The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-05-22
WHAT IS sHoODV7

used in the past. meant all sorts OF
wool waste made from wool which has
once gone through the various pro
cesses OF manufacture, such as scOur-
ing, csrding or cOmbing, spinning and
weaving.
Now, however, since 50 mLny substi-
tutes for new and clear wool have been
brought into use, the broad term shOd-
dy has been narrowed down to include
only a clearly defined wool substitute
and the other substitutes formerly in
Guided under it have been given new
names Thus. therefore, we have in
the category of wool substitutes the fol
lowing: % new shOddy; ~ old shOd-
dy; 81 extracts; a. dOclzs; ~ COW hair;
(6) common goat and other animal
hair.
New and old shoddies are made in the
same way, the former from pieces and
strips of new cloth resulting as q waste
IN the making up of wooden fabrics
into articles OF wearing apparel, and
the latter made from old and WORKOUT
garments, wooden rags, in fact every
piece of wooden material, however
small. which have found their way into
the rag piczers' and Peddlers' bags
These rags, new and old, are first run
through a machine called the picker,
which tears the yarns to pieces, after
which the product is mixed with clear
and new wool, and carded or cOmbed
and spun. The quantity of new wool
necessary to make the spinning of the
shoddy possible depends upon the
length and strength of the shoddy
fiber.
Shoddy yarns made in this way were
formerly used in the vveft only, but of
late manufacturers have come to use
more and more of them in the warp.
The great difficulty standing in the way
of their use in the warp is their great
liability to break.
Extracts are, like shoddies, made from
wooden rags, but they differ from shOd-
dies in this respect that they are made
from rags which contain an admixture
of wooden and cotton yarns Before
such rags can be put through the pick
er, which breaks up the yarns into
6bers, the cotton yarns must be separ-
ated from the wooden yarns This IS
accomplished by soaking the rags IN an
acid which, so to speak, eats out the
cotton 6bers but leaves those of wool
intact. After the rags have gone
through this extracting process they go
through the picker and are treated in
the same way and are used for similar
purposes as shoddies- Extracts, how
ever, are not worth as much in the
markets as shOddies, since the acid
used in taking out the cotton Injuries
the wool fibers.
FIocIzs are entirely different in nature
and in the uses to which they are put,
from extracts and shOddies. The great
er part OF the hoclzs made result from
the finishing of cloth once woven In
this process the cloth is run over sharp
knives which cut off the projecting
hbers. ElOclSs are therefore too short
to admit of carding or spinning-tOO
short even to be mixed with wool They
are used, however, to increase the
weight of wooden and mixed fabrics.
ing them into the woven cloth.
The other substitutes for wool, such
as COW, goat, and other coarse animal
hair, find their chief use in the manu-
facture of carpets and so great is the de
maud for them for these purposes that
the price of hair for use in mixing
plaster for houses has gone up consider
ably of late years
It is a difficult task for Iaymau
to detect shOddies or extracts in the
garments which he is about to purchase,
for they are very ingeniously concealed
and made to look like raw wool When
he has worn his coat for awhile the
wool hbers making up the yarn used
in the welt, nearly worn out as
! featured, soon break, and their new
| owner soon finds his garment shrinking
| and threadbare.
FlOclzs are so ingeniously blown into
the fabric from which our heavy coats
! are made that their presence can be de-
tected only after the garment has been
worn for awhile, when they accumulate
in the corners and together with the
broken shoddy and extract fbers make
quite a large bunch.
It is not alone IN the manufacture OF
cloths and carpets that shOddies and
extracts are used. To such an extrem-
ity have the wool hat manufactures
been forced in their competition with
fur hats by the high wool duties, that
as early as 1850 80 per cent of the ma
terials used by them was shOddy and
other substitutes, and to-day many wool
hats (they should be called shOddy hats)
are sold which contain less than so per
! cent clear new wool.