An attempt was made to render wool fibers shrinkproof without causing any damage on the hydrophobic nature of scale surface. To this end, wool fibers were treated with a water-soluble multi-functional epoxide, i. e., glycerol polyglycidyl ether (GPE) in con-centrated salt solutions, where the prominence of scale edges is depressed. The role of GPE is not to chemically modify the fiber surface but to crosslink the cuticular cells to prevent their edges from prominence in aqueous media. It was found that excellent shrink resistance can be imparted to wool by applying GPE in saturated NaCl solution, in the presence of a reductive agent such as Na₂S₂O₅, while the hydrophobic nature of the surface remains un-changed.
　Further attempt was made to prepare cotton fibers which have a higher water absorbability without any changes in other textile pro-perties, especially in handling characteristics of cotton. It was found that such cotton fibers can be successfully prepared by selectively modifying the inner part of the fibers with monochloroacetic acid and 2, 3 -epoxypropanol. The results also indicated that (1) the optimal degree of substitution (DS) for the present purpose is approximately 0.01 for carboxymethylation and 0.1~ 0.2 for dihydroxypropylation, respectively, showing that carboxymethylation is more effective than dihydroxypropylation and (2) the cotton fibers thus obtained absorb about 50~60% as much water as the untreated fibers.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.12/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE