Littell's Living Age/Volume 129/Issue 1662/Miscellany

Utilization of the Suds from the Washing of Wool.—In nothing has the advance of practical science been more clearly evidenced than in the extent to which substances formerly wasted and lost are now reclaimed and made to constitute an important element in the profits of the manufacturer. One of these applications consists in the recovery of soap-suds from the washings of wool in woollen factories. These were formerly allowed to run down the sewers and into the streams, to the great pollution of the latter; but in Bradford, they are now run from the washing-bowls into vats, and there treated with sulphuric acid. The fats rise to the surface in a mass of grease a foot or more in thickness, which is carefully collected and treated in various ways, mostly by distillation. The products are grease, used for lubricating the cogs of driving-wheels in the mills; oleic acid, which is worth about £30 per ton, and used as a substitute for olive-oil; stearin, worth £80 per ton, etc. It is said that some large mill-owners are now paid from £500 to £1,000 a year for these suds, which a few years ago were allowed to run to waste.