having been .thoroughly ..scoured, Now, -the question as to h.6'w the sheep owner here can best and most profitably. .meet the views .of the manufacturer oh all points in regard to thegetiirig, up of his wool, is just that which the Messrs.. "Winter are solving for themselves,, nn'd we Jiaye". their permission to .give-,.igj:.th"&iri:Toi"mation of other members"? of the- interest, to which the belong-, M fewj| of the results already arrived at from the work of this season, so far as it . has gone. And not only are these of consequence tothe producers of this great staple of ours', but to the whole .community as well; for the construction and erection ... ol the-ne-cessary -machinery for the scouring of all our wocl, either on the stations or at woolscouring, establishments, will afford employment to a large number.bf people, as will the additional work entailed by^the process, eacli year, and the successful accomplishmerit^of one^part of the businQss, and the greater familiarity w,ith machinery will, as a natural consequence, lead to,. the introduction of a little more machinery, and finally .to the completion of the, work of manufacturing all, the woollen -good's that we require for ourselves at least^. pro--tection or no protection.

The., appearance of a- regular factory chimney, and oi'no- nvan proportions either, on xi sheep station, may, perhaps, be taken as a sign of the good time coming, and this is the firs.t striking, object on the approach to Colbinailbin. .. Under a large-woolshed-like building is the w.qoKwashing" tnachiner}^ driven by a fine, horizontal engine of. thirty, five horse power ; in- fact, the same engine which did ; so much good work for the la.te railway contractors, Cornish and Bruce, at -their foundry at" (Jastlemaine. When set up there, no one supposed that such an engine would ever be removed to a sheep station j but it has, and when the. plans of its. .present owners are carried out, it will have, plenty of work to do in its new position. As yet, hows ever, it has only the wool»washing. ma«» chinery to drive j and '-this is by Petrie an.d Tay, : and similar, to .that which has been wpijtedfoiv some.; timjs past so satis^ factoriiy by Mr.Oddy,a^ his establishment beside the Yarra. The plan of these ma> r-hines- is. simple, and- they, are, in England, djeemed- the best in" use for -;this purpose.' For ,the information of rthdse who have hot seen them, wemay explain^ in a few words, that there 13 a series of forks or rake 3 .working with a circular: motion in longiron troughs or tanks, three rakes in each, which agitate the wool and pass it. alon^ . from .pne end of the trough to the other: The troughs .are of course filled with' water,, .and two or three can be u*«d in cehnexion,

as otl;er er -angements may; require. The Messja Winter uJMntjwo troughs, and the woocnl*pa4wed twice tft(%4ojh these ; but they hflvelrhnge soaking larWe?%at present unavailable for^Kjyit of a false "bettom, which they expect'Vill save the necessity for passing the wiol twice under the rakes, when it can be u*d. This tank is to be hea'e 1 by steam,«nd in it the soap will be put ; but at prevent the first of the two troughs is filled with hot water, the ordinary mode when Sese alone are used. At the end of each trough is a pair of rollers, -gfiie upper one heavily weighted, and bethese the wlolis passed, so that th« water may be squeezed out of it, and all lumps thoroughly Crushed Another object effected by the*, rollers here is the flattening and breamng of the burrs and grass seeds, so thattthese are muck more easily separated fro* the wool than when it has been so trsited. The ingenious drums, with projalting and retreating spikes or combs, torvaising the wool from the end of each troulh when driven thirher by the rakes, as well as the endless chains for conveying it "front one to the other, and the quickly revolvinc 1 fan for discharging it at the end, we neal not minutely describe; our object jist now being more to direct attention to thl results than to the mechanical means Sur attaining them. Suffice it to say that tie Messrs Winter are

