MECHANICAL WOOL TREATING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3416, 6 January 1912, Page 2

MECHANICAL WOOL TREATING.

DEMONSTRATION AT WORKS

At the invitation of the management, ai “Times” representative was present at the mechanical wool-treating works opposite the Park racecourse yesterday, when a demonstration of /the efficiency of the plant in doing what it was purported to do was given. Captain Moss, who is at the head of this enterprise, came,;.ta Gisborne early last year, and after satisfying himself that the prospects of the treatment being accorded a good measirre of support in the district, he called a meeting of representative pastoral!sts, at wnicli the process was exhaustively discussed. It was then intimated that a site had been secured, and that works were to be erected almost immediately. In the meanwhile employees of the company have been travelling, the district arranging with farmers to buy or to take free of charge for demonstrationpurposes dags and other refuse which up to the present has beam looked upon as being of little or no marketable value.

In- many cases the farmers consented to; give their waste products, and these have been thoroughly dried and stored at the works.

A quantity of this 1 was passed through the. machines yesterday, and the dags treated were turned out very passable, looking wool. There are two machines, one being for the treatment of dags, and the other for cleansing wool of bisi-bidi, etc. Each occupies about Bft. x 61t of floor space, and stands some 6ft in height. The internal arrangements, are not in the least complicated, and the machines are. built on a very simple- plan. The machine by which the dags are treated is comprised of one large cylinder, revolving at a speed of three hundred revolutions per minute, and three smaller cylinders set directly above it. All of these cylinders are studded with spikes about four inches long, and the whole four are encased in-one perforated casing. The dagjs enter the machine from a hopper at one side, and are immediately hurled against the casing, with the result that the dried manure adhering to the wool is broken away insmall particles, and, as the wool is kept clear of the spikes, there is no breakago in th-e staple*. The refuse is driven through the! perforated casing af> it is freed from the wool, and is swept away. When the wool emerges from the machine it is at once apparent that the process does what it is. claimed to do. Small particles of loose manure remain, but these, it- is said, are mostly shaken out While the wool is being handled on the sorting table- The dag machine is said to handle about one and a halt tons of material per day. The second machine works at a much higher speed, and treats a finer substance. ' The arrangements, here are somewhat different to those in the first machine, and fan-lilco blades are substitinted for the spikes used m the fiist. These - create a draught when the central ohaft is revolving at a speed of 2000 revolutions per minute, and the “slipe” and “bidi-bxli” wool being treated is kept beating against- the similarly perforated casing. The finisheel article in this instance is almost perfectly cleansed. This machine is: estimated to treat about the same quantity of material per day as the first. A further demonstration,, to which farmers are to he invited, is t-o be given at the works at 2.30 p.m. on 'Wednesday, 17th hist., and those expert in much matters will then he afforded an op]xirtnnity of judging for themselves the value of the process.