WOOL STUDY IN U.S.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30126, 9 May 1963, Page 17

WOOL STUDY IN U.S.

N.Z. Scientist

Leaves

One of two New Zealand scientists who are going to work overseas for the International Wool Secretariat has left New Zealand for the United States. He is Mr R. G. Stewart, the wool-scour-ing research officer of the Wool Industries Research Institute in Dunedin. i A chemist, Mr Stewart is going for a year to Lowell, in Massachusetts, where the International Wool Secretariat is building up a demonstration plant.

The chairman of the executive of the Wool Industries Research Association, Dr. A. E. Henderson, said this week that Mr Stewart would be working on the problem of so-called red fade of carpet wools. He said it was a peculiarity of dyeing that seemed to be associated with some New Zealand wools used for carpet-making. It would be Mr Stewart’s job to find ways and means of overcoming it, he said. When the main purpose of Mr Stewart’s trip overseas had been fulfilled, Dr. Henderson said that it would be valuable if he could visit European wool-scouring centres.

Later, Dr. D. A. Ross, of the Wool Research Organisation, who has also been working at the Wool Industries Research Association, will also go to Lowell for one to two years. The director of the Wool Research Organisation, Mr N. F. Roberts, said that Dr. Ross would leave New Zealand in July. After addressing the Massey College Wool Association conference in the first week of July he would spend a period familiarising himself with carpet manufacturing and testing before leaving New Zealand.

Mr Roberts said that Dr. Ross would be looking mainly at techniques for artificially crimping coarse wools to improve their usefulness for carpets.