MODERN USES FOR WOOL.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12451, 18 September 1933, Page 7

MODERN USES FOR WOOL.

RECENT RESEARCH WORK. The progress that has been made through research in adapting wool to once unsuspected commercial purposes was amply attested by a demonstration of the work carried on in the laboratories and workshops of the Wool Industries Research Association at Torridon, Headingley, Leeds, on the occasion of the fourteenth annual meeting of the association. Describing the demonstration for the Manchester Guardian, a correspondent stated: Wool, surfaced wallpapers, fancy goods treated with wool, and a suedette of wool surface—in this case a lively-looking Bonzo dog—are already commercial propositions. So, also, is wool used for electric insulation, for which it has the qualities of high electric resistence, and easy manipulation. If wool in large quantities is not likely to be employed in electric cables, it had already passed the laboratory stage in the insulation of machinery.

In one interesting aspect of this research work A’orksliire has joined hands with Lancashire. Twistless cotton is known. Now, thanks to this co-operation, twistless yarn of the worsted type is on the marget, and it is hoped that twistless woollen yarn will lollow it. which will give the public lustrous woollen goods, softer to handle. Another instance of the relation between separate industries is the set lor the carding of short fibre materials, such as nails. for the manufacture of a worsted type of yarn for use by the cheap hosiery trade, who are co-operating in the venture. In this case a specially designee! woollen scribbler is associated with a cotton-carding machine. Hie writer was also shown a 100m — not yet on the market, and the subject of official reticence—specially designed to weave soft warps. On tliis machine, which einplovs auxiliary mechanism for lightening the tension, material as soft as a single m< Ar l * l ' warp lias been woven. Mention of mohair leads to a consideration. of the interesting experiments on negroes’ hair. Torridon ix a place of surprises, one of which }' a . s the assurance that “negroes’ ” hair lias been obtained from Norway. At hat was meant was “negroes’ ” hair—in its essential quality .°£ frizziness—from a white head. Briefly, what the laboratory lias found out is why a negro s hair is short. In layman's language the reason is that it ceases to grow, hut does not cease to twist, with the result that, like a tristec! wire, it snaps .and so long locks are never attained.

But whv does negroes’ hair twist? “That,” said Dr. S. G. river, the research director, “is what we are trying to find out.” Ihe whole, question js why crimp and curl occur in wool, sheep's or man’s, is part of the reason for I ornclon s existence. There is a number of theories, and the experts there have been able to reproduce crimp and curl in test tubes, in purely inorganic materials.

Another surprise at Torridon is the l ! existence there of a cinema loom, in which pictures of spun yarn and stretching and twisting fibre are projected in slow motion, so that the student of the behaviour of these elusive* substances may sec* exactly what happens in each process.