WOOL 5 i 



and the burrs shaken out in the form of dry dust by a 

 machine called the " Willey." The above- process is called 

 carbonizing. If the wool has sufficient length of staple the 

 burrs can be combed out of it, and it is not necessary to 

 have it carbonized. Carbonizing is used for other purposes 

 besides that of removing burr from wool. It plays an 

 important part in the manufacture of shoddy. Shoddy is the 

 trade term for goods that have been made up from woollen 

 rags, or wool that has been manufactured in some other form 



[Photo by Author. 



1. Extra heavy burry lambs' wool. 



2. Same wool after scouring and carbonizing by immersion in weak 



sulphuric acid solution. 



before. A good many rags contain nothing else but wool. 

 These do not require carbonizing, and they are sorted and 

 kept by themselves, but a great quantity of the rags used 

 are mixtures of wool and cotton, or some other vegetable 

 fibre. These rags are submerged in a bath of sulphuric acid 

 of 60 Twaddle. The acid will destroy all the vegetable thread 

 or fibres such as linen and cotton, thus leaving only the pure 

 wool fibres. Wool obtained from rags in the above manner 

 is called Extract wool, and it generally contains fibres of every 



