TEXTILES: Shrink-Proof Wool

Shrink-Proof Wool A wool fibre consists of: 1) the cortex (scaly outer layer), 2) elasticum (inner layer), 3) core. If soaked in water, the elasticum and core contract, pulling the cortex with them and shrinking the wool 10 to 30%. For years chemists have searched for a way to “lubricate” these inner parts to prevent shrinking, but most of them failed.* The treatments either made the wool scratchy, bleached its dyes or damaged its durability. Last week the U. S. granted two patents on processes which make wool shrink-proof but promise not to harm it in any way.

One patent was awarded to Ernest Lee Jackson, the other to Ralph W. Peakes and Joseph S. Reichert. All three men developed their processes when they worked for the War Department, originally filed for the patents in 1929. Both patents are based on the same discovery —that wool becomes unshrinkable when soaked in tertiary amyl or butyl hypochlorite, chemicals related to bleaching powder. After a half-hour’s soaking in this solution, heated to 104° F., the wool absorbs 1½% of chlorine. It can then be washed in hot or cold water without shrinking.

Army chemists have experimented on 90 yards of wool (enough for about 50 shirts), consider the results satisfactory. Presumably the War Department, which can use the process royalty-free, will treat army uniforms, blankets and other woolen equipment with the solution. A few days after the patents were granted, Inventor Peakes had requests for detailed information from eight clothing manufacturers.

* Last year an English textile chemist, A. J. Hall, invented a process which consists of dipping wool in sulfuryl chloride, a chemical used in dry cleaning, but the formula’s commercial possibilities have not yet been determined.