determined to have xbese complete ; and with this intention, twsy have just imperial one of Petrie's pa tint drying 1 machines ijUmh an exhaust fan, yhich w/ll be set up at once, and fairly trie! before the work ot tliis season is^ver. ilt this time«©f year there is little or no trouble jp drying the wool on sheets in the sfn^but at the commencement of the shearing season the weather is often showery and uncertain, with little" sunshine fpv ways together, so that the bins get eliokeciup with wool, and the washing-machine has to be stopped — a serious matter when lo many men are require^ to attend on it alone, and a double staff ef these^ja'e fortdri}' and another for nignt, as<&^;n is not allowed to go down fiijpm als&p&y morning to Saturday night; and* when it can be dried, the washing|oi the wool is carried on during that time wnhoiit intermission, Thus the .wool drying apparatus is a necessity, and S h a press, wirorkeri also blithe engine, is t about to f c added, so that the clip of each ' day may* be Ported, scoured, dried, add pressed Mfithinf the twenty four hours. About enough wool to fillfjtwenty bales is now secured in ithat timej and when the arrangemeb^ttdßfComplet^ the quantity passed thrdufi^will be mufeh greater; thus it will takeia large shed full of shearers to supply the Machinery wits wool enough to keep ie ggoing. The woolshed on the station hastaccommodattan! ior forty men, and the machine will be able to dispose ii all that fallsifroni their hands at least. Up to the present t'ral^ -the on machinery anossettidfit up has been about £4006, so t^B? -little amount of work must be do^Ro get a return on this, and - the wool from the other stations belonging to the same jtowners will supply work, for some monthsfafter 'shearing' is over at Colbinallbin. I I Where theap is work enough for the machinery to doijthe question of profit or loss will, ofcoursa depend on the condition in which the wofd is turned out, and, therefore, the pric«it fetches, compared with >*. what it is wolbh in^ie grease, as well as on the weightt before and after scouring. And this veryanatter of loss in weight is the cause of mo. little difficulty between wool scourers fnd those who employ them, so that the fix agof a reliable seal« will be of itself not a rifling benefit. ; Something like a certaint on this point was, of course a necessity wit i the Mei^s Winter as the basis of all t eir cawMPions, and they tried many dii srent parcels of wool, with the utmost car in weighing, both before and afterbeinj scoured. The average loss of weight, as a mean of all thes« trials, was fifty per cent, wora fleece wool, forty eight per cent, from - wool, sixty per cent from pieces, smd seventy per bent from j locks ; and these, being the averages from ?heep f ee .*?*il|Eßltif >ver great variety oi cplintry Iwetwee i the Campaspe*; and the Goulbourn. ma« b^ taken as fair^verages .for the wool on* ahy ordinary run);, when this is neither li usually dirty nor\ unusually clean; ' No iing can be better than the condition of h« wool, which is as clean as soap and wat( '"can make it; butlrio alkalies or chemic Is of any sort are usecl for ■ bleaching ifc Sj and potash are cljeaper ttan soap, but jlVsme r«nd«r» tlia Vool

harsh,' ami tne ..other has a tendency to split the fibre when used in any' bttt the smallest quantities. As the obptii in this case was to re*n4gr ths wool?a^ .acceptable as possible to the. ihjyLufacturers, their wishes were consul tell,, and they recommend the addition of nothing but soap to the water before the reaches their hands, whe&vtfc is chemically treated according- to thelcincl^of fabric'itjs intended for, and the color itj^uo be dj'ed. The susceptibility of wool tor the fijjfcAtest colors is easily destroyed by injfflncious treatment, an.l its value thereby much impaired^ whatever the quality may be in other re^ speets. The best solvent of everything that ought to be removed in the preparation of wbol for market is the olive soap, made principally, \it is said:, of olive oil, and some of; that made by Daniel Salmond, of Bradford, for this, purpose, has been imported at a cost^ of about sixpence a pound. This is the mosV expensive sort oiNsoft soap but it is so mueik more effectual than any any other tried, that it is in reality clieaper, and it leaves the wool not only cleari\and bright, but very soft'",. and elastic to the touch, as if a portion of tile oil of which rhe soap is made had been absorbed during the process. It is surprising* to see the very dhitiest of locks and pieces put throug-h this machine, as they coma out equal in appearance to the fleece wool, in reg-ard to color at least. x With the loss of weighty, ascertained so closety as to leave little room" for error on this point, it is not difficult to calculate the advantages of having the wool thus prepared for market, and to see that these must be great. In the first place the *hf»ep suffer comparatively little from being shorn in grease. They are not chilled or drowned in the wash pens, and put off their feed, and so\educed in condition, by i eing kept from theifc^accustomed feeding^ ji^und and camping^jJaces for two or ' tbrefe^yeeks, while waitings to be shorn. '• WhertTshorn without being \ushed, they ire drive^to the shed one dayXnd away the next, wilbmit loss ,in number, or in weight, an advantage estimated at a good round sum by the^qwners of large flocks. Chen the difference In value between the scoured and the washed wool is so great^ while v the difference in weight is 60 trii fling, that a comparison in this way neecr scarcely be made. Proofs of the benejSt onscoimng are so numerous, that th&se neeaa.be scarcely insisted on at length jfind the main questiou is, whether this can be done profitably by the owners on enlarge stations qr not. The cost of carnage to the shipprag port is reduced by nrore than half, a no trifling item of saving on dis tant stations, the reduced? weight of wool is given tftgreater value/t)y far more than enough to cover all the working expenses and the in west of the money laid out on machinery^ Wool is scoured, sorted, and repaclu&Lf bj contract, at a little over 2d per jl%pn the i.lean wool, and with apparently a %ry good profit to the operator, so this may^be taken as the cutside of the cost to the owner ; and what fleece wool is there which, if worth say 14d a pound in the grease, will riot tfetch 30d. a pound when scoured, leaving^put ot the calculation the saving on paclfk and in other ways, besides the actual pro%t on the locks and pieces, which, if 6old\n their dirty state, scarcely pay for carriagik from any distance. Until the machinery is complete, and the whole plan carried 'but, the Messrs Winter will not be able to calculate very closely the actual cost of scouring, but their partial trial of the Eng-lish market with the first wool put through the machine last year, and the close observation of the loss of weight, and otherwise of the expense attending the use of the machinery during the whole of the present season, incomplete though it yet is, have convinced them of thjß saving Jo be effectecPßgMthe complettonhqf this, large as the total ajojjay will be. *^w