BELIEF HOLDS GOOD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1939, Page 6

BELIEF HOLDS GOOD

WOOL AND HEAT CONSERVATION Research work carried out at the Wool Industries Research Laboratory, Torridon, Leeds, has turned the tables on what has been accepted as scientific opinion and has upheld the old belief that wool has properties which give it greater value in resisting changes of temperature than other materials. German authorities in particular have been at some pains to show that staple fibre —Germany’s substitute for wool —is just as warm as wool and that Iqeat conservation is not a function of the fibre, but of the weave and nature of the fabric. The research carried out at the Torridon Laboratory has shown the fallacy on which this line of argument is based and offers welcome confirmation of the popular belief that wool is warmer. The error which former observers have made has been to record the heat conserving properties of wool and other fabrics under constant conditions of temperature and moisture. The special properties of wool are exerted under changing conditions of temperature and moisture. For example, when going from a dry indoor atmosphere to the cold moist outside air, wool —in taking up moisture — generates heat and serves to maintain the temperature of the fabric, and, of course, of the body' underneath. Thus, by virtue of the special properties of the wool fibre, irrespective of those of the fabric, wool is twice to three times as effective in conserving heat as most other textile fibres.