Development of a Cashmere Combing Machine

A description is given of a machine which has been developed to replace hand combing of goats for the production of cashmere. It consists of an electrically driven combing unit connected to an industrial vacuum cleaner for collection of the cashmere. The results of some preliminary experiments to assess the machines' performance are given and used in an economic analysis of machine versus hand combing. This indicates that machine combing will probably be cheaper than hand combing for all but the smallest cashmere goat herds.