The fleece is spread out on a table, the center of which is covered
with wire netting, and through this netting part of the dust and other
matter from the wool falls while the sorting is going on. Sorters tear
with the hands the different parts of the fleece from each other and
separate them into piles, according to their different qualities.
All unwashed wool contains a fatty or greasy matter called yolk, which
is a secretion from the skin of the sheep. The effect of this yolk is
to prevent the fibres of the wool from matting, except at the ends,
where, of course, it collects dust, and, forming a sort of a coating,
really serves as a protection to the rest of the fleece while on the
sheep’s back.
After the wool is sorted it is next cleansed or scoured, in order to
remove all this yolk, dirt and foreign matter, and this is accomplished
by passing the wool, by means of automatic rakes, through a washing
machine, consisting of a set of three or four vats or bowls, which
contain a cleansing solution of warm, soapy water, until all the grease
and dirt have been removed.
Each bowl has its set of rollers, which squeezes out the water from
the wool before it passes into the next bowl. Having passed through
the last bowl and set of rollers the wool is carried on an apron made
of slats on chains, to the drying chamber, called the dryer, where is
taken out most of the moisture.
The wool is now blown through pipes or carried on trucks to the carding
room.
~DIFFERENCE IN WOOLENS AND WORSTEDS~
From this point the wool follows one of two different processes of
manufacture--that of making into worsteds or that of making into
woolens.
Speaking in a general way, worsted fabrics are made of yarns in which
the fibres all lie parallel, and woolens are made of yarns in which
the fibres cross or are mixed. Ordinarily, worsteds are made from long
staple wools, and woolens from short staple wools.
[Illustration: