JAPAN NEEDS WOOL

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 91, 17 November 1939, Page 6

JAPAN NEEDS WOOL

; **» . _ ARTIFICIAL. INFERIOR The wool development department of the Australian Wool Board at a recent meeting received a report which referred to the return to Australia of Miss Sumiko Sieta, the daughter, of Professor Sieta, lecturer in Japanese at the University of Queensland. Miss Sieta said that wool substitutes now. being used for feminine fashions in Japan not only lacked warmth, but would not stand up to washing. She added that Japan was a country of many climates, and thus wool was necessary, particularly in winter, to maintain health. Substitutes had demonstrated their lack of protection in this regard. A further point

in favour of wool was that women needed to have only a few woollen garments for a complete wardrobe, while dozens were required where substitutes were used. Miss Sieta referred to men's Suitings, and stated that the substitutes failed to impress, although scientific research had discovered a hollow artificial staple; also a spiral thread which was being combined with a woollen thread, but even then, the resultant weave was not satisfactory. The artificial thread fafleci to stand up to the Strain, and did not adhere to the pure fleece. "It is quite apparent," she added, "that an increasing demand for wool for men's suitings has been the result of the rapid Westernisation of the nation and the adoption of European styles of dress." A point of interest in this report, is that the artificial product has now achieved both the hollow and the spiral fibre. The former

would aid its warmth, and the latter its felting property. Even so, wool is still a step ahead as regards felting, for it is a "scaly" fibre. Under a powerful microscope, the surface of a wool thread appears as the rough bark upon a tree trunk.