718 
WOOL, 
tings in natural history or physic. Soon after his death were 
published an English edition of his “ Method of Fossils,” 
with various additions; and “ A Catalogue of Fossils in the 
Collection of J. Woodward, M. D.,” in 2 vols. 8vo., a work 
of permanent estimation among geologists. In 1737 Dr. 
Templeman published Woodward’s “ Select Cases and Con¬ 
sultations in Physic,” in which some valuable observations are 
interspersed. One of his hypotheses was, that the life resides 
in the blood, and in the separate parts of the body, not in the 
nerves; in confirmation of which he made many experi¬ 
ments, establishing the vis insita of muscles.— Biog. Brit. 
Haller. Gen. Biog. 
WOO'D WORM, s. [ cossis , Lat.] A worm bred in wood. 
WOO'DY, adj. Abounding with wood. 
Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 
He met her, and in secret shades 
Of woody Ida’s inmost grove. Milton. 
Ligneous; consisting of wood.—Herbs are those plants 
whose stalks are soft, and have nothing woody in them, as 
grass and hemlock. Locke .—Relating to woods; sylvan.— 
With the woody nymphs when she did play. Spenser. 
WOODY HEAD, a high cape on the coast of New Zea¬ 
land, in the South Pacific ocean. Lat. 37. 42. S. 
WOODY ISLAND, an island in the Eastern seas. Lat. 
1. 46. N. long. 106. 5. E. 
WOODY POINT, a cape on the west coast of North 
America, so named by captain Cook. Lat. 50. N. long. 
128. 5. W. 
WOODYATES, East and West, two small hamlets of 
England, in the parish of Penkridge, Dorsetshire. 
WOO'ER, s. [pojepe, Sax. See To Woo.] One who 
courts a woman. 
The wooers most are toucht on this ostent, 
To whom are dangers great and imminent. Chapman. 
WOOF, s. The set of threads that crosses the warp; the 
weft.—The placing of the tangible parts in length or trans¬ 
verse, as in the warp and the woof of textile, is more inward 
or more outward. Bacon. —Texture; cloth. 
A vest of purple flow’d 
Iris had dipp’d the woof. Milton. 
WOOJEDA, or Wagida, the ancient Guagida, a town 
of Tlemsan, in Algiers, forming the frontier towards Mo¬ 
rocco ; 20 miles west-south-west of Tlemsan. 
WOO'INGLY, adv. Pleasingly; so as to invite stay. 
The temple-haunting martlet does approve. 
By his lov’d mansionry, that heaven’s breath 
Smells wooingly here. Shalcspeare. 
WOOL, s. [pul, Sax.; wo/len, Dutch.] The fleece of 
sheep ; that which is woven into cloth. 
A gown made of the finest wool 
Which from our pretty lambs we pull; 
Fair lined slippers for the cold. 
With buckles of the purest gold. Ralegh. 
Any short, thick hair. 
In the cauldron boil and bake; 
Wool of bat and tongue of dog. Shakspeare. 
Sheep’s-wool appears to be the product of cultivation; 
we know of no wild animal which resembles the wool-bear¬ 
ing sheep. The argali, from which all the varieties of sheep 
are supposed to be derived, is covered wi]h short hair, at the 
bottom of which, close to the skin, there is a softer hair, or 
down. 
Most ancient writers on wool, and even many moderns, 
seem not to be aware of any difference in wools, except the 
fineness or coarseness of the fibre; but the length of the 
fibre constitutes a far more important distinctive character. 
Long wool, or what is called combing-wool, differs more 
from short or clothing wool, in the uses to which it is ap¬ 
plied, and the mode of manufacture, than flax from cotton. 
Sheep’s-wool may, therefore, be divided into two kinds. 
Short, or clothing-wool, and long or combing-wool: each 
of these kinds may be subdivided into a variety of sorts ac¬ 
cording to their degrees of fineness. This process is the 
proper labour of the wool-sorter. 
Short wool may vary in length from one to three or four 
inches; if it be longer it requires to be cut or broken, to 
prepare it for the further processes of the cloth manufacture. 
It is always carded or broken upon an instrument with fine 
short teeth, by which the fibres are opened and spread in 
every direction, and the fabrics made from it are subjected to 
the process of felting. By this process, the fibres become 
matted together, and the texture rendered more compact. 
Long wool may vary in length from three to eight or ten 
inches: it is prepared on a comb or instrument, with rows of 
long steel teeth, which open the fibres, and arrange them 
longitudinally •. in the thread spun from combed wool, the 
fibres or filaments of the wool are arranged in the same 
manner, or similar to those of flax, and the pieces when 
woven are not subjected to the process of felting. 
The shorter combing-wools are principally used for hose 
and are spun softer than the longer combing-wools, the 
former being made into what is called hard worsted yarn, 
and the latter into soft worsted yarn. 
The principal qualities deserving attention in clothing- 
wools are the regular fineness of the hair or pile, its softness 
and tendency to felt, the length and soundness of the staple, 
and the colour. The wool-buyer also regards as important 
the clean state of the fleece, and to the grower its weight is 
particularly deserving attention; for in fleeces equally fine, 
from sheep of the same size, some may be much heavier than 
others, the fibres of wool being grown closer to each other 
on the skin. 
The fineness of the hair or fibre can only be estimated to 
any useful purpose, in the woollen manufacture, by the 
wool-sorter or wool-dealer, accustomed by long habit to 
discern a minute difference, which is quite imperceptible to 
common observers, and scarcely appreciable by the most 
powerful microscopes. We may estimate the thickness of 
the hair of the finest Spanish and Saxony wool to be not 
more than the fifteen-hundredth part of an inch, and that of 
the finest native English to be from twelve to thirteen-hun¬ 
dred parts, whilst the inferior sorts gradually increase to the 
six-hundredth part of an inch and more. A difference in the 
size of these fibres, too minute to be noticed by the common 
observer, may occasion a difference of 40 per cent, or more 
in the value of the wool. The fineness of the hair has been 
ever considered as an important quality since the clothing 
manufacture emerged from its rudest state. Fine wool was 
formerly valued because a finer thread could be spun from 
it, and a thinner fabric made, than from the coarser wools; 
but since recent mechanical improvements have been intro¬ 
duced into the woollen manufacture, it has been found prac¬ 
ticable to spin coarse wools to the same length as the finer 
wools were formerly spun to. It is well known, however, 
to cloth-manufacturers, that whatever be the fineness of the 
yarn, unless the wool be fine, it is impossible to make a fine, 
compact, and even cloth, in which the thread shall be cover¬ 
ed with a thick, soft pile; nor would a thin cloth made from 
coarse wool have the same durability or appearance as one 
from fine wool of equal weight per yard. Fine wool will, 
therefore, always preserve a superior value to the coarse; in¬ 
deed it was long considered as the principal and almost the 
only quality deserving the attention of the wool-grower, the 
wool-stapler, and the clothier. 
The regular fineness of the fibre is also an object of con¬ 
siderable importance; the lower end of the staple, or that 
part of the fleece nearest the skin, will sometimes be very 
fine, and the upper part coarse. In some fine fleeces there 
will frequently be an intermixture of long, silvery, coarse 
hairs, and in other fine fleeces an intermixture of short, 
thick, opaque hairs, called kemps. When the wool is thus 
irregularly fine or intermixed, it is technically called not 
being true grown. The fine fleeces of Spain and Portugal, 
particularly of the latter country, are many of them injured 
by the intermixture of the long silvery hairs before-men¬ 
tioned. The Saxony fleeces, from the same breed, removed 
to colder climates, are generally free from this defect. The 
coarse 
