Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 256]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

248

2. Fineness in American Merino wools may vary from 1 centimillimetre (2-5V9 inch) to 4 centimillimetres (¥^4- inch). 3. This variation as represented in the extremes is not affected either by the sex of the animal nor by the section. The average of the maxima will reach about 3.3 centimillimetres, and the minima about 1.2 for the American Merino wools generally, 4. The ultimate resistance of individual woo*! fibres of course depends greatly upon the diameter. But it appears that this will vary from a minimum of 1.5 grammes (say 23 grains) to a maximum of 15 grammes (230 grains). 5. The stretch the fibres will suffer previous to rupture also varies widely, from about 5 per cent., the length tested, to as high as 60 per cent. 6. There seems to be no special relation between the extremes for strain and stretch and the section* in which the wool is grown, or the sex and age of the animal producing it. It must in all cases be referred to the individual. 7. With regard to the relation between the crimp of the fibre and the fineness, history repeats itself in this series, and while there is some connection between the two, and the averages of large numbers of samples show that the finer wools have as a rule the closer crimp, the indication is exceedingly unreliable from sample to sample. 8. Age seems to have an influence upon the fineness of the fibre. After the age of one year the wool appears to grow coarser with increase of years. 9. The total stretch the fibre is capable of sustaining previous to rupture seems to increase with advance of age, but the data are not fully definite with this regard. 10. Age has no perceptible influence upon either the ultimate resistance or the modulus of elasticity of the fibre. 11. In the averages of fineness the results are somewhat higher as a rule for the rams wool than for the ewes wool, showing the former to be the coarser. 12. If we arrange the sections represented with reference to the average fineness for all sexes and ages from lowest diameter to highest, they stand as follows:

Average fineness i n centimiJlimetres Pennsylvania Yermont Texas California Illinois Wisconsin N e w York Minnesota 1.687 1.773 1.837 1.916 1.926 1.941 2.034 2.042