OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2473, 12 April 1909, Page 2

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

WOOL WASTES. (From Our Special.. Correspondent.) Wool wastes and the trade in them forms a big business, and as the very name implies, wastes are by-products as it were of the various operations through which wool goes. Waste is real wool itself, except that it is the very short fibres which are produced from the combing operation, in fact, there is no process through which wool goes from combing to milling but what it produces a by-product which can be used in the production of certain classes of wool goods. For instance, just to give readers some idea of the waste that is produced in the different processes of manufacture we get noils, shoddy (not pulled rags), some people calling this card waste, which is simply produced in the combing operation ; then there are wool burrs, backings, spinning waste, thread waste, the latter produced in weaving, and flocks from the milling operation. Now these are valuable byproducts, they serve a most useful purpose, and turn out some most useful and saleable fabrics. It would be most wilful waste to throw them on to the dung hill and let them rot; in fact, how .they would produce for instance felt and silk hats without noils, or even flannels, I don’t know. Now noils are a most useful product, and whereas to-day a super 60’s top is selling at 2-Id per "lb., noils out of that self-same combing will be worth from 13d to 14d according color and tho amount ef vegetable master there is in them* These bits of seed and shijp have Only to be removed by carbShising or extracting when we. have left a most useful article, and being still '•'all wool” they are very extensively used both in England and on the Continent in the production of a large quantity of woollen fabrics such as shirtings, flannels, blanker, and even in making silk and felt hats. Shoddy or card waste is a much inferior by-product than noils, this being very dusty, and is always filled with bits of vegetable matter which adhere to the wool during the growth of the fleece, and which. must come out during the. process of the carding operation before the wool goes through the combing machine. This card waste and wool burrs is oftentimes carbonised together, and when all the bits of shiv and vegetable matter have been eaten away, then it is fit for use. Here again the woollen trade absorbs this short fibred material in the production of fabrics which have mostly to be piece dyed, simply because the stock is often a dull dead color, more of a brown grey shade than anything, although as rule it scours a fair decent white. Yet experience has found that this kind of material is much better dealt with, and gives far more satisfactory results if it is made into pieces which have to be dyed black, such as serges, vicunas, etc., and the writer has even sold these burrs and card waste when carbonised to- a manufacturer producing box or livery cloths for coachmen and grooms, and also for the production of gaiter cloths. Backings are a very valuable byproduct, and are the short bits of tops produced from the combing operation itself. Really speaking it is top itself of from a foot to a yard in length, and these are sold at but a few pence per lb. less than what the top itself is worth. When these are put through a machine called a teazer by which the fibres are pulled from together, we have then an article worth quite as much as any scoured fleece wools, simply because these backings are light, free, open, and clean. Waste made by spinners and weavers is a totally different thing to anything made in the previous processes of manufacture, this taking the shape of thread waste. When a end breaks in. the spinning frame, it has to be what is known in the trade “piccened up,” and in that operation, which is done by young girls there was always a little of the thread wasted. The same obtiins in the weaving department when a weaver puts a full bobbin of weft into the shuttle or has to tie up a warp end that breaks loose. It is customary to take an empty bobbin of weft out of the shuttle just before it runs -.iff m order to have the pick of weft that goes • across the piece without any joining, consequently a few yards are frequently wasted in this operation. Weavers make what are known as “shoit ends,’ and it would be foolish ill the extreme to destroy this useful waste. In the case of worsteds, such broken pieces of warp and weft are all wool, only they have been through the various processes of manufacture, consequently these are taken and sold to waste pullers, or else taken by the manufacturer and re used, How is this done? Before these short ends and threads of warp and weft can be utilised they have to be “pulled”; that is the fibres constituting the threads are re-opened, this being done on what is known as a garneting machine. This is a small machine constructed of revolving cylinders' .upon which project small -sharp teeth. This thread waste is passed slowly through, the teeth of the machine tearing from pieces the thread, the result being that when it comes out at the opposite end the material is loose and free just the same as ordinary wool, this being then ready for using over for the production of yarns and pieces. Then we come to flocks. This is not the trade it once was, although in the process of milling pieces, flocks are made. "Various uses are made of this kind of mill waste, though in calling flocks waste, the term is more or less a misnomer. We all know that a few years back there was hardly a bed mattress made, but what was filled with flocks, most of the cushions also for domestic and church wear being filled with the same. Even to-day a large number of bod mattresses are made filler! with flocks, though a much better, healthier and sounder article is being new produced made from borse-hair. If the flocks are good ones, there is nothing injurious about their use, and for certain purposes where the cheapest cotton and wool fabrics are made, flocks cMti be used. . However, the staple of them is so short that they serve their best purpose in making beddings, etc. Now all these wastes which have been detailed arise and are made in the. various processes through which wool goes as it enters the scouring machine right to the finished fabric, and the ingenuity of man has found out a rightful use for the lot, nothing whatever being wasted. Of ■ course, they help somewhat to cheapen the various woven materials which are consumed both by men and women, and bring, within range of thej multitude m any a good, se rviceable fabric at a handy price. In the manufacture of under garments the same wool wastes have to be encountered; in fact, there is no branch of the textile industry but what produces a few byproducts, and these are all gathered up, classed, and re-used somewhere or other. This seems to me to be the way of the world. In every calling and department of life a 'compensating principal is met with, and by observing this universal law all sect : ons are the gainfVr> Whfif- "’r'liiif'vlirvii 1» *»•«"* +a srt, | tie in dealing with eifcner combing or 1 *£-,

locks is tho class of goods they are most suitable for, and that is also the principal they work upon in handling the various descriptions of wool wastes.