The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-05-14
SOME FACTS ABOUT WOOL.
1T IS A KIND OF HAIR AND GROWS
AFTER THE BODY IS DEAD.
Different Qualities-What Causes IT.
to Fall OF III Warm Weather
Combing and Carding Woods.


to Fail OF IN Warm Weather
Combing and Carding Woods.
Wool is a kind of hair. The hair is a
plant rooted in the skin. Its root is
cone. connected with the sensitive layer
of the skin, whence it draws susteuance.
Its life is not identical with the life Of
the body, for hair grows more or less
after death. This "root of the hair
exudes the hair pulp, which is formed
into cells containing the pigment giving
color to the hair, and each row OF thes'
cells forms a ring As the ring of ce'-
is pushed away from the skin by the g.
ING out Of fresh pulp, from the root, t'.e
cells dry, and scales are formed, almo1
like the scales of 4 fish. A hair seer
through II microscope is thus long tue
formed by sheath made up of these
rings of scales. The human hair Is
usually long, straight and regular, and
the scales are so fine and so close to-
gether that the edge appears like the
teeth of a very fine saw. Goats
hair has more rapid growth
and longer cells, so that it is less regular
and straight, and shows little of the
/ tooth like edge. The hair of sheep OF
the common sort is also irregular, with a
tendency to curl or wave, but with marked
tooth-like edges This is wool, and it is the
tendency TO twist and the barbed pro-
iections which give this fibre its peculiar
advantages. But through all this range
nature shows such close gradations that
it would be difficult to draw an exact line
between hair and wool, or in this respect
to separate the sheep from the goats.
Witness the Angora goat, whose fleece,
known as mohair, is reckoned a superior
wool, and the Peruvian alpaca, or llama
The microscope distinguishes very clear
". however, between wool and silk, the
fibre of which is an even double filamcnt
of gum exuded by the silk-worm, and
between wool and the vegetable tibres,
such as cotton which, growing as tube.
dries into a half-twisted ribbon, having
no barbcd edge. The root of the hair
has a natural tendency to dry up as warm
weather approaches, allowing the hair to
fall free from the skin; thus animals
"shed their coats" But when hair is
cut, as with human beings, or the fleece
sheared, as in the case of sheep, nature
adapts itself to the demand upon it, aud
growth is continuous. The number OF
these flores is wonderful On the pelt OF
a full-blood ram, DR.. Cutting, of the
Vermont Board of Agriculture, reckoned
with his microscope 222, 800 to the
square inch; an ordinary open-wool sheep
will have one-thirtieth as many.
The cultivated sheep, yielding the fine
regular woods for which modern ma
chinery calls, has been, like that ma
chinery, virtually the development of the
last hundred years, and with the modern
race.horse, furnishes most extraordinary
:: examples oil economy as an intelligent
art. OF these woods two distinct col0r'
are recognized. The longer staples, il
which also the fibre is straighter and th'
barbs less marked, are called "combine
wools,n because they are straightener
out, much as hair is, by combs, and lalo
fiat together for spinning into the smooth
hard, tightly twisted yarns which MAKE
the fine, hard finished fabrics calleC
:. "worsteds"-so named from the villag
of Worstead, in Norfolk, wher
h Flemish weavers, brought over b.
q Edward III. about 1881, make this kinC
i of goods. The shorter staples, more curl.
), and with marked barbs, are calle'
{ "carding wools," because they ar
}. treated by cards, like the curry-com'
used for horses, before spinning, AM
: these make the ''woolens" proper
h thicker and softer and more like felt
a The shorter woods also make felt, whic
O is produced not by weaving, but by mat
p ting or beating together the fbres, unit
v the barbs of the wood catch into eac
. other, and thus make continuous fab
{ ric, somewhat as paper is made. Br
these wools grade into each other in
y, perceptibly-nature rarely jumps; an
Il the invention of improved combs ha
'e bro Ight into use for ''worsteds' man
Il staples formerly too short for anythin
e but Ewoolens' On the other hanc
1t the final result of these gradations
found in woods so various that they ma
4 almost be called different tibres, so di
's fcrent are their qualities, instead of b.
. ing grouped under one word ''wool. ~