Abstract
DURING the past week there have appeared articles upon a method of permanently moth-proofing wool, by the use of a substance of undisclosed composition, the product of a German dye firm. These were supplemented by a lecture given at Australia House on Friday, January 23, in which the merits of this process were elaborated. The tests made were on wool and furs, large quantities of eggs of the clothes moth being employed upon treated and untreated material under identical conditions. Two forms of treatment are used-one a water-soluble material for goods that can be treated with water; the second, soluble in benzene and suitable for the dry-cleaning process. It is claimed that after the water process, dry cleaning will not affect the goods; but dry-cleaning articles already treated by the dry-cleaning method- will remove the protective substance. Prof. H. Maxwell Lefroy has been good enough to favour us with the following comments upon the process: “The nature of the water-soluble substance has been actually known in England for more than a year: tests have been carried out in London with this material for eighteen months, and two new classes of moth-proofing substance have been discovered, which have all the merits of this material and in addition are far less costly and far simpler to apply. As these are the result of inquiry instigated by commercial interests, it is not possible to disclose their composition; but it is unfortunate that the columns of reputable daily papers should be available for a description of a secret preparation under the guise of ' news,' made by a foreign firm. In this particular instance, scientific research in England appears to be ahead of that in Germany but, as usual, has not been backed by resources in any degree comparable to those employed by the firm in Germany now vigorously exploiting a method that has already been superseded. One may anticipate the adoption of the German substance in view of the vigorous publicity and the greater commercial enterprise in such chemical production.”
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 115, 166–169 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115166a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115166a0