518 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



April 1914 



Wool Combing. 



It is said that the British wool- 

 working- industries are the most 

 highly developed of their kind in 

 the whole world. There are no 

 wool goods cheaper than their 

 cheapest and in the open market 

 none commands a higher price 

 than their best. 



It is of interest to follow the 

 path of one consignment of wool 

 in its course from the raw to the 

 finished stage, writes " Dalgety * 

 Ii«view," quoting from " The 

 Times. " The wool, blended in ac- 

 cordance with the customer's lik- 

 ing, arrives first at the washing 

 or scouring machine. It is con- 

 veyed by a travelling apron into 

 the first " wash bowl," or trough, 

 and is carried forward by the peri- 

 odical advance and recession of iron, 

 forks, one step at a time, until it 

 is led untimately into squeezing 

 rollers, from which it emerges per- 

 ceptiljle cleaner and almost dry. 

 The ])rocess repeats itself and the 

 material arrives with a minimum 

 of disturbance and dishevelment at 

 the end of the last bowl. 



Although remarkably cleaner, th^ 

 wool has not inevitably 15SI all 

 its sand and its \ egetable concomi- 

 tants, but these are lessened upon 

 the machines known as " cards " 

 fitted with large cylinders. These 

 cylinders are themselves furnished 

 vAth bent wire teeth, and the minor 

 cylinders working upon their cir- 

 cumference are fitted with the same 

 in diilering degrees of fineness, 

 sharpness, and strength. ' After 

 teasing out the wool into a filmy 

 veil, thus freeing it from all the 

 sand and many of the vegetable 

 burrs, the carding engine eventual- 

 ly brings the filaments together, 

 and these, passing quickly through 

 a funnel, form a rope or " silver " 

 sufficiently coherent to undergo 

 subsequent treatment in this con- 

 tinuous form. 



The wool pas.ses to the back- 

 washing machine to be washed 

 free of any impurities which may 

 still sullv its colour, and to be 

 dried continuously in a compact 

 hot-air chamber. The material is 

 oiled by measured drops of the 

 best olive oil as it passes through 

 a " irilling " machine designed to 

 .straighten the fibres of the silver 

 prejiaratorv to their passage into 

 the combf 



— The Wool Comb. — 

 Only after this sequence of pre- 

 liminary processes does the wool 

 enter the machine which combs 



out the short and work fibres and 

 the remnant of vegetable impuri- 

 ties, and di\ides the wool into 

 two parts, " tops " and "noil." The 

 former is the long wool with all 

 its fibres parallel, which consti- 

 tutes the raw material of the 

 worsted spinner. The noil, or 

 short wool, is invaluable for mak- 

 ing blankets, flannels, tweeds, and 

 other woollen cloths. The separa- 

 tion of long from short is effected 

 normally upon a Noble comb, fed 

 with carded silver supplied from 

 balls set around the circumference 

 near to the ground. The carded 

 wool is led upwards through con- 

 ductors, and thus to the pins or 

 teeth of an annular comb rotating 

 in the horizontal plane. This is a 

 comb called the large circle, inside 

 of ■ which revolve two smaller circlesl 

 furnished also with pin teeth. At 

 the points of contact of the outer 

 with the inner circles dabbling 

 brushes work vigorously up and 

 down to press the uncombed wool 

 into the teeth. The wool over- 

 hangs the edges of the circles and 

 is engag'ed and combed by the 

 passing teeth. The long fibres are 

 drawn off, lea\ing the short or 

 noil fibres within the pins. The 

 top is carried off upwards and is 

 coiled away and the noil cleared 

 out of the pins is passed down- 

 wards. 



The operation is not over until 

 the combed top has been passed 

 through a " finisher " box, in 

 which the silver is made equal and 

 uniform in all respects and has 

 restored to it the moisture lost in 

 the preceding operations. There- 

 after the top is wound into balls 

 ticketed for identification, and 

 passed down a chute to the cellar, 

 to be weighed and packed in paper 

 ready for the spinner or dryer or 

 for the conditioninj^-'house. 



The o]>eration of combing is a 

 fundamental one upon which all 

 subsec|uent results are built, and 

 there is everything to be said for 

 having wool combed in the most 

 economical and accom.plished man- 

 ner. The Roubaix Commission's 

 report sugg'ests that Bradford 

 woolcombing is economical because 

 it is simple, and it is not to be 

 gainsaid that the simplest way is 

 naturally the best. The simplici- 

 ty is none the less a highly organ- 

 ised one in which advantage is 

 taken of every mechanical arrange- 

 ment for facilitating production 

 and minimising expense. Nothin-v 

 is wasted by the comniission wool- 

 comber. The suds from the wash- 

 ing machines after they are spent 

 are run into tanks where the wool 

 grease is separated from the water 



by \'itriol. The fat thus recovered 

 is pressed under heat in modern 

 machinery built for the purposef 

 The fluid oil is run off andi casked^ 

 to be sold to America or else- 

 where for axle-grease. The press 

 cake remaining behind makes a 

 valuable manure much used in con- 

 tinental countries. The burr-dust 

 and sand picked from the teeth of 

 the cards is saved and sold for 

 shipnvent to France. 



— Work and Wages. — 



The prices charged for perform- 

 ing a long round of delicate opera- 

 tions upon an expensive and easily 

 spoiled commodity are impressive- 

 ly low. Wool is combed on com- 

 mission at prices, varying with the 

 quality, and ranging from a frac- 

 tion more than one penny to a 

 fraction over threepence per pound. 

 Withal, woolcombing is not an ill- 

 paid employment for the operative, 

 for there are in force in the trade 

 standard rates of wages which 

 give women 14/6 a week as a 

 minimum', and men a minimum of 

 25/6 a week. Materially higher 

 wages are earned by the more 

 competent workers, some women 

 making a week and some men 

 33/. The industry gives employ- 

 ment also to numbers of skilled 

 men, who are paid on a higher 

 scale in accordance with their 

 duties. Employers in the industry 

 have to compete with the other 

 trades of the locality for the avail- 

 able supply of labour, and in wages 

 and in conditions of work they 

 maintain a level not inferior to 

 that of the locality at large. Whiero 

 a comparatively h,gh temperature 

 is necessitated by the nature of the 

 work a steady circulation of cooler 

 air is ensured by the movement of 

 large fans. The atmosphere of the 

 sheds is free" alike from dust and 

 from steam. Rooms and stoves 

 are provided for the cooking and 

 eating of meals, and the surround- 

 ings and conditions as \a whole, 

 the scale of wages, and the general 

 appearance of the operatives in per- 

 son sujjply striking proof of ' care 

 for the physical well-being and 

 comfort of those who handle the 

 wool and attend the machines. 



WANTED TO SELL. 



INCUBATOES AND BROODERS, 

 Simplex, awarded first price (silver 

 medal) Adelaide Exhibition, 1910. 

 Agent for Cort'i Patent Cooler-eafe, 

 a boon in Bummer. Send for price 

 liat.— D. LANYON, Manufacturer, 46 

 North Twraoe, Kent Town. 6-12. 



