Substitutes for Wool

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 666, 18 May 1929, Page 27

Substitutes for Wool

natural product safe

Views of Experts

MUCH has been heard during the past decade regarding the possibility of some form of synthetic wool ousting the natural product from its place on the world’s markets. The possibility of this, however, appears as remote as ever.

—ABLIN'G from London on the subv* j OC t recently, a special correspondent of the Sydney "Sun” stated that tlie new wool substitute, which has attracted a great deal of attention among European textile manufacturers, is not, according to expert opinion, likely to affect the Australian and New Zealand pastoral Industry. tt is described as an ally, not a rival, of wool, enlbling the latter to enter markets hitherto barred against it by price. A large gathering of people interested in the textile industry attended a luncheon given by Textiles (New Process) Ltd., at which Lord Chesterfield, who presided, explained that the company had been formed to exploit a new fibre, which could be combined with wool, enabling the production of a cheaper article, thus helping to increase consumption. He claimed that by using the new process, known as "Nouveau Textile,” it would be possible to reduce the cost of raw materials used in a wide range of textile productions by 35 per cent. Captain Ash, managing director of the company, stated that the fibre was already largely used in France, and several British mills were experimenting with it. The price of the material ■was ninepence a lb. “Nouveau Textile” was not a rival of wool —it was an ally. It would enable wool to enter markets hitherto barred against it by the price. The guests at the lunch examined a display of blankets, and felt various cloths, the composition varying from 34 to 75 per cent, of wool, and G 6 to 25 per cent, of fibre. The material was all made by the ordinary plant of Yorkshire mills. Interviewed, Mr. Sandiford, of John Sandiford and Sons, Rochdale, who manufactured several blankets shown, stated that the fibre did not present difficulties in manufacture. It worked up almost indistinguishable from wool. He admitted that Welsh wool was used tl roughout. He considered it impracticable, technically or economically, to combine the fibre with grades of wool over 46’s. The new process, therefore, was unlikely to affect the Australian pastoral industry in any way. Commenting on the cable message, Sir William Vicars, of John Vicars and Co., Ltd., woollen textile manufacturers, said it would be hard to express a sound opinion as to the merits of the new fibre without seeing samples of it and of the textiles in which it was used. "There have been several so-called ‘substitutes’ for wool,” Sir 'William

Vicars said. “There was a great outcry when Rayon was first introduced., and when ‘Sniafil’ was brought out. Those fibres were used lor certain articles, but their proportion was relatively small. It is a well known fact that, in the manufacture of blankets, a mixture of wool and cotton is used largely, so that it would probably be getting no further toward the elimination of wool. The new fibre, I should think, would be rather a competitor against the cotton than against the wool. “‘None of the efforts which have been made so far has resulted in the production of a genuine substitute at all closely allied to wool. “The great bulk of the wool pro-

duced in Australia and New Zealand is above the type mentioned in the cable message—46’s. That and lower counts are more those which are grown in England, so that if the new fibre cannot be used successfully with higher counts, it should not become a rival against Australian wools.”