WOOL IN WARTIME

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21632, 8 February 1945, Page 8

WOOL IN WARTIME

DOING DUTY OF RUBBER MODERN SECRET WEAPONS (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) MELBOURNE, Feb. 2. Wool has replaced rubber in modern .secret weapons and other forms ot war-time industry, the chairman ot the Australian Wool Board, Mr. Douglas Boyd, stated in Melbourne. Mr. Boyd returned recently from London, where he presided at the meeting of the International Wool Executive. British resource and invention had enabled the use ot wool lelts as a suustitute for natural rubber, ot which there was an acute shortage among the Allied Nations, he said. An example ot its use was the internal padding ol tanks, which haa formerly been done with rubber, Wool felt was used in all forms cl wartime industry, such as polishingwheels for aeroplane pistons, tin) tell washers tor retaining oil, am* m parts ot many modern secret weapons.

The meeting in London instructed the International Wool Secretariat to conduct a market survey of India, which, Mr. Boyd said, had vast sterling credits and must become a great purchaser of consumer goods. Britain’s Big Opportunity There was a golden opportunit. now for Britain to recapture her export trade in wool textiles to Souu. America. Efforts were being made to have wool released and to switci operatives to the manufacture o. more of these goods. Advances' in wool manufacture*, using seaweed rayon were shown to Mr. Boyd at Leeds University. Woo. was spun with a centre core of seaweed rayon, and the resulting ygn. incorporated in wool fabrics. The rayon could be dissolved by immersing the fabrics in simple solutions, releasing .the wool fibres, which rose and formed a highly decorative pat tern. One fabric made was as neat a perfect astrakhan as he couii. imagine. This was one of the few instances in which rayon was of use to wool,

Mr. Boyd found that Continents manufacturing countries now liberated, such as France and Belgium were anxious to employ men in usetu. works, but there was a lack >of coa, Lor textile and other industries.