IMPORTANT STEPS IN RESEARCH IN WOOLLEN INDUSTRY

Evening Star, Issue 26144, 4 July 1947, Page 5

IMPORTANT STEPS IN RESEARCH IN WOOLLEN INDUSTRY

(N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec.-9?25 a.m.) , LONDON, July 3. In conformity with recommenda\tions, made in a recent report of a working party on the wool manufacturing industry, it is expected that steps will be taken to combine or more closely integrate work on wool research now being done individually by the Wool Industries Research Association at Torridori and at the Department of Textile industries at Leeds University^*

Hitherto the two organisations, have worked separately and have largely, been supported by donations from the '..manufacturing, side of the industry ;in Britain and from woolgrowers in the United' Kingdom, Australia,' South Africa, and New Zealand through the International Wool Secretariat. New Zealand and. Australian woolgrowers have a very substantial interest iji the future development of these two research departments, for upon the results of their scientific work a great deal of the future of the wool industry depends. New legislation introduced as the result of the working i party’s recommendations will substitute for . the variable revenue a larger and more constant sum, which will be derived from a wool levy calculated on the amount of the ' wool handled by spinners in Britain. It is estimated that this levy will provide £IOO.OOO a year, to be devoted to research into wool fabrics nnd all the various aspects of the industry, together . with a substantial reserve fund.

Torridon and Leeds University textiles department are two of the leading textiles and wool research organisations in the world, and have already been responsible for a number of discoveries which have greatly extended and diversified the uses of wOol. Among them have been processes for preventing shrinkage of wool in its manufactured form, the application of p synthetic protein film to wool fabrics in order to increase their durability, processes for improving the washing properties of woollen cloths, and a number of other technical and manufacturing improvements of the greatest importance to the industry.

The directors of the two organisations are both very weil-knoAvn men in the field of avoo! research. Professor J. B. Speakman, head of the Department of Textile . Industries at Leeds/ University, is a world authority in the whole field of textiles researc 1 . a..i Mr B. H.' Wilsdon, director of research at Torridon, is hn eminent authority in the special field of avoo!. Mr Wilsdon visited Australia and NeAv Zealand before the Avar, and Professor Speakman has toured Australia, and is shortly to spend a month in South Africh. Difficulties in amalgamating the two organisations may arise bocause Leeds University deals with all forms of textile research, including the study of artificial fibres, Avhile Torridon deals exclusively with avoo]. Moreover, the basis of the tAvo organisations is someAvliat diffei'ent in that Leeds department, as the section of a university, makes all its findings public, whereas Torridon , which is maintained by' the AA’oof industry, distributes its findings only to its contributory members. The AA-orking party made it clear at it considered this state of affairs should end. “Whatever the form of the final, integration of these two research organisations may take,, the proposed woo] levy, which will guarantee, them a stable and much larger income for wool research.' is Avelromed by both. Leeds University Textiles Department was recently the recipient o r a grant of £20,000 as a .victory thanks offering from the ClothAA’orkers’ Guild of London, and this is to be used to build a three-story laboratory block to replace the present facilities. Avhieh have become overoroAvded and out of date as the result of the great growth of the department’s Avork. This laboratory will be used exclusively for avool research , Authority already has been given the university to erect a prefabricated Tmilding, Avhicli Avill servo as a temporary laboratory extension until a permanent block can be completed. , The Cloth'Avorkors’ Guild, which has been a long-standing benefactor of tlm university, has aiso given three research fellowships for American textile students valued at £SOO yearly.