Wool studies III. The uniformity of a series of fibre thickness measurements on a small sample of medium Merino wool

Abstract

The fibre diameter of wool, being either directly or indirectly associated with a variety of other characteristics, is required in the majority of problems in wool research. It is essential, therefore that the procedure of sampling and the technique of preparing wool for diameter measurement should be placed on a fundamentally sound basis. Various characteristic properties of the material however, complicate the establishment of a sound technique of sampling wool as such does not readily permit a random selection of in individual fibres and any endeavour to select a representative sample of fibres by personal judgment is bound to be biased. In wool studies sampling is absolutely necessary since the preparation of the whole available material for the measurement of fibre diameter is not only practically impossible in other than very small quantities of wool, but also undesirable because it renders the material useless for further investigation.