WOOL 



47 



experts give the diameter as 0*0008 inch, while the high-lustre 

 coarse wools, such as the Lincoln, etc., possess 500 scales per 

 inch, the diameter of the fibre being 0-00091 inch. A great 

 many people in the wool trade do not know what the different 

 terms, such as 64*5, 6o's, 46% etc., mean. In spinning, the 

 quality of the wool is known by the number of counts that 

 can be spun from it. A count is 560 yards of spun yarn, and 

 when the term 6o's is used it means that a wool of that quality 

 will spin 60 hanks of yarn, each hank 560 yards long, from a 

 pound of the combed top, a 46*3 meaning that it will spin only 

 46 hanks of yarn each 560 yards in length. A 7o's quality of 

 Merino wool, if it has sufficient length of staple, will spin 22 miles 

 480 yards of yarn from a pound of top, while coarse Lincoln 

 wool of 36*3 quality will only spin n miles 800 yards of yarn. 

 Nowadays you can get yo's tops (or any other quality) that 

 will not spin yo's because the wool fibres in the top are too short, 

 though the diameter of the fibres is exactly the same as those 

 that will spin 70*3. I will, however, go into this in a later 

 chapter. 



The chemical constituents of wool vary a little, as no two 

 grades have exactly the same quantity of chemicals which wools 

 consist of. Bowman, a noted authority on textile fibres, in 

 analysing wools of the United Kingdom gives the following : 



The above analyses are of the pure wool fibre, not the wool 

 as it comes off the sheep's back. The fibres were subjected to 

 treatment with water, alcohol, and ether, so as to free them from 

 all impurities such as yolk, earthy matter, etc. 



