On the raw materials from the animal kingdom, displayed in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations / by Richard Owen.

  • Owen, Richard, Sir, 1804-1892.
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the raw materials from the animal kingdom, displayed in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations / by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the average value of the produce of the flocks, the Jury, whilst awarding the prize medal to the best exhibitors, came to the conclusion of testifying their sense of the peculiar value and excellence of the felting or carding wools, adapted to the manufacture of the finest kinds of cloth, which were exhibited in the Austrian department, by recommending the transmission of a Council medal to the Government of that empire. In the Zollverein, the fleeces transmitted by E. Lubbert from Zwey- brodt, near Breslau, were very remarkable for those qualities which, like the Austrian Silesian wools, adapt them for the fabrication of the finest cloths. The merino fleeces of two-year-old ewes, from Bromberg, exhibited by Legations-Rath Kuepfer, were characterized by the fineness and regu- larity of the staple, and favourably illustrated the advance of the improve- ment of wool in the Prussian districts of the Middle Vistula. I must also mention the specimens exhibited under Nos. 45 and 4G by the Ober- burggraf von Briiuneck, viz. the fleeces of a ram and one ewe from a merino flock at Bellschwitz, and the specimens of wool indiscriminately taken from a merino flock at Rosenberg; for these, though rather inferior in quality to the finest Silesian wools, manifested a fineness, softness, and elasticity of fibre, and a regularity of staple, which in the opinion of the Jury merited an award to the exhibitor of the prize medal. The Bellschwitz flock was procured by the Oberburggraf in Spain in 18] 4, and afterwards improved by additions of the finest Saxon and Silesian races in 1820 and 1824. In America, the wool transmitted by Mr. J. H. Ewing, from Wash- ington, Pennsylvania, was remarkable for the good substance of the fleece, as well as for the quality of the fibre, and the Jury awarded to him the prize medal. One of the able Experts, who rendered valuable aid to the Jury, was of opinion that “ the wools shown by America most approximated to the character of the German wools.” In Russia, the specimens of wool from Livonia exhibited by N. N. Schloss-Wikaten, appeared to be derived from a flock of Silesian origin, and exhibited all those characters of the fibre which adapt it for good clothing purposes. The wool from the merino sheep from Spain, for which that country was once so famous, showed all those characters which distinguished it a century ago ; but not the advance and improvement made by the sheep- breeders who have since introduced the same variety into suitable locali- ties in Saxony, Prussia, Austria, Hungary, and Austro-Silesia. The best examples of Spanish w-ool were exhibited under No. 230, by Don Justo Hernandez. Of black and white wool from Sa- lamanca, four samples were transmitted by this exhibitor:—1. Un- washed wool for clothing purposes; 2. Unwashed wool for worsted; 3. Wool washed before shearing, in the Saxon manner; 4. Wool sheared in February 1851. Don Hernandez had introduced into Spain the cus- tom of clothing the sheep from the beginning of December to the end of May ; and amongst the specimens transmitted to the Exhibition, was a fleece which had been so defended, and one that had been exposed to the direct influence of the atmospheric agencies. The difference in the quality was remarkable, and spoke decidedly in favour of the temporary protec- tion of the fleece.