INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 285 
subjects which form the text of our present brief review will 
be the machinery for woollen fabrics and the new inventions. 
In regard to the woollen machinery, the whole of the pro- 
cesses, from the animals producing* the raw material to the 
finished cloth, are represented, and the entire range of woollen 
manufacture can be followed through by visitors, under the 
guidance of anyone versed in the subject. The necessity of 
locating each exhibitor’s goods by themselves renders impos- 
sible that arrangement in consecutive order which would 
enable this to be done without such assistance, although this 
has been partially attempted. The animals include some 
foreign ones sent by the Zoological Society and Miss Burdett 
Coutts, and British sheep sent by Mr. Wallis and others. 
The first process in respect to the actual manufacture of wool 
is the washing of the sheep to cleanse its fleece. For this pur- 
pose the apparatus contributed by Messrs. Gfwynne — a sort of 
water-pipe cage — is admirably suited, within which the sheep 
is placed. These pipes, forming the frame of the cage, are per- 
forated, and through them numerous small streams of water, 
raised by one of their excellent centrifugal pumps, intersect in- 
wards, pouring in all directions upon the animal. As the water 
issues under some considerable pressure, the washing is much 
more thorough and effective than it could possibly be by any 
amount of hand labour, and the machine also saves one man’s 
labour in holding the sheep. The next operation in the series is 
the shearing — the taking the raw material off the back of the 
animal. This also is illustrated by another machine by the same 
eminent firm. As a pump for raising water for such purposes, 
the direct-action pump of Messrs. Hayward, Tyler & Co. also 
merits attention. 
We have next displayed the raw material in samples of 
numerous kinds, spread all about the Machinery Court. There 
are good and bad sorts, as a matter of course ; but what we have 
mainly to do with, in respect to the machines required to work 
the wool, is the length of the staple or fibre. This is short, or 
long, or short-long, as it may be called. For example, short is 
wool under, say an inch and a half ; short-long is, say three inches ; 
and long maybe six inches, or even more, in length. The machines 
are usually made to suit these respective qualities. The short 
wool may be passed direct to the “burring” machine, in which it 
is subjected to a loosening and shaking action in a rapidly re- 
volving cylinder, and thence through a series of carding cylinders, 
the object being to get out the “burrs” or seeds and other hard 
substances which adhere to, or get mixed with, the sheep’s 
fleece. After the wool has been scoured — Mr. Petrie’s machine 
typifies this process — it is partially dried, and the wool then has 
to be passed through an oiling process to soften and straighten 
