A Treatise on Hat-Making and Felting - Including a Full Exposition of the Singular Properties of Fur, Wool, and Hair #220677

The same authority further adds that the simplest and most easy method of judging of the quality of wools, is, to take a lock from a sheep's back and place it upon an inch rule; if you can count from 30 to 33 of the spirals or folds in the space of an inch, it equals in quality the finest Saxony wool grown. Of course as the number of spirals to the inch diminishes, the quality of the wool becomes relatively inferior. Cotswold wool, and some other inferior wools, do not measure more than nine spirals to the inch.