WHAT WOOL CONSISTS OF

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1930, Page 16

WHAT WOOL CONSISTS OF

SCIENCE INVESTIGATES EMPIRE TEAM-WORK IN RESEARCH . NEW ZEALAND EXPERTS AT LEEDS < (From a Special Correspondent). London, October 16. What science is doing for wool was discussed by delegates to the Imperial Wool .Research Conference when they made a tour of inspection of the laboratories of the Wool Industries Research Association at Tomdoii, Leeds, last week. The wool conference, which was convened by the Empire Marketing Board, was attended by representatives of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the Irish Free State, Palestine and Kenya, the United. Kingdom and the Empire Marketing Board. The laboratories at Torridon, Leeds, set up by the Wool Industries Research xlssociation, comprise the largest and most complete wool research centre in the Empire. They deal with wool in all its aspects right from the sheep’s back to man’s. At every stage in the long chain of events between the two the scientist is' busy improving technical details, trying to discover what wool really consists of, and how breeder and manufacturer can best exploit its natural advantages. EMPIRE TEAM-WORK. The three New Zealand delegates, Dr. R Marsden, Mr. D. J. Sidey and Mr. N. L. Wright, were able to discuss with Dr. 8. G. Barker, director of research, lines of co-operation with New Zealand research workers, and plans were laid for extended Empire team-work. Co-op-erative pieces of work have been carried out; as, for instance, recent tests of an all-paper wool pack, whicli, if it proves strong enough, should get over the present difficulty of pieces of jute getting mixed with the wool in the bale. “The main object of the research at Torridon is to evolve definite standards of wool quality which will enable the manufacturer to tell th» farmer just what types of wool he wants, and which will enable the farmer to know what to aim at in production,” said Mr. J. H. Thomas in his opening speech at the conference. As the link between farm and mill, Torridon carries out two main types of work—it examines wool fibre to find the chemical basis for qualities which affect the manufacturing properties of wool, such as elasticity, strength, crimp, regain, and so on; and. it turns to the producing end and finds out how wool quality can be influenced by the breeder. WOOL ON A WATCH-GLASS. Tn the biology department delegates to the conference were . shown hair growing on a watch-glass instead of on an back. A woman scientist lias taken tiny grafts of skin from an embryonic guinea-pig and persuaded them to continue their growth in a glass disli for two or 'three weeks. The' hairs have, in many cases, doubled and. trebled their length. They are provided with nourishment in the form of -blood, plasma and extracts of embryo—sometimes yolk of egg. The object of this work, which is financed by the Empire Marketing Board, is to find out why hair grows. These experiments have shown that its growth depends upon the follicle —the special iuother-cell which gives rise, to all hairs —rather than on the animal’s nervous or blood system. The next step is to find out what substances make hair grow most rapidly. One day these results will be linked up with the feeding of the sheep —and possibly comfort for the man who is getting “a little thin on top’ may yet come out of the wool-research laboratories. In the biochemistry section the delegates were particularly interested in the work of ,a young chemist, Dr. Rimraington, who has obtained the first definite scientific evidence to' show that the chemical composition of the diet of a sheep directly affects the composition of its wool. Samples of Cape Merino wool were divided up into “tips, ’ middles” and “roots,” and each group analysed. It was found that the root part of the fibre always contained a hiirher proportion of a chemical called cystine than the upper parts. ' , FOOD AND THE FLEECE. _ This does not, at first sight, seem very important. But, by means’■of a special technique evolved by Dr. Rimmington, it has been discovered that cystine conr tains all the sulphur present in wool. Sulphur is particularly valuable because certain qualities desired by the manufacturer, e.g., elasticity, strength and resistance to chlorination, are closely bound up with sulphur content. (It is worth noting that the vulcanisation of rubber, a process which imparts elastic-, ity, consists largely of the incorporation of sulphur). • The sulphur richness of the root section of the fibre was found, to be a matter of season. Wool does not grow much during the long droughts, when sheep are picking up a living on the scorched veldt pastures. But when the rains come the young green herbage becomes much richer in cystine-contaming pioteins. The fleece grows rapidly and is correspondingly rich in cystine. As the heib > becomes poorer, the growing fleece “gradually drops its percentage of cystine and the root is therefore nchwork links up with research in Australia and elsewhere and experiments are being planned to follow it un A scheme for selecting and testing special diets rich in cystine and determine tlieiv effect on the wool m now being followed out in co-operation with Th- J B. Orr of the Rowett Research Institute,' Aberdeen, the animal nutrition centre. If this develops farmers will one day be able to control the quality of the fleece by feeding. AU sorts of new devices have been evolved by scientists at Torridon One mvention is an artificial silk made largely out of wool. Wool “tops” are dissolved in a chemical and out of the solution the scientist conjures a totally <l lfle ™ nt material, which looks like artificial fibie but which is softer and more like real Uk to handle. This , process has been patented, and may lead to a useful new outlet being found for wool.

WOOL THAT SCREAMS. In the mechanical measurement section visitors are shown a matiune which makes wool scream when it is touched Ibis consists of two electrically cliarged surfaces that are gradually brought to te fier with wool fibre in between, in order to measure Hie As soon as the tenderest whisker of the a fibre touches both sui faces a contact is made, and the machine lets out an audible squeal w uel signifies that the measurement is n mde nnrl registered. No machine pienously mate •«» iv.ents. A whole group of scientists is employed making similar measurement, of the fibre as a basis for standaids

wool quality according to fineness, contour, crimp, etc. Behind the laboratories are fully equipped mills, where equipment for every process to which wool and cloth are subjected is installed. Recently engineers invented a new device for spinning frames, which twists the fibre, just as the human finger and thumb used to in the old days. This replaces, the far more cumbrous method at present in use, and it is calculated that the Torri'don improved machine will do half the work at half the cost, and it takes up less than half the space of the old machine. It has been placed on tije market and is already in use in riia'ny of the more up-to-date mills in Yorkshire. In this way, and in many others, Professor Barker’s team is showing the manufacturer that research pays. ■ The income of the association, which is supported mainly by the manufacturers themselves with a subsidy from the British Governpient, has gone up every year that ®it has been in existence. Twelv. years ago the association owned cue room .in a Leeds office; tp/day .it owns what are probably the best equipped wool laboratories in the world and spends £25,000 a year on research.