Shoddy

Shoddy (a provincial word, 'that which is shed') formerly meant only the waste arising from the manufacture of wool, but it has acquired a wider and much more important signification. Clippings of woollen and worsted stuffs and rags of any kind of fabric made of wool are now carefully utilised. Cuttings of new flannels, worsted clothes, and knitted textiles receive the name of new shoddy, and when articles made of these are worn out they are termed old shoddy. On the other hand tailors' clippings of milled cloths are called new mungo, while the material of old clothes and rags of this woollen cloth is styled old mungo. Both shoddy and mungo, which were formerly, to a large extent at least, waste materials, are now 'ground up' as it is termed—i.e. they are put into a machine with a revolving cylinder armed with iron spikes and having toothed rollers moving in an opposite direction. This willy or devil, as it is called, reduces the rags or clippings to short wool, which, when cleaned, oiled, and mixed with some fresh wool, is remanufactured into many different kinds of cheap fabrics, such as rugs, druggets, friezes, flannels, inferior milled cloths, &c. These, though serviceable while they last, are of course not so durable as when made of new wool. See RAGS, and WOOL.