The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, Mat 21, 1889. PROMISED INNOVATIONS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 301, 21 May 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, Mat 21, 1889. PROMISED INNOVATIONS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou uim'dt at be thy country’*, Thy God's, and truth's.

In another place this morning we publish news which, while giving temporary cause of regret, yet inspires hopes of the practical development of a process which if successful must bring about most important results. The much-talked of Imperial Produce Company is likely to expire in its infancy, and from a shareholders* point of view that would perhaps mean the saving of many regrets in the hereafter, New Zealand would be a large gainer by the operations of the Company, but the probabilities are that the shareholders would come out on the wrong side of the books. The other cause of hope is the pro-able success of a new method of food preservation to which we have previously referred. " For without doubt,” says the correspondent quoted, " the invention is bound to revolutionise the colonial meat trade if nothing else.” Still it does not onlv apply to the meat trade. Fruit •nd vegetables, we are told, can be preserved in the same manner, and in fact there is said to be no end to the applications and uses of the new process. Incredible as all this may seem it is no more so to us than other inventions that are now in common use have seemed in earlier days. In a few months we ought to be in a position to judge of the practical value of the preserver, and until then there is no doubt its history will be watched With interest. If it can do what is claimed for it, it is too valuable to be long hidden from the public, In connection with what Is stated above, there Is another invention which may also be referred to, This, we are led to understand, will lead to a revolu

tion in the process of scouring wool. The Messrs Burnell, of Hindmarsh, South Australia, have invented a machine by which they claim to have solved the following problemsr. To produce a machine which will carry a fleece of wool through and scour it perfectly without in the least tearing or tangling it, and delivering it dry in the same condition as when put into it, so that if needs be it might be sorted after cleansing as well as before. 2. The saving for utilisation of the grease and potash contained in the wool by a simple and easy process. 3. The accomplishment of the beforementioned ends by the use of a solvent which is not in the least injurious to the fibre or colour of the wool. It may be mentioned that the solvent which removes the grease while passing through the machine is evaporated and recondensed into the liquid state and used over again continually with but very little waste. The grease may be turned into gas to drive all the machinery and pump all the water required. As this process is essentially a cold one no steam or fire is required to heat the scour, consequently the wool cannot possibly be injured by heat. The solvent, which is benzine, is not poisonous, and therefore not dangerous to human life.

In the case of the scouring machine we shall also have to wait until it has fully proved to what extent the assertions of the inventors are justifiable ; but the South Australian journals seem convinced as to the utility of the machine, and the wonder is rather that something of the kind has not previously been devised.