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This operation is generally carried out by the wool-grower himself, for he desires to sell wool, and not wool plus "yolk" or "suint," and thus he saves himself considerable cost in transport.
This consists of the fatty matter exuded as perspiration from the sheep, along with, or in some form of combination with, potash derived from the grass on which the sheep feed. Suint was first investigated by Vauquelin. He obtained it by evaporating, after filtration, the water in which raw fleeces had been washed. The residue is of a brown color, and has a saline, bitter taste.
Wool from Buenos Ayres, for example, contains much less than that analyzed by M. Chevreul; its amount is only 12 per cent. of the weight of the raw wool. In 1859, MM. Maumene and Rogelet patented the use of the water in which wool has been washed as a source of potash, and at present the extraction of potash from suint is practiced in France on a large scale.
This natural greasy matter is termed "yolk" or "suint"; and it ought never to be thrown away, as it sometimes is by the wool-scourers in this country, for it contains a substance resembling a fat named cholesterin or cholesterol, which is of great therapeutical value. Water alone will wash out a considerable amount of this greasy matter, forming a kind of lather with it, but not all.
The scouring of loose wool, as we may now readily discern, divides itself into three stages: 1st, the stage in which those "yolk" or "suint" constituents soluble in water, are removed by steeping and washing in water.
Carbon disulphide has also been patented, but, as will afterward be shown, the old method of removing it from the wool injured the color and quality of the fiber, so as to make the application of this scouring agent a failure. Wool in its unwashed state contains a considerable proportion of what is termed suint.
Now, only 15,000 tons are made per annum by Leblanc's process. In 1868, 62,000 tons of wool were imported into Britain from Australia alone, and from this 7,000 to 8,000 tons of carbonate of potash might have been recovered, the value of which is L260,000. Yet it was all wasted! And this estimate does not include the fats of the suint, which are worth an even greater sum.
In 1828, M. Chevreul, who is still alive in Paris, although nearly a century old, published an analysis of merino wool. It consisted of: It is easily seen that suint forms a very important constituent of raw wool. Its proportion varies, of course, according to the nature of the pasture on which the sheep are fed, the climate, etc.
This, again, is not wholly a new process, for various attempts have been made to dissolve out the yolk, or suint, or greasy matter from unwashed wool, as it comes from the back of the sheep. Fusel oil has been patented for this purpose.
Briefly described, it consists in exposing the wool, placed in a hydro-extractor, to the action of bisulphide of carbon; the machine is then made to revolve, and the excess of solvent is expelled, carrying with it the fatty matters; the solvent finds its way into a tank, from which it flows into a still, heated with steam; the carbon disulphide, which boils at a very low temperature, distills over, and is again ready for use, while the residue in the still consists of suint washed from the wool.
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