WOOL RESEARCH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 145, 22 June 1931, Page 9

WOOL RESEARCH

PLACE OF SCIENCE LAST YEAR’S CONFERENCE THE OFFICIAL REPORT. LONDON, Ma\ 1. ' The Empire Marketing Board ha • issued the report of the proceedings a ! ihe Imperial Wool Research Cont’crcnc' held last September. At this there wa; ?t discussion on the present position o wool research throughout the Empire and papers were read by various ex perts. Dr. E. Marsden represent,c<l Nc.' Zealand, and contributed a paper un r • seaicb work in the Dominion. Pape’ were read on Industrial Research As.-" ciations by -Mr. A. L. Hetherington ,D partment of Wcivntific and Research); Correlation be I we< n Wool Produce and Manufacture l>y Dr. S. (i. Barker (Director of Re search, Wool Industries Research Assn ciationj; and the various overseas deJc gates spoke on research work in tln-i respective Dominions. Dr. .1. F. Nichols, oli the Wool industries Rc >earch Association, who is engaged oi a survey of wool production and utili sation in the Empire on behalf of tie Empire -Marketing Board, presentci some general notes on his survey. Thus papers are reproduced in the present re port. The second day’s meeting of the con feronco opened at tho Wool Industrie Research Association, Torridon. Head ingley, Leeds. The delegates wore co:: ducted round the laboratories, and th work in progress was demons’rated t tticm by members of the staff ot the a>

j -uciation. The rest of the day wa; I-jent in conference, papers being rea< )i. the Influence of Feeding on Woo deduction by Dr, J B. Orr (Directo of the Row'ott R» setuch InstitU'C, Aber deen), and un Problems of Wool Pro duction in Great Britain by Professo R. G. White (Department of Agricul ture, University College of Nort I Wales). On 24th September the delegate visited Leeds University, where the.’ i were received by Dr. J. B. Baillie, Vice Chancellor. Short papers w r ere read b; Mr. W. T. Astbury and Mr. J. B. Speak man, of the Department of Textile In dustries, after which tho delegates wen shown round the department by Pryfes sor A. F. Baiker. Joint Empire Work.

i On September 25 tho conference re--1 turned to Leeds and devoted time to ' a discussion on the advancement and j correlation of wool research throughout I the Empire. This discussion included I proposals for joint work, the collection I and dissemination of knowledge and | literature, proposals for interchange ot staff, information and ideas concerning research work on wool, etc. Luncheon was provided in the canteen of tho Woo! Industries Research Association, and later in the day the conference left for Edinburgh. On September 26 the conference met in the morning at the Department of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh. The delegates were welcomed by Professor J. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S., who gave a short account of the history and experiments on the coats of birds and animals, especially the sheep. Professor F. A. E. Crew read a paper on tho Departmental Organisation relating to Research on the Biology ot the Fleece, and Mr. W. C. Miller rend a paper discussing the results of the Voronoff Experiments and Thyroid Work. The members of the staff of the Sheep Section, together with the postgraduate research students, demonstrated the Held and laboratory work being conducted. Dr. S. G. Barker (Director of the Research Association) dealt with the correlation between wool producer and manufacturer. Two points, he said, clearly emerged from any consideration of the bases of Imperial wool research, namely: (1) All branches of science must be

directed to make united and combined attacks on wool problems. No one ! branch of scientific thought can solve I them alone. (2) The investigation of problems affecting wool pioduction and man iI L’acturu must be conjoint efforts and i correlated pieces of research. Correct Starting Point. “What should be the correct starting point for scientific work on the wool industries?” asked Dr. Barker. “In the past the producer and manufacturer worked largely as isolated factors almost to the extent of considering themselves as separate units. The proI ducer considered his work had ended J when ho produced a fleece which the manufacturer accepted. The mere removal of dirt and grease by washing presented to the latter a textile material in fibre form capable of easy mechanical manipulation. Little wonder that in the development of the industry wool was considered merely as wool, a finished product of Nature, its chemical and physical nature and structure and its biological significance being largely neglected. In the past such knowledge was unnecessary for commercial purposes. “The industrial position, however, to day requires something different. One is tempted to raise the question as to whether the principles of mechanical manipulation of the fibre have not largely reached their limit as regards discovery, although most certainly improvements in our methods of employment of these principles may be made. At the same time one is again tempted to ask how far modern markets are demanding something the production ot which, as yet, cannot be attained because of our lack of fundamental fibre knowledge. “In other words, whilst, ascribing to our industrial efficiency its high degret' of excellence, yet at the same time do not. let us forget that there may possibly be a means of alteration of fibre structure, means of attainment of groat er fibre uniformity which could be placed at the disposal of the manufacturer to produce fabrics giving grenter \

itty and in true accordance with modern hygienic, scientific, aesthetic, and domestic requirements. “It is here that the work of the scientist is essential. Hence, at the outset of any Imperial scheme of wool research, one must strongly advocate the scientific determination of its essentials and fundamentals, or what might be ascribed as a true investigation of wool as wool leaving out primarily the specific cases of specific wools or specific conditions such as may bo encountered under particular circumstances. Not that the latter points should be neglected, but due emphasis must be given to the fact that we must have solid foundations on which to build our super structure. Synthetic Filaments. ‘ ‘ I'lie farmer undoubtedly understands wool production from the practical point of x iew, whilst the manufacturer understands its manipulation similarly, but neither of them have yet fully realised the importance of the precise chemical, physical, biological, and scientific factors involved iu the fibre which they produce or use is a raw material. “We are now arrayed in competition against seieitilici' x produced synthetic filaments for tex’ile purposes wHcli can no long'r be regarded as artitr.ial .r :mi tat ions of anything vUe, lucy have become firmly established as t«xtile fibres on a basis of their own, witii their own characteristic properties. They must, be considered purely and simply ns a scientific production played in the hands of the textile man to produce new fabrics, which have found n high degree of favour on f hc modelo ' market. “We nius! not. however, lose sight of the fact that wool is still Lie paramount fibre for’use as wearing up pa cl on the human body owing to its unrivalled natural qualities. Nature has endowed us with a textile fibre in wool, whose very origin betokened its purpose for a bodily covering, and whose characteristics from a hygienic, wearing. economic, and aesthetic point view are unrivalled. We hear to-day of proposed campaigns to boost the u -<i of wool, and 1 have been one of the guilty ones iu emphasising its scientific qualifications for use as wearing apparel, but what is primarily needed, in my opinion, is that we should concentrate on our work of research so as to give lhe manufacturer an opportunity to exercise his undoubted skill of desig and manipulation, in the production of greater variety in fabrics ami possibly some new type of material which would most effectively meet the dictates of fashion ami the demands of tlo* market.”