FUTURE FOR WOOL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17234, 14 April 1930, Page 9

FUTURE FOR WOOL

VERY WIDE DEMAND DIVERSITY OF USES MANUFACTURE OF SUBSTITUTES. LONDON, Feb. 20. A lecture on wool and its uses was given by Mr. William Hunter, director of Francis Willey and Co., Ltd., Bradford, to the Bradford Textile. Society this weok. Mr. Hunter said, in his opinion, the steps which the growers and pastoralists in Australia had taken to stabilise values—by a slight extension of tho season, and the withdrawal of any wool that did not, realise prices oqual to those ruling during tho second half of January—constituted an exeelleni corrective, and would be an assurance to all wool buyers, yam buyers, and cloth merchants that they could buy with tho feeling that they were not likely to lose money. This would have the. effect of allowing buyers to anticipate their requirements over a longer period, and snould assist in creating more machinery activity. Mr. Hunter referred to the work of the British Research Association for tho woollen and worsted industries at Leeds, and said lie was convinced of its utility for the industry. "The work which was undertaken by Dr. Dry at the Leeds University to establish a pure, white Wensleydale flock has almost passed unnoticed by wool users," said Mr. Hunter, ".but his experiments extended over four or five years, and today at Catterick there is the first white Wensleydale flock of sheep which has ever existed in this country. IMPROVING CROSSBRED WOOL. "At Torridon I have, seen a" wool fibre made from dvers' cropping!* by a similar system to that obtaining for tho production of artificial silk. There are great possibilities in the future in this direction. Experiments are being made to improve the handle of crossbred wool, to find a means of washing wool, to find a means of dyeing kemps, and physicists have already evolved a machine which will produce woollen yarn at half the present, cost, and draft wool on worsted frames to an extent which all previous technological experts have declared to be impossible. "When discussing the new method of producing wool fabrics long enough for spinning on worsted machinery from dyers' croppings and shoddy, a man very well known in Germany informed mo that they are now using horses' hoofs for tho same purpose. They can dissolve them in liquid, and forco this dissolved tissue through apertures by the same method as artificial silk, and can now produce wonderful wool fibres out of any animal tissues, so that the future holds all kinds of possibilities in store." Dealing with the uses of wool, Mr. Hunter said he had made a rough calculation to ascertain what proportion of the world's wool production was used for purposes other than clothing, and ho was amazed to find that of the 10,000.000 bales of wool which tho whole of the sheep of the world produced, about 3,000,000 of them, were used for floor covering of various descriptions, and about 2,000.000 for other incidental purposes. As long, therefore, as tho westernising influence of the East continued, and tho extensive buildingi operations which had been undertaken by the civilised races continued, this demand for floor coverings would continue. MULTITUDE OF USES. Very largo quantities of wool were used annually for crushing seeds and beans, for making vegetable oils of various types; large quantities of wools, in addition to goat hair and camel hair, were used to substitute leather in the production of belts for driving machinery; in tho production of wood pulp large quantities of wool were used in the preparation of the pulp; the output of newspapers also demanded large quantities in tho preparation of the paper; cigarette papers could not be produced without also passing through wool; the motor car industry, particularly in America, but also in Britain, absorbed very large quantities for the upholstery of the cars; and the furnishing! trades in the form of curtaining, moquettes and velours, also required large quantities of wool. These were purposes entirely apart from the wools which were used in the production of suits, overcoats, socks, stockings, and underclothing, and with the march of civilisation the demand for wool for these purposes was bound to increase. Why should they, therefore, despair when there were demands which were so persistent and regular for these materials, independent of the market value ruling at any given moment? It was very unfortunate that so many should become so depressed and anxious regarding tho future, because the lack of confidence in tho value of a rawmaterial for a temporary period intervened like a cloud to obscure their vision of the future.