WOOL-SCOURING WASTE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3348, 28 November 1919, Page 7

WOOL-SCOURING WASTE.

VALUABLE BY-PRODUCTS. LOST TO THE INDUSTRY. FIELD FOR INVESTIGATION. Nothing is done in New Zealund, as far as can be ascertained, to secure any of the by-products that might, be obtained from wool} and are now lost in the process" of scolll'i'li‘g. The wool of the Dominion is simply cleansed, and in that condition is exported to the Old Country, merely forthe sake of its staple value. That the failure to retrieve the matter which passes away in the scouring process involves an important national loss there is no doubt whatever.

The investigations Of the United. States Bureau of Chemistry in refer-I ence to the Wool products of Ame-rice. furnish strong evidence on the point. According to a return lately publxshed I there are approximately 500,000,')00l?) of unscoured wool used iii the U.u'u:e«:l‘ States. This contains about 75,000,-, 0001 b of wool grease, worth l1(‘.1'l‘.H'1lly; £450,000 (at the present time, .153,000,000), and 25_,000,0001‘0 of potassium carbonate worth normally £150; ;000 (at present £3,000000). Practiclally all the potassium carbonates and lthe greater of the wool grease are allowed to waste. The former is urgently needed in glass and soap manufacture, while experiments of the bureau have shown that WOOI groas is one ‘of the most effective materials for ,\\'{ltCl‘~pl'oofing‘ {shoe leather, {§The lbureau has been working‘ on plans ‘for recovering these valuable materiials, heretofore entirely wlaJst.e‘rd.There is no reason to doubt that the proportions of grease“ and of potassium carbonate contained in New ~Zealaud wool ‘are approximately the same as those found in the Uiiited States. New Zealand’s yidld of wool in 1918 was officially returned at 1116,830,,7'-Moll-lj. App_lying (the arithmetical‘ coinparison, it is found’ that lit would contain «about 17,524,0001 b. ‘of wool grease, u-‘orth in normal times [about £105,000, ‘and at present about £407,000; allso 5,841,5001 b. of potassium c'.-libonaite, ,2ordir(arily worth £35,000, and at present‘ worth over 1 £700,000. .. .

lfnder these hea.cling's. it is clear, an enormous amount of wealth is lost to the Dominion annually. The head of an Auckland wool-scouring firm sttatecl on Friday ‘that as far as he knew nothing was done in New Zealand to lsave the va.luablle ingredients of wool. Certainly nothing was ‘done as I'cgzil'd.- the Auckland clip. Sonic 15 years ago mi attempt was made by a Christchurch firm to avoid the waste by keeping‘ ‘the scourings in vats until they t'crmented, and then taking off the scum. one ef the mainxingredients of which is the basis of lanolinc. Owing, however, to the oft'ensivcness of the. odour given off by the vats, and the complaints inade on that ac.eonnt by the I‘esi(leiits "of tilt} neighbourhood of the factory, the experiments were disc’o’ntinlied. He had never heard of any flll‘i}lol’, effort in New Zea‘l'and to reclaim the waste, but he had l-ntely read that in America experiments were being nr3.de somewhat on the principle of the cream separator. Certainly there was a splendid field in the by-products of wool for the investiguatiens of the aneilytieal chemists of the Dominion, in the efforts to save assets worth at. any time £140,000 8 }'oa.r, and under presenit contlitions £1,167,000 annually, passed through the waste sluiees.