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SILK TO BE MADE FROM FLAX FIBRE.

DUNEDIN SCIENTIST HOPEFUL OF SUCCESS. DUNEDIN, Sept. 15. The Dunedin scientist who recently has been carrying out research work involving the possibiity of using New Zealand flax in the manufacture of wool bales has been engaged during the last few. days in making a substitute for silk from the Dominion’s native fibre. A specimen of the work accomplished was shown yesterday afternoon to a “Star” reporter. The material lacks the sheen of artificial silk, but its general appearance is identical with that of pure silk, and inasmuch as it is very like the silk as it comes direct from the cocoon this flax substitute in the raw state compared very' favourably with the real thing. -The threads were much coarser than those of ordinary silk, but it is understood that by the process of carding any difficulty in this direction will be overcome.

All this looks very 'promising for the proposed local industry, and it shows that the syndicate is losing no time in investigating to its utmost the possibilities of flax. The experimenter stated that it ivas too soon yet to make a definite statement concerning the future of the substance, but it was certain that the cost of producing it .would not lie prohibitive.

# In reference to the flax wool bale, he said that it was also too soon to give a definite statement, because the whole success of the enterprise depended on the loose fibre eliminating method which the syndicate intended to employ. Packs made from New Zealand hemp bv ordinary methods had shown that, if anything, the loose fibre nuisance was even more marked than in the case of jute bales. However, it was exceedingly fortunate that the method of overcoming this difficulty was first of all going to be' applied to the flax bales and not to those made of jute. In this way local industry would be greatly assisted. The prevailing idea that the stray fibre trouble in wool bales was confined to those fragments of fibre on the surface of the pack was a quite erroneous one. The difficulty lay in the fact that the wool was rebaled in the brokers’ sheds and two bales were compressed into one before being exported. When sampling this wool, buyers roughly cut the pack about, thus loosening many strands of bale material, and when the containers were sewn up again stray strands found their way into the wool. Then again at Bradford the sorters caused similar trouble when cutting the bales open, and in taking out the wool extracted many loose .fibres with it. Moreover, a large quantity of wool was packed into other bales and stored. Thus it could be seen that through the various processes of handling objectionable fibres continued to find their way into the wool. The benefit to be derived from the utilisation of New Zealand hemp in the proposed manner was that, there would be no loose fibres on the inside surface, even though the bales were roughly cut and handled.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SNEWS19270920.2.5

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Shannon News, 20 September 1927, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
507

SILK TO BE MADE FROM FLAX FIBRE. Shannon News, 20 September 1927, Page 2

SILK TO BE MADE FROM FLAX FIBRE. Shannon News, 20 September 1927, Page 2

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