WOOL RESEARCH

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 152, 24 December 1929, Page 11

WOOL RESEARCH

AN EMPIRE MEED

STIMULUS OF COMPETITION

PROBLEMS FOE SCIENCE

The economic importance of wool to the British Empire is admitted by all who give a thought to the subject, and is strikingly shown in the trade returns of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In 1928 wool accounted for 19 per cent, of. the "United Kingdom's imports of raw material, 48 per cent, of Australia's exports, 30 per cent, of New Zealand's, and 56 per cent, of South Africa's (excluding gold and precious stones). Nearly half the United Kingdom's own production, amounting to about 100 million lb annually, is exported. The Empire as a whole exports two-thirds (1400 million lb), and Australia alone more than one-third (750 million lb), of the total quantity of wool entering the world trade (2150 million lb). The economic importance of wool is therefore obvious, but what is not quite so obvious to some people perhaps is tho paramount importance at the present time of scientific research in wool matters, research which is actively being carried on in New Zealand as in other wool-producing countries. The value and purpose of this research is at present being very much emphasised by the Empire Marketing Board. The last few decades have witnessed the rapid growth of a new textile industry using artificial fibres produced under scientific control as a direct result of laboratory research. Wool has for so long held an unrivalled position as a textile material that until recent years comparatively little attention has been devoted to a scientific study of its qualities. The physical and chemical characteristics of wool as a natural product, and the conditions that 'determine the special qualities prized by the manufacturer, have remained for the most part a closed book.

The practical skill of the woolbuyer can of course appraise these qualities with'sufficient accuracy. For practical purposes miscroscopie measurement cannot take the place of a well-trained sense of touch, any more than chemical analysis can rival the senses of smell and taste in appraising perfumes and flavours. But when an attempt is made to find means of deliberately increasing the supply of wools most favoured by the manufacturer, scientific researches to bo invoked to determine the physiological conditions of production and to interpret the requirements of the technician into objectives that" can be realised by the breeder and pastoralist.

A NEGLECTED PROBLEM.

"Wool has been known throughout the ages, and the fact that it is grown on the sheep's back and is subsequently used for the manufacture of clothes, seems to have been accepted with every degree of finality. It is remarkable that such an important product of agriculture, furnishing as it does the raw material for one of -the greatest manufacturing industries, should have been allowed, to remain unexploitcd and uninvestigated for so many years from a scientific standpoint. Wool has extraordinary properties, both chemical and physical. It is highly elastic; it is extremely hygroscopic; it has the property of retaining warmth; it creates heat in.itself when wetted; it •transmits ultra-violet radiation, and it is, durable and strong. Chemically, it is a keratin, but its precise constitution is as yet largely unknown. Certain it is, however, that it contains a large proportion of sulphur, and equally certain that this sulphur contributes largely to its elastic and other properties, an eifeet analagous to the in'oeess of vulcanisation vof rubber.

Scientific research of a fundamental character on the inherent characteristics, physical, chemical, and biological, of wool itself could onl/ lead to a fuller knowledge of the exact reactions occurring within the wool substance during periods of production and manufacturing manipulation. It might even suggest new methods and new fields for the utilisation of wool produce. It might possibly result in better processing and better production. It would certainly place the producer in possession of information as to which of the characteristics of the fibre should be encouraged and enhanced, and secondly as to the modification of nutrition, environment, pasturage, breeding, and selection wjiich would best accomplish this end.

THE RIVAL FIBRE,

It is noteworthy that in the case of artificial fibres theso . are produced under strict chemical supervision, so that their constitution and physical attributes a^3 designed in order to leave them at oach?. stage of the process of production, and manufacture in such a condition as to further the most economic handling during subsequent treatment. Finally, the fibres are designed with a definite consideration as to the finished product into which they are to be woven.

In the case of wool, however, on the one hand we have the producer of the law material with little knowledge as to subsequent use, and on the other we have the manufacturer crying out for improved raw material, but again with little knowledge of the limitations of production or how this improvement might be accomplished.

The question of the precise definition of the manufacturer's requirements in good wool, and the methods to be adopted by the producer to meet these demands, which would seem to link up all branches of the wool industry into one entity—as in tho ease of artificial fibres —has been more or less untouched. An effective link between the two must be forged, and only if this link is made on the sound basis of scientific fact will it ever be effective and strong. For the security of the future of the wool industries, it' is caeential, therefore, that this valuable raw material should be examined, analysed, and investigated, with all that meticulous care and exactitude that scientific research implies.

AN EMPIRE UNDERTAKING,

Wool research provides unrivalled scope foT concerted action between, different parts of the Empire. The activities of workers in diverse fields, if inspired by a common goal and coordinated by personal contact, and the freest interchange of projects and results, may well lead to advances in knowledge and technique that may prove of the utmost practical value to all engaged in the industry. The manufacturer looks for improvements in the raw material, and in the processes of manufacture, while the breeder and sheep farmer seek guidance as to the methods of producing those qualities in the fleece which will most enhance its market value. In both fields cooperative research in the Empire holds out promise of achievement.

The British Eesearch Association for the Woollen and Worsted Industries, under the direction of Dr. S. Q. Barker, has already found it necessary to study the nature of wool in its physical, chemical, and biological aspects. Its wor.k on the raw material brings it into close relation with those problems of breeding, nutrition, and animal husbandry, in which both Homo and Dominion wool growers have a special interest. Next jear j| jg hoped to in-

vile tho lending wool research workers in tho Dominion to a conference in England, when mat tors of common in forest can be thoroughly discussed. New recruits to biological research, who are looking ior fresh Holds to conquer and new problems of interest in themselves and of economic importance to the Empire, have in wool research a glorious field.