NOT A SUBSTITUTE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 16

NOT A SUBSTITUTE

Staple Fibre And Wool

GERMAN STATEMENT The Imperial Economic Committee recently issued a translation (republished in the journal of the International Wool Secretariat) of extracts from Klepzig’s Textil Zeitschriit, on January 4, 1939, which provides a frank and unbiassed comparison between wool and the qualities of the most recent “W” or wool types of staple fibre.

High tensile strength is not a peculiar virtue of wool. It is the elasticity of the wool fibre and the influence of this both on processing and the characteristics of wool fabrics which are unique, and this is due not only to the chemical aud physical structure of the fibre, but to the presence of crimp. Structural elphgation of the fibre made possible by crimp precedes the elongation of the fibre itself. In the case of fibres lacking crimp, the fibre itself is affected by any elongation aud hi manufacture a certain proportion of such elongation is permanent and irreversible. It is maintained that up to the present no attempt to reproduce the true qualities of wool crimp, from a manufacturing standpoint, has succeeded. The International Wool Secretariat has never questioned the virtues of staple fibre as a new and useful fibre in its own right, but says that in no wav admits of claims for it as a substitute for wool., That a similar vi/v is coming to be held in Germany and the evidence of this in the greater consumption of wool by Germany in 1938, gives ground for belief that, with a return of international confidence and the lowering of trade barriers, a revival in demand for wool may be expected even in those countries in which most strenuous efforts have been made to effect substitution for wool by staple fibre. i '