44—THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE BILATERAL STRUCTURE OF WOOL TO HYGRAL EXPANSION

Abstract

Measurements are reported of the hygral expansion of yarns extracted from permanently set fabrics made from merino and Lincoln wools. For yarns having similar crimp, the hygral expansion of merino-wool yarn is much greater than that of Lincoln-wool yarn. The values in both cases agree with predictions based on single-fibre behaviour. It seems certain that this difference is caused by the presence of a consistent bilateral structure in merino wool, which is absent from Lincoln wool.