WOOL FROM SKINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1938, Page 3

WOOL FROM SKINS

RECENT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Scientists have been making experiments to see if wool can be grown from dead sheep’s skin. The experimenters based their researches on the knowledge that animal tissues can be kept alive and healthy in a laboratory for years after the creature from which the tissue was taken had died. They applied certain tests to the skins of, dead sheep, and eventually succeeded in making several of these skins actually produce good wool, surprising though it may seem. The process by which this was done is being kept secret, as the scientists are working on behalf of a number of manufacturers. It is said, however, that the pelt is preserved and treated so that iv remains as healthy as if it were on a grazing ewe. The wool on the pelt continues to grow at a normal rate, and is sheared when it attains the required length. > Under the microscope the wool from such a pelt cannot be distinguished from wool taken from a live animal, and its chemical analysis differs only slightly from that of live wool. Cloth woven from it is as strong as that produced in the ordinary way.