8--YIELD-TESTING OF GREASY-WOOL CORE SAMPLES PART II: A FAST, MECHANICAL METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF WOOL AND VEGETABLE-MATTER COMPONENTS IN SCOURED WOOL.

The principle and basic design of a fast machine for the determination of wool and vegetable-matter components in scoured wool are described. The machine is a development of that used in Harker's method for the separation of wool and vegetable matter by reducing the material to a finely divided state and utilizing the different densities of wool and vegetable matter to separate them by flotation. However, in contrast to Harker's method, thermal convection and density gradients are not used; the machine embodies a special centrifuge, in which the separating liquid is controlled at a density of 1.335 ±0.002 g/ml. The problem arising from the presence of low-density vegetable-matter components is discussed, and the means of treating these components to enable separation to proceed are described. The quality of separation is of a high order, and separations can be made in a few minutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]