Woman Delegate’s Impressions Of Wool Research Conference

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27764, 15 September 1955, Page 2

Woman Delegate’s Impressions Of Wool Research Conference

NEWS FOR WOMEN

“Wool is a unique and remarkable fibre. Clothing .made from wool is acknowledged as being the most valuable. In spite of all the efforts those working With man-made fibres can use, they have ndt produced anything that can equal wool in all respects,” said a former Christchurch woman. Dr. Helen Thomson, senior lecturer in textile chemistry at Otago University, in an interview with “The Press” in Christchurch yesterday. Dr. Thomson, who attended the first international Wool Textile Research Conference, held in Australia from August 22 to September 9, will return to Dunedin this morning. She attended the conference as an independent delegate, and was one of three overseas women delegates at the conference. The other two were Dr. Margaret Hannah, a Cambridge University wrangler, lecturer in textile spinning at Leeds University; and Mrs Sunanda Naryan, who is in charge of the wool analysis laboratory for the Government of Rapasthan, Jaipur, India.

Distinguished Women Dr. Hannah is a mathematician working largely on spinning and drafting problems for the department of textile industries at Leeds University. Mrs Sunanda Naryan holds a fellowship of the Food and Agriculture Organisation to enable her to study wool and fleece techniques in Australia and New Zealand. She intends to visit Wellington in December and January. Dr. Thomson hopes that she will be able to induce her to visit the South Island. Several Australian women were among the delegates, including Miss Helen N. Turner, a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, who is principal reasearch officer for the division of mathematical statistics for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Among the new things shown at the conference, said Dr. Thomson, were socks made unshrinkable by two processes. One treatment was with nylon, and the other with casein. They were not similar to socks reinforced with nylon. The nylon treatment had been patented, and was available for consumers, but that with casein was not yet available. A delegate to the conference wore on one foot a sock treated with casein, and on the other, one treated with nylon to carry out actual wearing tests.

Moth-proofing Process Wool fabrics treated by a new moth-proofing process were z also shown. This fabric was not yet available, said Dr. Thomson. Scientists were trying the effects of this material on rabbits to see whether there was any toxicity. One delegate wore undergarments of wool treated in this manner to test the effect on the skin and the wearability of the garment. Another new thing shown was a sheep-branding fluid which had been introduced to Australia and was now m general use there. It could be applied to sheep in wet weather, and it was not difficult to remove. The old tarry branding fluids were extremely difficult to remove, and the flecks from them could often be seen m white felt hats, said Dr. Thomson She said it was very important to realise that a great amount of fundamental research had to be done before improvement could be made in the actual woollen industrv. The molecular structure and composition of insulin, which was a simpler protein

than wool, and which might not appear to have a direct bearing on wool, were also discussed at the conference. The molecular structure and composition of wool were extremely complex.

Notable Assemblage Eminent scientists, physicists, biologists, mathematicians, and economists from 11 countries attended the conference, said Dr. Thomson. They included two pioneers in wool research —Professor J. B. Speakman, who visited Christchurch this year and is head of the textile industries department at Leeds University, and Professor W. T. Astbury, professor of biomolecular structure at Leeds. Dr. Thomson worked under the direction of Professor Speakman at Leeds from 1944 to 1946.

The papers presented and discussed at the conference covered a wide range of problems—biological aspects of wool production, variations in quality with crimp arid fineness, improvements in yarn and fabric' manufacture to overcome loss of fibres and to ensure better control and quality, improved methods of scourihg, the finishing of wool fabric such as moth-proofing and shrink resistance treatments, and the structure of wool fibre and the protein of which it is composed. Among the displays in various laboratories which delegates visited in Sydney, Melbourne, and Geelong was a new solvent scouring plant for raw wool, which causes less disarrangement of the fibres and consequently less loss of fibres in the carding process, said Dr. Thomson.

There were meetings and discussions by workers in textile research and in basic sciences which have a direct bearing on textile problems. In a woolclassing room at Gordon Institute, Geelong, there was a symposium with manufacturers of woollens and worsteds.

In 1948, Australia had made plans for comprehensive wool research with Commonwealth S< '.entific Industrial Research Organisation laboratories in Sydney, Melbourne, and Geelong, said Dr. Thomson.

“If wool is to keep up with developments in man-made fibres, then it must have adequate and exhaustive research efforts on problems relating to it,” she said. Other N.Z. Delegates There were several other New Zealanders at the conference, Dr. Thomson said. Dr. L. F. Story, director of New Zealand woollen mills’ research organisation at the University of Otago, who had now returned to Dunedin, was the New Zealand Wool Board’s representative. Dr. V. Peryman, formerly of Canterbury, was one of the English delegation. He is scientific officer for the Wool Industry Research Association in Leeds. There were some amusing sidelights at the farewell dinner for delegates in the Hotel Australia, Melbourne, said Dr. Thomson. Clam chowder, on the menu in honour of visiting American delegates, turned out to be toheroa soup, because clams were unprocurable. Brought in by a bev' of waitresses in procession, saddles of mutton were surmounted by paper-enclosed lambs’ heads with clover protruding from the lambs’ mouths. “I hone it’s as good as prime Canterbury,” Dr. Thomson had remarked. As a saddle of mutton was left at each table, she had the opportunity to prove that it was. A quotation from Mrs Beeton on the menu was a dedication to the lamb. It read: "Of all wild or domesticated animals the shep is, without exception, the most useful to man as food, and the most necessary to his health and comfort.”