3. Pulled Wool
We have above discussed the shearing and marketing of wool obtained from the living animal. There remains a large quantity of wool which is taken from the pelts of slaughtered sheep. In 1919 there were produced 48,300,000 pounds of pulled wool in the U. S. as against 265,939,000 pounds of sheared wool.
Use
Skin wool, or tanner’s wool, as it is sometimes known, is used extensively for soft twist yarns, bed blankets, flannels, felts, etc. It is also used as an admixture in blends for top-making, as we shall see later.
There are three methods whereby pulled wool is obtained.
Sweating
The oldest and simplest process is known as sweating, and consists simply in sweating the hides until the wool is loosened and can easily be pulled out. The disadvantage of this method is that it injures the hides.
Lime
The lime process consists in loosening the wool by painting the flesh side of the hide with lime. This also injures the hides somewhat and has a bad effect on the dyeing qualities of the wool.
Depilatory
The depilatory process is the best, and varies from the lime process only in that a solution is used instead of lime. This mixture consists of sodium sulphate, sulphuric acid, and oyster shells.
By far the greatest pullery in the world is situated at Mazamet, France, where the industry has assumed gigantic proportions. The large packers in this country all operate their own pulleries, and the pulled wool is marketed largely by them. Most mills buy their pulled wool direct from the pulleries, but some is handled by merchants.