ARTIFICIAL WOOL.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3509, 22 June 1920, Page 4

ARTIFICIAL WOOL.

Artificial wool, discovered or invented in Germany during the war, is tkc subject of very serious and exhaustive investigation in Britain's wool centre. Professor Midgeley, of Bradford Technical College, has tested samples from the Continent, and encourages the idea that it can never become a serious competitor against the real article. He states that it lacks strength and elasticity, but he is careful to admit that it is capable of being woven, either alone or in conjunction with wool or other article, into cloth, but, he states, the resultant cloth will have the appearance of shoddy. It is the nature of Professor Midgeley's admission that creates a feeling of doubt, but, if artificial wool is proved a commodity suitable for-taking the place of wool, or of being successfully combined with wool in the manufacture of cloth, and if it has the further advantage of being cheap, we may rest assured that it has come to stay, just as surely as vegetable bristles for brush-making, and doe-margarine have come to stay. When margarine was first put on the market, nothing good was said for it, nevertheless {hero are hundreds of thousand, o' tons of margarine made and consumed each year. -Artificial value creation by cornering is sure to result in cheap substiutes for wool coining on the market sooner or later. The artfiicia'j substitute for butter came as a result of inadequate supply not so with wool, for at present there is ample wool to satisfy the demand if it were not withheld for the purpose of artificial demand making. The prospect for wool in the future is that unless land laws in wool-producing countries are amended and administered so as to compel greater production the supply wilr fall short of the demand, and in such circumstances artificial wool may become a competitor to need watching. Reports in British newspapers do not quite confirm Professor Midgeley's" views; they state that cloth made from artificial wool is suitable for the hardest wear in manual work. Its cheapness, judging from tin 1 prices tailors are quoting in their advertisements, „seems destined to bring if info general use for manual workers' wear. The source of supply of raw material is not generally known, but it is said to be endless. However, any commodity that i.s likely to come into competition with wool, or to limit the use of woo] is something a woolproducing country cannot afford to leave out of consideration.