Milling

Point blankets going into an acid bath solution, 2002 (copyright Mike French).

The scoured stockful now has to be milled (shrunk) to the correct width. This process consolidates the texture of the cloth and in doing so it produces a firm structure for raising.

Milling to the correct width occurs most rapidly when the cloth is either treated in a acid or alkaline solution and not plain water. The person in charge of this department will know by experience which system to use on which blend of wool. The stockful now in the milling machine will be compressed by large heavy rollers which in turn will also stretch it, making the width smaller. The stockful will revolve in this machine until the cloth has shrunk to its finished size.

Before the introduction of the rotary milling machine the cloth was pounded with large wooden hammers in a machine called the 'stocks'. Shrinkage now occurs in these rotary machines in exactly the same way as knitted goods shrink when they are washed in hot soapy water.

Mike French