The wool was produced in 1887 in New Zealand.

In 1890 Alfred Hawkesworth, honorary wool-classer to the Museum, noted the following about this specimen:

Hoggets rams wool; resembling South Australian and comparing favourably in lustre, strength, and length; is very light in condition; slightly wasty tip; weight of fleece 12lbs.
These wools which were shown at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886, are of varied breeds, and fully represent the capabilities of New Zealand as a wool-growing country, ranging from a fine merino to a deep grown Lincoln bright-haired lustres; also many intermediate cross-breds. The wools have a very healthy, sound appearance at all stages. The finest merino and course wools seem to prosper alike.

Alfred Hawkesworth, Technological Museum, Sydney, Descriptive Catalogue No 1. Raw wools and specimens to illustrate the woollen manufacture. Sydney Government Printer. 1890.

Acquired by purchase by PL Simmonds.

This wool specimen is part of the Bill Montgomery Wool Collection which consists of approximately 7000 samples. In the older part of the collection there are 5000 samples from Australian sheep fleeces grown between 1856 and 1906. The samples were collected by the Museum at a time when scientific research was prominent in the Museum's activities. In 1979, when the Museum's focus changed, most of its wool collection was transferred to the teaching collection of Mr Bill Montgomery, a wool classing teacher at Newcastle Technical College. When Bill retired from the College, the collection was again in danger of being thrown away. He took the entire collection home and stored it in his garage for 15 years. His Collection also contains approximately 1500 wool samples grown between 1950 and 2000 and collected by Bill himself. It includes 147 examples of faults and stains occurring in Australian flocks, 20 pigmented wools and 33 rare and extinct breeds from around the world. The Museum purchased the entire collection in 2003. Bill Montgomery died on 7th July, 2007.

Wool specimen, merino ram hogget, breeder unknown, New Zealand, 1887

Wool specimen from a hogget merino ram. There is a black ribbon tied around the middle of the specimen and a small green tag attached to the ribbon. Text on the tag is no longer legible.

This sample of wool was tested in June 2007 by the Interactive Wool Group. They used the OFDA2000 instrument for fleece testing. The following are the results for this specimen:

Microns: 21.4 microns (5 Standard Deviation)
(average fibre diameter)

Staple length: 90 mm

Mean fibre curvature: 103.3Dg/mm
(A measurement in degrees
per mm related to
crimp frequency)

Comfort Factor: 94.6%
(The % of fibres equal
to or less than 30 microns)

Made: unknown; New Zealand; 1887

17236

1887

100 mm

40 mm