ARTIFICIAL WOOL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 54, 26 November 1937, Page 12

ARTIFICIAL WOOL

Extensive Research in Germany INCREASE IN PRODUCTION LONDON, Oct. 20. One of the outstanding impressions of a recent visit to Germany by members of the International- Wool Seeretariat was the estcnsive application of scientific and technical research. in the use of artificial fibres, whieh are now becoming a permanent and important feature in the woollen aextile industry of that country. It is only four years since Germany ranked as one of the largest buyers of Australian fine wool, her purehases in that market averaging about 100,000,0001b. a year, but over the last three years this figure has declined to an average of only 37,000,0001b. Behind these ligures, although they exag* gerate the decline in total wool conaumption in Germany, lies the story of the dramatic rise of the artificial wool industry. Seasons for DCvelopmeut. "It is, of course, no history of the operation of normal economic forces of supply and demand, but of a forced and artifieial growth, the offshoot of that capacity for cfficial control and regimentation in which some see both the strength and weakness of the Gertnan charaeter," says a wool expert in the Manchester Guardian. "Neither is it a complete account in itself, but only one ehapter of the story of that striving after self-sufficiency which has affected the whole field of textile consumption in Germany, and of Other raw c-.aterials such as oil and rubber. Forced tnd artificial although it was in origin, it yet provides a message which cannot t»e ignored by British wool producCrs in the Dominions or by manufacturers at iiome. "Production of artificial fibre in Germany leapt from 9200 tons in 193V to 19,600 tons in 1935, rising again in 1936 to 45,000 tons, and overtaking in this year the production of its blood brother, rayon. Already in 1937 there seems no reason to doubt that the an* ticipated production of 90,000 tons will be realised. To-day, at Wolfen, one factory is turning out more than the total national production for 1934, while nest year, with its gigantic plant trebled in size, it alone will far exceed the total production for 1935. , Organisation and Research. "With increased and mass production has come falling costs, so that each revision of price, always downward, has widened the gap between the natural (and artificial fibre. To-day the cheapiest standard artificial fibre in Germany iis sold at 1.45 marks, or approximately J13d a pound, compared with wool of & ;comparable type at 30d. ''And yet, confronted by this incrcas* ingly formidable rival, wool still stands supreme, To-day, Germany still requires jand would gladly take more wool than jshe can pay for. The lesspn for Briitain and for Empire producers is that, thanks to organisation, industry and reJ search, the place of wool is challenged jand threatened by something inherentjly inferior, at least ,for these purposes jfor which wool is particularly suited; j that, apart from extension of wool conjSumption in previously undeveloped .markets such as Ghina, its field of useifulness and the diversity of its employ;ment can be immeasurably increased by jdevoting a like degree "of - organisation and research to these ends,"