OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2549, 21 January 1903, Page 8

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) *■* BRADFORD, November 21. SHODDY. Just at present wool substitutes are bofore the public in a very conspicuous form, hence growers of wool wijl be interested ire a few particulars respecting inungo, or shoddy, which is the principal article used in place of pure wool. The most useful by-product of the woollerc industry is undoubtedly woollen rags that may be reconverted into wool. Before these rags were used for this purpose, they were cither thrown upon tho waste heap to become manure, oi collected and used for the production of Prussian blue and an inferior grade of paper. No -waste of this kind is now permitted, but every woollen rag, in whatever form it may appear, unless completely worn out, is 're-iwed in manufacture to appear again in clothing. Such rags are used and re-used until there is absolutely nothing left of them that can be utilised, when they aro mixed witrv-hoofs, horns, and tho blood from slaughterhouses, and molted with wood ashes and scrap iron for material out of which the beautiful Prussian blue is made.

Shoddy has been a part of the woollen, manufacture since about tho beginning of the nineteenth century, and its use is one of tho necessary developments of the art of manufacturing, as, were it not for the supply from this source, there would not be a sufficient amount of raw material to meet; the domands for clothing, except at very much increased prices over those that exist to-day. Shdddy is not woollen rags ground to powder, but rags that are picked, leaving a good staple suitable for spinning. Some of the most substantial goods that are made, doing serviceable work for a number of years, contain a proportion of shoddy mixedi with wool.

The largest amount of shoddy is utilised in the woollen industry of Groat Britain,. next to which comes that of the United States, where, in 1900, about 75,000,0001b; were consumed, mostly in the manufacture* of woollen fabrics, very little going into worsted fabrics, and that little placed upon: the back of the goods, the worsted appearing upon the faoe. Practically all of the shoddy that is made in the United States comes from American lags. Only 314,59711> of wool wfiste were imported and entered for consumnlion into the United States for tho vcar ending June 30, 1900. Very little of this consisted of rags, and still less of. shoddy. In recent years none but all-wool shoddy" has been manufactured. During the civil war and prior thereto much of the shoddy •jr low-grade goods consisted of that made from rags' with more or kfls cotton in them, especially in the warp. The improvement in the manipulation of rags, particularly those that contain more or less vegetable matter, as cotton, is due to tho methods of destroying the vegetable material by means of acids and high temperature, both of which are necessary. Those methods come under the general head of what i"» known in the trade as "carbonising," whielii term applies strictly to tho destruction o£ vegetable substances, without essentially affecting the manufacturing qualities of the* wool fibre. The shoddy thus produced goes under the general trado term of "extract," meaning pimply that the wool fibre is extracted from its impure mixture*.

The acid commonly employed in carbonising rags and making "extract" is sulphuric! acid, in which the rags ore allowed to soak, for a fhort period of time and then subjected! to a heat of from 200doj; to 210deg in ai clo^e chamber, when the rags are removed and the acid neutralised by an alkaline bath, after which they are dried and shaken, tho latter process converting all of the vegetable matter* into dust. The rags, thud left with nothing but pure wool, are ,thei» awt§4. jyckedi in a machine knawu as th 4

"shoddy-picker," and otherwise treated in the same manner as original "all-wool" rags. The shoddy or extract that is thue made is absolutely clean and free from all deleterious matter, without the slightest possibility of conveying disease germs, and in this particular is freer than the wool obtained from many countries in the tropical and semi-tropical parts of the world. There is a process of carbonising rags in which v the dry system rather than the wet system {that of submerging the rags in a sulphuric acid bath) is employed. The acid .used for dry carbonisation is generally hydrochloric. There have been several patents taicen out for the treatment of the rags by this process. In 1896 an English patent was issued for an improved apparatus for carbonising rags by the hydrochloric acid process, which, it allowed to act on the rags when perfectly drjj does not alter their colour. Where the retention of colour is essential, the pro- ' coss is a valuable one, as by the wet process the colours are destroyed. By means of this improved apparatus the rags are placed in a perforated drum fitted radially with arms ■which do not reach quite to the centre. A hollow shaft, which is heated in an adjacent chamber by means of furnace gas, enters at one end. Compressed hot ajr_ is allowed to enter the chamber containing the dram with the rags, cither by way of the hollow shaft and through the rags, or from the outside into the space surrounding the drum. In this* manner the rags are nerfectly dried. Aft^r the drying, hydrochloric acid is allowed to drop slowly from a funnel through the heated part of the hollow shaft into Ihe drum, where it carbonises the cotton in the rags. Whatever can be said about the above, favourable or otherwise, there is no question of a doubt that rag wool displaces millions of pounds of the genuine article vcarly. There is-* a Echeme on foot among English agriculturists to influence our Parliament to pass a measure making it compulsory for manufacturers to tag their pieces with the percentage of wool and other materials that they are made of, but we have not ..very much hope of this ever taking place. If any improvement is to take place, it will h?ve to be on lines of and the creating of a popular taste for something better than 6hoddy-made goods. The cheap and nasty should be for ever discarded, both by example and precept. WOOL AGAIN RISING. The Bradford market is improving fast, nnd ou every side the impression is deep that prices are advancing and moving to an altitude which seemed impossible a month ago. The policy of the bears all along has been one of intense conservation and determined opposition to rising values, but, confronted with outside factors which have materially gaino-I strength during the past two weeks, they have at las' come to see that wool is to be deavai-, and everything else periaining thereto. A good deal of quiet buying has been done during the past week ' both in wool and tops, and if a holder would not sell it is because he is simply holding for higher rates still. Spinners now see that their wisest r-olicy is to cover as much as possible, though the buying has been mostly in crossbred^ ranging from 40*s to 50's wool. There is quite a run on medium quab'ties, and what stocks existed have been all sold or arranged for. Plenty of topniaker.s have put lip their prices on pnrposo to scare off buyers, and as hiph as 9d is actually being asked for a jrcocl Ws top. There is now no doubt about cro=t;brcd3 supplanting merinos, and it is noteworthy that all the talk is about crossbreds and the substituting, them • for merinos. Perhaps 2s must now be considered as a minimum price for a good standard 60's top. but we have not yet heard oT much more being paid, and the leavening ■up is mostly proceeding from the lower qualities. Consumption is undoubtedly extending in cro??breda, and as there has recently been placed some extensive yarn orders, the outlook is fairly bright for this class of staple. As the opening of the sixth series of sales i<3 approaching, interest is growing apace, and higher values all round arc expected. A 10 per cent, advance is freeiv talked of in medium crossbreds, and for all other qualities, including merinos, the advance is expected to be anywhere from 5 to 10 per cent. No pinch has as yet been felt anywhere, and now that the outlook is so bright, it is hoped men will carry a * cool head and not rush tliinjrs on nt an unwarranted rate. The market is very hopeful of the future.