THE HALL-MARK OF WOOL.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12509, 23 May 1906, Page 6

THE HALL-MARK OF WOOL.

Despite one or two cases last season of bad sorting, which can hardly have been purely accidental, New Zealand wool as a whole leaves the colony in excellent condition. But wool, like most other raw materials, lends itself to the arts of the swindler. The fact that it is extremely absorbent waa for long reoognised as affording opportunity for .fraud, and the process of selling water for wool was at one time carried to such an extent at Home that it is j said to have been a standing joke m the north of England that if the yarns and "tops" bought by Bradford manufacturers were thrown against the wall they would leave a wet mark! This j meant that unscrupulous dealers were d&turating the wool, and as it was sold by weiffht the {mjer s OOll found that a large proportion of Jib purohagy evaporated. To combat this wholesale swindling tho city of Bradford, the centre of the British, woollen- industry, whither much New Zealand, wool finds its way, instituted one of the most successful municipal enterprises in the 1 world—the Conditioning House, m which the quality and condition of the raw wool are examined and tested. The movement for the establishment of this institution began twenty years ago, but it was not until five years later that Bradford took advantage of the legislative powers it had secured, erected a conditioning houee, and began to issue official certificates.* Such success attended the operations that ten years later it became necessary to provide more accommodation for the business, and the municipality now owns and oontrols a house which cost £30,000, equipped witu the most elaborate and delicate testing machinery, and every scientific applianco necessary for the work. The testing of wool to ascertain its true weightwis not by any moans the only ; work carried on, but it appears, from an article in the "World's Work," to be 1 ono -of the most frequent. CareI fully weighed samples aTe taken from ! the raw material, and these are divided jinto three parti, two of them being J submitted to separate tests, while the third is held in reserve, in case of discrepancy. A sample is weighed in extremely delicate scales, and is then placed in the testing ovens, the heat of which is carefully regulated to about 230deg. Fahr. A parr of scales is attached to eaoh oven, one arm being inside and the other outside. The wool is placed en the inside scale, and a corresponding weight on tho outside ono. ! "As the water is evaporated from tho wool within under the influence of the heat, tho external end of tho beam descends. The locs of weight by evaporation is ascertained by means of oompensating weights, placed in a i «mall scale tray hanging from I the same arm as that reaching into ! tho oven." . It is, therefore, an easy matter for the operator conducting the test to ascertain the decrease in weight of the sample—usually one-sixth of the gross weight—amd from that to oaku- . late tlie proportion of moisture in the original bale. A certificate setting out tlie condition of tho bale—the hall»mark of the wool—is then sent : to the buyer or seller. But as abso- | lutely diy wool is unknown, outside an I oven, something has to be allowed for j it regaining moisture from the atmosphere", and tho "regain"' allowed by the Conditioning House varies from 8J to i IBi per cent., according to the material under test. This ''conditioned weight forms, we are told, the basis of all transactions. The number of tests made in the year amounts to about 180,000, and they affect raw material weighing more than eighty million pounds and worth six millions sterling. The fees earned by tho House come to some £8000 a year. The House's chief title

to celebrity is that it has extinguished the swindler, but it is alsb noteworthy Hi being '« practical proof that Germany and America have not, altogether surpassed Great Britain in tiie application of science 'to industry. Tor the Bradford Conditioning House's decisions are "received without question all the world over," and its laboratories and equipment are declared to be a model to the rest of the world.