WOOL SUBSTITUTE

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19900, 1 June 1936, Page 12

WOOL SUBSTITUTE

ITALIAN EXPERIMENI‘. THI "esnoflomsre" moon's , ...—... ‘ ‘ The Wool Industries Research a l socia‘tion at Turriuon, Leena, 8139‘? :11: ,\'estigatiug the new ltalian In!“ l ‘\'UOA” made from 68581": 'dded t I following sentences to its technical N' 1 port: “Apart rrom economic consmfl" tutions, there do not Elma“ 3‘ pre‘sent to be any countenamn‘ chanfl: i teristics which can make ‘xnuk wool l a competitor of the natural l’fod‘fc" {but this will not prexlelm Selenéluflco I uttcni ts, subsidised m :1 lion'Pl’o . ' ling cfiuntrics, to get over the <11!!3 entries or to palliate them.” ! The Assocnition found that till ltalians had not brought any near" the requirements of a molecular It!” ture which could reproduce all “I. properties of wool. The discover.v was not new and the product was merely an inferior substitute for wool. Yel to judge from an oficial review of l the development of Italian industry 1 in the face of sanctions, the new pro- ? case is hailed in Italy as one of out—- } standing importance. The revrew, issued jointly by the Association _Ol Italian Corporations and the Fascist Confederation of Industrialists, state: ‘ “The wonderful process invented by ‘Comm. Ferretti, by which ensein is , converted into wool has pnseed the , experimental and entered on the in- } dustrial stage of development, end will lead to a real revolution in that ‘ branch of the textile trades, s. revolution no less considerable in its poe—--1 sibilities than that brought about by rayon in regard to silk.” Bleewhere the review records that the Itllllll dairy industry is planning to relieve the deficiency arising from the cessntion of imports of lard and other tats from sanction countries by increasing the output of butter, “mnde profit; able by the fact that the ensein byproduct is now in great demand by th: new artificial wool industry.” ‘ Thus, despite its deficiencies, the new product is being made‘ the subject of such “scientific attempts" as > the Association mentioned. Other re- , actions to sanctions, nn’d to the [ent eral trade dimculties which began to -develop long before the Abysshdnn campaign, are the lntensiflcetion of Italian poultry farming, with In nocompanying reduction in- the eon-Imp-tion of. melt, the cultivstion of. the castor oil plant as a source of lubrin cant, and the revival of the silb ‘growing industry. Ore reserves to. poor to be developed in competition ‘ wiz'h imports are now being exploited, jand the hydroelectric plants erected ‘ since the war have more than doubled lthe available supplies of electric ngVVEI’, thus reducing Italy’s depend;‘ence on foreign coal. The review 2 states that the coal beds of Istris Ire Ebeing developed, and it is expected ‘that the output will soon be raised to about 1,300,000 metric tons s you. ‘Sardinia is witnessing e, revival of ,her mining industries. and coal, lead, (in, zinc. copper, and silver mines, and their ore-refining plants are again employing large bodies of labour. Copper is being largely replaced by elu—minium, of which Italian plants will soon be able to produce any quantity required from Italian raw materials. Gasogene engines, run with the gas obtained from wood charcoal, are replacing petrol engines on motor buses and successful trials of motors run with the gas obtained from wood charcoaly are replacing petrol engines on motor buses and successful trials of motors run with denatured alcohol have been made. All the textile lihoratories have been at work for months on the problem of developing and utilising home-grown raw nu.terials, and the review claims this they have had remarkable results. Hemp is now so treated that the fibre is practically undistinguishnble from cotton, and is freely used by the mills, not only by itself, but also in union with cotton yarns.

“The result of sanctions," the re. View sums up, "shows that the in..‘erial resources of the country, wiaely ’ and intensively used, are considerably in excess of what was generally believed. Tho whole nation is a well. disciplined army, proparpd to fight the economic battle to which it bu [been summoned." -