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92
day as the Act itself. These regulations prescribe that when the amount
of soluble Chlorine in the form of Chlorides removed by washing by
distilled water at a temperature not exceeding 25 per cent. Centigrade
from not less than 40 grammes of a well mixed sample of flock exceeds
30 parts of Chloride in 100,000 parts of flock, such flock shall be deemed
not to conform to the standard of cleanliness for the purposes of the Act.
The Council have appointed myself and the Sanitary Inspectors
officers for the purposes of the Act, and as a preliminary measure have
authorised twenty samples to be taken. It has not, however, been
possible to obtain any of these samples this year.
So long as people sleep upon beds and use upholstered furniture, it
seems probable that rag flock will find its way into almost every home.
Its use in one or another of its forms has become so universal that it
now enters into the composition of mattresses, bolsters, pillows, cushions,
hassocks, and the stuffing of chairs, sofas and settees of all kinds.
In the interests of public health, the importance of ensuring the
cleanliness and purity of such an article cannot be over estimated.
Flock was originally made from the residue of the manufacturing
processes of cotton and wool, and was a clean and exceedingly useful
article, but, as with so many other things, it was not long before
the financial possibilities occurred to certain manufacturers of substituting
something which could be sold at a slightly cheaper rate and
at a much larger profit, and flock manufactured from filthy rags of
various kinds was put upon the market by manufacturers who were
quite unscrupulous in their descriptions of their goods and untruthful
in their statements of purification. Anything seems good enough for
the manufacture of rag flock. Old filthy, verminous and contaminated
clothes, blankets, sheets rugs, carpets, rags picked from refuse heaps,
and even stained bandages found a ready market with these manufacturers
to be made into rag flock without any preliminary sorting,
cleansing, or disinfection.
When it is understood that the process of washing and disinfecting
these rags involves an expenditure of from £2 to £3 per ton, and the
loss of from 25 per cent. to 33⅓ per cent. of their bulk, it is obvious
that manufacturers with an output of from 20 to 30 tons per week
(sold by weight) are able to undersell those traders who will have
nothing to do with the unwashed article and at the same time to make