"We are leaving London on December 22, Mr. Webb told me, "and we hope to be back in May.
"On this trip I want to capture several species of humming-birds. There are 120 varieties in that part of the country to which we are going.
"Some of the most beautiful inhabit the mountains high up in the' Andes. They live at a height of, 13,000 feet in some places. That is just below the snow line.
"Some of the birds that can be caught in these high parts are known as sword-bills, train-bearers and puff-legs.
"Most of them are quite different in appearance from the ordinary humming bird. The sword-bill for instance, has an extraordinary Jong bill, the train-bearers have long trailing' feathers and the puff-legs carry a kind of powder puff on their legs.
An appeal for greater support from. the industry for research into wool is made in a report issued on Dec. 20 by Mr. B. H. Wilsdon, Director of Research of the Wool Industries Research Association, states the "Manchester Guardian."
"Many members of the association, it is stated, "feel that a statutory levy on the industry must ultimately be adopted if a final solution [of the need for wider research) is to be found. But for the time being the scheme has reluctantly to be dropped." A large proportion of the industry still bore no share of the burden which must be carried if the future wellbeing of the industry was to be assured.
The faith in research possessed by members of the association, says the report, has now been shown in a very concrete form. Not only has a generous response been made by number of individual firms for the purpose of meeting a serious and unexpected deficit in revenue, but the council has taken the important step of considerably increasing the rates of subscription in the processing sections of the industry.
"Teething" troubles must invariably accompany the translation of a process from the semi-large scale of experi-mex to commercial production. Unfortunately, there will not be the same incentive to be the first in the field and to bear the brunt of such troubles when working in an association, where results must be common property, as when the process and the knowledge gained is the exclusive Property of a private firm.
This attitude is felt to afford a partial explanation of the slowness with which the associations jun-shrinkable process is being taken up. Another reason is that a new patented process has been announced during the year which presents certain apparently attractive features to the "finishing" section of the industry In addition to the- production of a desired degree of shrinkage resistance, it is of importance that a successful process shall cause no marked deterioration in "handle" of the treated wool. Such deterioration is due to lack of uniformity in the reaction which produces some fibres much more strongly treated than others.
There is good reason to believe that the seat of the reaction is the same whatever reagent is employed to produce effective non-felting properties in treated wool. It is quite erroneous to suppose, as is suggested in trade literature recently appearing, that there is any necessarily more deleterious action on the wool in the employment of chlorination, either by "wet" or "dry" processes than by reagents which produce the same effects in other ways. Provided uniformity of action can be ensured, the relative advantages of competing processes will be determined by convenience, accuracy of control, and by the costs of the treatment. Cost must, of course, depend on the scale on which the process is carried out, The report mentions that it has been found possible to rubberise wool yarns in hank form by treatment with a suitably prepared latex without any matting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.