403 

 ON THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE* 



BY DR. LYON PLAVFAIR, C.B. 



"Woollen Rags. — Woollen rags have become extensively useful of 

 late years. They cannot be converted into paper, but they can be con- 

 verted into a great many substances ; and, perhaps, some of my lady 

 hearers will not thank me for the information which I am going to give. 

 It is interesting, nevertheless. After garments have been worn and 

 have gone through their common use and wear, they are by no means 

 useless. They possess still a high money value ; and these woollen 

 garments, these clippings of the tailor, old rags, and old worn coats, 

 when we have done with them, are all cut up, and torn to- pieces. They 

 have a little oil placed upon them, and are blown through a blower to 

 get them into a fine state of division ; and then they are sold as wool 

 under the name of " mungo," or of " shoddy." Now, this is sold at 

 about one-third the price of ordinary wool. The wool obtained in 

 this way by breaking up these old rags is sold at from sixpence to a 

 shilling a pound, and it forms excellent cloths. For instance, those 

 light ladies' cloths which they wear as mantles are almost all made 

 from these old rags. It is also employed extensively for mixing with 

 wool, because it gives a greater lustre and a certain fineness to the 

 cloth ; and therefore it is often used for mixing in ordinary woollen 

 cloths. The coarser varieties are used for druggets and other purposes ; 

 but it is all used up. There is a portion of it which becomes waste, 

 which will not make good wool. This mungo waste, as it is called, 

 cannot be worked up into a cloth ; but it is only waste as regards cloth- 

 making. This waste is powdered and dyed with brilliant colours, and 

 is then made use of for making flock-paper such as we have in our 

 ordinary apartments. For that purpose the paper is printed in a pattern 

 with gum or with size. The powdered waste wool which has been 

 dyed and prepared is then sieved over the paper, and it sticks where 

 the gum or size has been printed on. In that way it forms the ordinary 

 flock-paper. 



Mtjslin-de-laines. — As long ago as 1834, in the cotton districts, 

 they learnt how to put a cotton weft with a woollen warp. The cloths 

 thus produced were finer in texture and cheaper than the woollen cloth, 

 and therefore there was a great demand for them. It was, however, 

 scarcely worth while to take these nmslin-de-laines as rags after they 

 were worn out and economise them. The reason of that was that you 

 had two fibres of different kinds, one of wool and one pf cotton, 

 and you had to sacrifice one in order to get the other. For instance, if 

 you desired to get the wool, you steeped the muslin-de-laines in acids, 

 and converted the cellulose or woody fibre of which the cotton consisted 

 into sugar, and the cotton being converted into sugar was lost, but the 



* From Lectures on the Exhibition. 



