OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2230, 24 October 1908, Page 7

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

WOOL AND WATER,

(From Our Special correspondent.)

Bradford, September 11. The wet sheep question is a matter which every woolgrower throughout the colonic* and South America is very familiar with, and in consuming areas the same difficulties arise only in a somewhat different form. If I may so term it, the woolgrower is troubled with water in its first form, while the top-maker and spinner is concerned about it in the excessivo “condition” of tops, noils,' -ond yarns. It iall amounts to the same thing in the end. If moisture can bo deposited upon wool, and. the same can be safely carried in the cells of the wool fibre without any injury to the same as far as. the sale-room, then the grower materially benefits, for the water weighs sensibly heavier that the wool fibre itself. I don’t suppose that much would be heard of the wet sheep question if water could be carried in the wool without heating, and so sensibly injuring the fibre. We all know that for water to get inside ia bale, or for wool to be baled in a damp condition is very- liable to cause spontaneous combustion, it being no uncommon thing to see fire break out in a cargo of wool when coming from Australian, ports. Only two years ago no less than five vessels from New Zealand were found to be on fire, all due to spontaneous combustion in their cargoes of wool. But it is not tlie wet sheep question that I want to speak about, but the precautions taken at this end to see that justice is done between the various branches of the trade.

Twenty-five years ago such a thing as a Conditioning House was not known, in fact, it is only within the last dozen yeai-s that such an important institution was founded in Bradford. That its existence was sorely needed has been justified' by actual results, and to-day the wool trade at the consuming end has been so specialised that such an important institution, is an absolute necessity. In “the good old days” it was no uncommon thing for merchants or dealers in tops, noils, and yarns to take a watering can and give the various products , a good drenching before the doors were closed the last thing at night; or all the floor and gangways would be watered. Many years ago it was found out that the wool was of a very hygroscopic nature, that is, it readily absorbes moisture. Even to-day it is a very common thing for bales shipped at all ports of Australasia, South Africa, and South America to weigh on arrival Home, six to ten pounds heavier than they did .at the time of shipment. We all know that if those very bales" are left in a dry room where the temperature is very high that in a weex’s time the moisture will very largely have evaporated, consequently wool in London docks and elsewhere is always stored in as cool a- place as possible. Now the fact of wool, tops, noils, and yarns being sold in the past with too much condition upon them, a standard of “re-gain” has been established which is accepted by all consumers throughout the world. It was no joke lor men buying these commodities to find that they were producing 25 per cent of moisture. This meant to the man who was fortunate enough to be able to palm off such goods so heavily conditioned that bo could either under sell his competitor, or else obtain a thumping good The result is that Conditioning Houses have been established in Bradford and at several Continental centres, it being their work to test samples, to find out the amount of moisture in them, and then, upon the official certificate published,, the seller either allows or receives according to the standard of “re-gain” allowed by the trade. Just as showing readers the extent of the business at the Bradford Conditioning House, the following is the return of the weiguts of goods passed through during the last two months. The figures also throw a lurid light upon the quietness of the trade, for it will be seen there has been a great falling off in the tests made : 1908. JULY. AUGUST.

STANDARD allowance and & REGAIN PER CENT. Readers will be very much interested to know that standard allow-* ance and regain which is in vogue, not simply in Bradford, thioug - out the Continent, and the following table is agreed upon as an equitable basis on which all tests are made:—Wools and waste for moisture, 2oz. Sidra. per lb., or a regain of 16 per Ce Tops combed in oil, for moisture, 2oz. 9drs. per lb., or a regain of U Tops combed without oil, for proisture 2oz. 7-Jdrs. per lb., or a regain of “US? Moisture 1« per lb., or a regain of 14 per cent. Yarns, worsted, for moisture, 2oz. 7-idrs. per lb., or a regain of lb* pei Yarns, cotton, .for moisture, loz. 4|drs>. per -lb-y or a regain of o 2 ‘ 1 Yarn, silk, for moisture, loz. 9ldrs. per lb., or a regain of 11 per cent. The above table is supposed to represent the various commodities as containing moisture when in a perfectly natural condition, and eveiything above is regarded as an excess. When -wool is being combed the foreman can regulate the amount or “condition” in the tops to a _ nicety. The operation at the Conditioning House for testing purposes is a very simple yet effective one. A sample of the material is taken out of the, bulk anywhere the officer in cliaigo thinks fit, it is weighed to a decimal immediately on being drawn out, then put * into a cylmdencal oven, heated

by gas, all the moisture is driven off, then it it re-weighed, and by a simple calculation the amount of moisture driven off is ascertained, that determining the condition of the bulk. Oftentimes several samples are drawn to arrive correctly at the condition of the bulk. The charge usually made for testing each lot is one shilling per test, and the official certificate published is always taken without being questioned.

"lb. lb. Tbps 5,273,777 3,755,184 Wools 483,576 571,126 Noils, wastes, etc. 721,258 713,553 Worsted yarns... 323,449 185,206 Cotton yarns ... 9,881 3,729 Silk yarns' 895 3,121 0,812,836 5,232,019 Goods weighed only 207,139 ■ 157,637 7,019,975 TESTS..5,389,656 TESTS. Condition . 14,973 11,897 Scours 211 134 Counts 470 Miscellaneous 776 524 16,430 12,887