Textiles, for Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools. William H. Dooley
yarn has a bright, clear appearance.
Sydney Wools. Sydney wools are moderately fine in fiber and of medium length. They are rather deficient in strength, uneven in color, and often contain yellow locks which make them undesirable when required for dyeing light shades. They are used for nearly the same purpose as Port Philip wools, but do not spin quite as far in worsted yarns, nor are they equal in milling qualities.
Adelaide Wool. Adelaide wool has a reputation for sound Merinos, the average quality being a little lower than for the Port Philip and Sydney wools. Its fiber is moderately fine, but not of uniform length; its color is not so good, and it contains a large amount of yolk.[6] Adelaide wool is used for worsted dress goods, weft (filling)[7] yarn up to 60’s, and certain worsted warps.[7] It is used for medium fancy woolens.
Van Wool from Tasmania. The climate of this island is well suited to the growing of wool, and produces excellent qualities, fine in fiber, of good length, and strong in the staple, which will spin as high counts as 70’s and 80’s worsted. This wool is useful for mixing with other good wools. Its color is very white, which makes it a useful wool for dyeing light shades. Its milling properties are good, and the shorter sorts are suitable for woolens.
New Zealand Wools are very supple, which make them valuable to the spinner. These wools are suitable for almost all classes of Merino and crossbred yarns. They are of good length, sound staple, have good felting properties, and are of good color. They are useful for blending with mungo and shoddy, to give to these remanufactured materials that springy, bulky character which they lack.
Cape Wools. Cape Colony and Natal produce merino wool that is somewhat short in staple, rather tender, and less wavy than some other wools. The sheep are not so well cared for, and are fed on the leaves of a small shrub. The absence of grass leaves the ground very sandy, and this makes the fleece heavy and dirty. Its color is fair, but it lacks elasticity. It is used chiefly to cheapen blends[8] of 60’s top.[9] The short wool is combed for thick counts for weft and hosiery, and is also used for shawls and cloths where felting is not an essential feature.
Wools from South America. These wools are of the same standard of excellence as the Australian wools, but they are generally deficient in strength and elasticity. Buenos Ayres and Montevideo wools are fairly fine in fiber, but lack strength and elasticity, and are deficient in milling properties; they are also burry. The climate suits the sheep well, and the feed is good, but the careless methods of classing and packing have earned for these wools a poor reputation that is well deserved.
The best 60’s wool is combed in oil, but a large portion of the shorter is combed and used in thick counts—20’s to 36’s worsted for the hosiery trade.
Russian Wool. The staple of this is generally strong, and the fibers are of a medium thickness; the color is milky white. It is useful to blend with Australian or other good wools. It produces a good yarn, and is very often used in the fancy woolen trade and in fabrics that require to be finished in the natural color.
Great Britain Wools. These may be divided into three groups: (1) long wools, of which the Lincoln and Leicester are typical examples; (2) short wools, which include Southdown, Shropshire, Suffolk, and others; and (3) wool from the mountain or hilly breeds of sheep, such as the Cheviot, Scotch Blackface, Shetland, Irish, and Welsh.
Lincoln Wool is a typical wool obtained from the long wool sheep, and noted for its long, lustrous fiber, which is silky and strong. The staple varies from ten to eighteen inches in length, and the average fleece will yield from ten to fourteen pounds in weight.
Leicester Wool has a somewhat finer fiber than Lincoln. It is a valuable wool, of good color, uniform and sound in staple, curly, with good, bright luster and no dark hairs. While luster wools are grown extensively in England, they also grow in Indiana and Kentucky, and are commonly known in the trade as braid wool.
Southdown is one of the most valuable of short staple wools. It possesses a fine hair, is close and wavy, and fairly sound in staple, but rather deficient in milling qualities. The shorter varieties are carded and made into flannels and other light fabrics, while the longer qualities are used in the production of worsted goods. The weight of a Southdown fleece averages from four to five pounds.
Shropshiredown wool is of good quality, with strong, fine, lustrous fiber, of good length. It resembles Southdown, but is not as lustrous as mohair, the natural colors being either white, black, brown, or fawn. It is used chiefly in the manufacture of dress goods.
Cashmere Wool is the fine, woolly, extremely soft, white or gray fur of the Cashmere goat which is bred in Thibet. There are two kinds of fiber obtained: one, which is really the outer covering, consists of long tufts of hair; underneath this is the Cashmere wool of commerce, a soft, downy wool of a brownish-gray tint, with a fine, silky fiber. It is used for making the costly oriental (Indian) shawls and the finest wraps.
The Norfolkdown and Suffolkdown Wools are fairly fine in fiber and soft, but slightly deficient in strength and elasticity.
Cheviot Wool may be taken as representative of the hilly breeds of sheep. It is an average wool, with staple of medium length, soft, and with strong and regular fiber; it is of a good, bright color, and possesses desirable milling properties, being used for both woolen and worsted, but chiefly in the fancy woolen trade. The average weight of the fleece is about 4½ pounds. The black-faced or Highland breed yields a medium wool, coarser and more shaggy than the Cheviot, and varying much in quality. It is almost all used in the production of rugs, carpets, and blankets.
Welsh Wools lack waviness and fineness of fiber. They are chiefly used for flannels.
Shetland Wools are similar in character to Welsh wools, but slightly finer in fiber and softer. They are used in the manufacture of knitted goods, such as shawls and wraps. They lack felting properties.
Irish Wools possess a strong, thick hair of moderate length and fine color. They are similar in many respects to the Welsh wools, and are often classed with them. They are used in the production of low and medium tweeds—fancy woolen cloths not requiring small yarns or milling qualities.
Mohair is a lustrous wool obtained from the Angora goat, which derives its name from the district of Asia Minor from which it comes. These animals have also been successfully bred in Spain and France. The hair is pure white, fine, wavy, and of good length, and possesses a high luster. It is used in making plushes, velvets, astrakhans, and curled fabrics, also half silk goods and fine wraps.
Alpaca Wool is the fleece of the Peruvian sheep, which is a species of llama. The staple is of good length and soft, but is not quite as lustrous as mohair, the natural colors being either white, black, brown, or fawn. It is used chiefly in the manufacture of dress goods.
How Wool is Marketed. The bulk of the wool of commerce comes into the market in the form of fleece wool, the product of a single year’s growth, and cut from the body of the animal usually in April or May. The first and finest clip, called lamb’s wool, may be taken from the young sheep at the age of eight to twelve months. All subsequently cut fleeces are known as wether wool and possess relatively somewhat less value than the first clip.