Wools produced from five widely differing breeds of sheep which were raised under the same environmental and dietary conditions have been studied. By means of stress-strain analysis of wet fibers, certain mechanical properties have been evaluated and differences shown to exist among the several breeds, independently of differences in fineness among the wools. Wools from individual animals within breeds were also found to differ significantly in mechanical properties. The dependency of mechanical properties on the fineness of wool has been found to vary in a manner which indicates that crimp in the fiber strongly influences mechanical properties. Crimpy wools tend to have a negative dependency of mechanical properties on diameter, whereas the low-crimped wools tend to have a positive dependency of mechanical properties on diameter. Correlations have been established between the various properties studied, and high interdependencies have been found.

The reaction of wool with toluene-2,4-diisocyanate and hexamethylene diisocyanate is described, The treated wools exhibit greater resistance towards solubilization in hot acid and alkali and towards attack by several other chemical agents. The wet single-fiber stress-strain properties exhibited below 30% extension are only slightly affected by treatment with isocyanates. The values for stress at break and elongation at break, however, are considerably lowered by treatment with difunctional isocyanates. but not with phenyl isocyanate. Fabric stiffness and crease recovery are only slightly affected by the isocyanate pickups studied .1

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Single wool fibers of similar diameter but of several levels of crimpiness were selected from a shoulder sample of Suffolk wool and the stress-strain properties compared. High correlation is found between several mechanical properties and fiber crimpiness. The low-crimped fibers exhibit greater stresses for equivalent strains than do highly crimped fibers. Differences among the mechanical properties of fibers from differing breeds, Rambouillet, Suffolk, and Navajo, were also found to reflect the differences in fiber crimpiness inherent to these breeds.

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