FOR SCOURING WOOL. 3 



have been confirmed in the mill, and by analogy we expect 

 that, in the case of wool, the results will agree equally well. 



The scour has been practically worked a number of times in 

 establishments, some of which are to-day under contract to 

 scour by this method, and it is from the lips of practical 

 woolen men that I have evidence of the success of the scour 

 on a large scale. When the date of this lecture was fixed, I 

 hoped to be able to present to you the actual figures of several 

 weeks' work, but the weather of the past two months, with the 

 delay imposed by it upon transportation, has prevented the 

 erection of the plant upon which I counted. The machinery 

 is now set, but it is too early to give reports from it. 



There is but little doubt that wool was in use before vege- 

 table fibres, for the manufacture of fabrics, since it is, in its 

 natural state, almost ready for the uses of a primitive people. 

 It possesses fineness, flexibility, elasticity, qualities not to 

 be found in an equal degree in vegetable fibres in common 

 use ; and it is practically a process of little difficulty to render 

 it fairly available for ordinary usages. 



Its great difference, from a bleacher's point of view, lies in 

 its susceptibility to heat, and the workman is, therefore, not 

 able to apply to it the hot, lengthy processes which are used 

 to whiten cotton. The strong caustics weaken the wool, and 

 chlorine attacks it at the ordinary temperature, turning it a per- 

 manent yellow. These are the bleaching agents for cotton, 

 and they cannot be used. 



Wool is full of that grease and oil which serve to protect 

 sheep against the weather, and usually bears with it quantities 

 of dirt which mere washing fails to carry away. 



The work of the bleach, or scour, as it is termed when it is 

 question of wool, has varied little since its invention, and 

 the industry was, in all probability, known to the Romans, 

 who brought into England, at the time of their invasion, the 

 art .of working wool, their establishments being located where 

 Winchester now is. 



Wool scouring is simply a repetition of gentle treatment 

 with soaps and lukewarm alkaline baths, and does not require 

 a great length of time. The object of the process is to pro- 

 duce the whitest wool possible without loss of its elastic 

 quality, or loftiness, as it is termed. At its best, the process 

 of scouring, as practised to-day in our scouring mills, does not 

 produce white wool, and furthermore, the scoured wools 

 gradually yellow. When the wool is to be used for dyed 

 goods in dark colors, the white may not be considered the 

 most important requirement; but when white goods are de- 



