VALUE OF WOOL

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20833, 17 June 1939, Page 27 (Supplement)

VALUE OF WOOL

BELIEF HOLDS QOOD CONSERVATION OF HEAT Research work carried out at the Wool Industries Research Laboratory, Torridon, Leeds, has turned the tables on what has been accepted as scientific opinio,i and nas upheld the. old belief that w'ool ha& propert.es which give it greater value in resisting changes of temperature than other materials. , German authorities in particular have been at some pains to show that staple fibre —Germany’s substitute for w’ool—is just as warm as wool and that heat conservation is not a function of the fibre, hut of the weave and nature of the fabric. The research carried out at the Torridon Laboratory has shown the fallacy on which this line of argument is based and offers welcome confirmation of the popular belief that wool is warmer. The error which former observers have made has been to record the heat conserving properties of wool and other fabrics under constant conditions of temperature and moisture. The special properties of wool are exerted under changing conditions of temperature and moisture. For example, when going from a dry indoor atmosphere to the cold moist outside air, wool—in taJung up moisture—generates heat

and serves to maintain the temperature of the fabric, and, of course, of the body underneath. Thus, by virture of the special properties of the wool fibre, irrespective o-f those of the fabric, wool is twice to three times as effective in conserving heat as most other textile fibres.