A MODERN MIRACLE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 19, 15 October 1937, Page 21 (Supplement)

A MODERN MIRACLE

Manufacturing Wool Materials

'pHE day of the hand-loom and spinning wheel has passed in the manufacture of woollen materials. To-day mammoth maehines and skilled operatives in industrial cities produce the rugs and blankets, the suiting and socks, which we use and wear. Production has increased, and one man to-day does what a hundred skilled workers were required to do before the inventive genius of such men as Arkwright and Hargreaves devised the intricate machinery now used in mills throughout the world. The story of the development of spinning goes back to 520 B.C., the first recorded date Of the nse of the distaff and spindle. In 1764 when James Hargreaves 's family spinriing wheel broke down he built an eight-spindle spinning jenny. That was the first automatic spinning frame used. Other noted names, including Arkwright, figure in the history of spinning since then. The spindle of 520 B.C. was, hard though it is to realise it, the forerunner of the self-acting- spindle fmuie" of to-day. The woollen mill takes the wool just • as it comes from the stores. Normal- , ly it carries hundreds of bales in stoek. In the buying of wool >the greatest' attention is paid to judging ■ the clean scoured yield. In' some qualities the clean yield. has been put as low as 32 per cent. In others, of course it is very much. higher. All the wool is sorted by hand, and as it goes over the table two classifications of it are made. •. From the sorting tables the wool goes to the scouring depaTtment, where the work begins . of . removing the grease. From the large hopper " the wool is dropped into the scouring machine and is dragged along by moving

forks in a solution of soap and soda in water. It is rolled oilt at the end, and passes into a second bath where the process is Tepeated. . Then follows the third, and rinsing, bath. By now all the grease and dirt has been removed froin the fleece, and the wool has been just eight minutes on its way since it entered"' the scouring shed. The ■ woolgrower who complains sometimes of the difference between the price he gets for his clip and the price of the finished product will see one reason if he visits the woollen mill and watches the scouring process in particular. As much as 50 per cent is scoured out sometimes. The scoured wool nest goes to the dyeing department. There are literaily hundreds of dye mixtures, as a sample is retained of every first dyeing. Where there is, for instance, a dozen diiferent kinds of blue, thero is little point in referring to the colour as blue. That is given up and every sample is num.bered. In madern methods of dyeing in woollen * mills the " wool is placed in a large receptacle witli a perforated bottom. A heavy top is lowered on the maehine and bolted. A pump then circulates the dye through the wool — a vory effective and simple way of doing the job. Dyeing is, as may be imagined, a process which requires the very highest skill. Some material is dyed in the piece; in other cases the wool ia dyed before it is made up. A hydroextraction pump takes the water out of tho wool again, and the freshly-dyed

fleece nest passes io the dryerj Her# it is circulated in a heated" tank and then fanned out perfectly dry. To prepare it for carding, contlensing and spinning the wool is teased or wii« leyed. This process shakes the dust and dirt out of it and eliminates any kno^g that may be in it. So it passes on to the various ingenious sets of carding maehines, for a continuation of tho process of disentangling, opening and mixing the fibres. The wool -passes through two such maehines, and then goes on to the condenser, from which ai very fine layer of wool comes off. Theso layers, called slivers, al?& fio® Jrith just enough toughness to enabl® ftlm to bt spun. They are inn qe •• condenser bobbins for transfer tQ the spinning mule3. From the spools the wool M streteh* ed and wound on to the -bobbins, 0M the twisting frames the threads fcrtf twisted together. JComplicated and clattering maehine follows the other. as theVyarn goes on-to -the warping, weaving or knitting. .departments as may be required in the bnsy. lram of industry. Bobbins .of the various eolours ;are wound on to the' warp mill tnd then run off on to the beam. Badk and forth flashes the. shuttle taking a speeified number of white or bleek threads, for example, to fona' Ihe eheck in the material being mad# at tho time. ; The warp is the length-way of the Jhreads, the vreffi the" threads thrown across at right anglea Toy tho

shuttle of the loom. Ttt the milling room the fabric 3l scoured again and shrunk. In the manufacture of blankets it goes through the process in an encfless chain of about ten blanket lengths. In the tentering maehines the fabric passes over and between steam pipes. It is fastened with hooks; hence the signifl" cance of the expression 4 4 on tenterhooks. ' ' Then follow the final processes, the material going through brushing and facing maehines. Spots are pieked out, the material pressed, and flnally the expert hands of the darners put the finishing touches where necessary. Folded and measured, the wool len fabric is ready for the warehouse*