Wool, Glass, Paper Curious Cat

Hello, children! Where have you been?

Hello, Curious Cat, we've just came back from playtime.

You must be very cold out there if you have those woolly scarves on.

Yes, it was cold out there, but the scarves kept us nice and warm.

Woolly scarves are great for cold days,

but have you ever wondered how your scarves were made?

Doesn't wool come from sheep?

Yeah! That's right, it all starts with sheep!

Look at all these sheep.

A lot of the sheep have long woolly coats.

These are called fleeces.

Once a year, the sheep need their woolly coats clipped off.

This is called shearing.

It's a bit like having your hair cut.

It doesn't hurt the sheep.

The sheep's wool has grown very long and thick - too hot for summer.

The sheep's fleece is sheared very close to its skin

so it all comes off in one piece.

It doesn't hurt

and the wool grows again to keep the sheep warm in winter.

When the sheep have been sheared,

the fleeces are packed ready to be sent away.

To find out what happens next,

you'll have to go to the wool mill, where James will show you around.

Off you go!

So this is where the fleeces have come from the farm,

at this table, and this is where Pete does the sorting.

So he basically sorts it into all the different types of wool.

Why do you do this?

Why do we do this?

Well, they do this because different wools are used for different things.

Wools are used for carpets, for rugs, scarves,

and different types of wool will give you a different effect,

and it will give you a different finished product.

-Would you like to help with the sorting?

-OK! Yeah!

What I do is, when I'm pulling this, that's called a staple

and I'm pulling it to test how long it is, and the strength.

If it's a strong one, it'll go in the better grade.

That's really strong!

-I've done it, I've done one.

-Yeah!

Sorting the wool is a very important job. Make sure you're listening.

That one's easy!

Look at that one!

-Like cotton wool, isn't it?

-That's an easy one.

That a Suffolk.

That'll get used for your clothes, for your knitwear,

because it's so soft.

-You like the feel of that one?

-Yeah!

Come on, girls, there's a lot more to see, let's get a move on.

These are the fleeces that have been sorted.

This is going into carpets.

This is a lot softer

and will go into clothing of all different sorts.

Why is it shiny?

Like your hair, they are different colours, different shines,

different textures, exactly the same with sheep.

Why do they shave the sheep?

They could just leave it on the sheep.

For the health of the animal, you have to shear the wool.

So, it has to be sheared off the sheep for its wellbeing.

Sheep are sheared in the spring

so they can stay nice and cool in the summer.

The wool has now been sorted and is ready to be washed and cleaned.

This is called scouring.

So, what we have here, where we've just come from,

-where you saw the wool being sorted, this is all the wool.

-Yes?

So it's all coming into here,

and then it goes off down this line to be washed.

So we'll walk down the line

and we'll show you at which stages it's washed.

-Let's go!

-Come on then.

In here, what you've got is all the grease

and all the dirt is washed out in this bowl here.

so it's squeezed here with rollers and it goes up to the next bath.

It's very hot in here!

It is very hot in here!

My legs are sweating!

Now, this bath here, this is where we add soap.

So there's lots of soap in that bath,

so it's washing all the wool, it washes all the sweat

and everything else out of the wool in this bath

so this has got soap in it,

and again, squeezed, and it comes up to the next bath.

where it's rinsed, which is what you do when you've washed your hair,

you rinse the soap out. And the last thing after that, it's been rinsed,

and then it goes off to the drier at the far end, the wool is then dried.

This is where the washed wool comes to be dried.

It looks like the biggest hairdryer ever!

The wool you see here

is the wool that has come from the drying that we saw earlier.

It's put on this conveyor belt here and it goes through the conveyor belt

and into the carding machines, which are basically very big drums

with metal wire on them that are moving at a very high speed.

What they do is to take all the rubbish out of the wool,

so this is what comes out.

You have straw, you've got grass, you've got seeds.

There's all sorts in there that we need to take out

so it doesn't get into the finished product.

How they used to do carding in the old days,

these have got wire on them, so what they do is you would put the wool on,

you'd put one on top of the other and you'd pull them apart.

This is how they used to do it going back many years,

which is a very long process.

Now, obviously there is so much wool, we have to do it by big machines.

-It's a good job they invented machines then!

-It is indeed!

LAUGHTER

-Cool!

-I feel like diving in it!

-I know!

It was all dirty, but now it's just really clean in little bunches.

I really feel like diving in it and swimming!

The wool has now been washed, dried and carded.

James has taken the girls to the spinners

to see how it's turned into long strings of twisted wool,

known as yarn.

-Shall we see it running?

-Yes.

-OK, let's turn the machine on.

These machines stretch the wool to make it thinner

and then they twist the wool to make it into yarn, ready for knitting.

So this is the wool that you've seen being spun and twisted

and now what I'm going to do is show you the technique for finger knitting

which you can then do and make a scarf from.

OK, and then you put the yarn between those fingers

and then back.

Round, and then round your pinky finger

and then you go back under, over, under, all the way around.

I've started to knit a scarf!

Yes, you've started.

You go under, over, round your pinky, back under, over...

Oh, I get it.

Then that comes up and over. Up and over.

-It's very easy when you know how to!

-It is very easy when you know how.

That's actually really good!

Now you've seen how the wool goes from the sheep's back to a finished woolly scarf.

Then you put it round your head, like that.

Hello, children! How was your journey?

Look what we've made!

Wow, they look amazing!

Did you find out what happens to the wool once it's been sheared?

We went to where they sorted the fleeces out.

First, the wool from the farms is sorted into groups

and then it's sent to be washed and cleaned.

The washed wool is dried in these big drying machines.

It is then combed to get the rubbish out.

The wool is then sent to the spinners,

who stretch and twist the wool.

And they turn it into yarn,

which is what we used for our finger knitting.

That's great!

Those scarves will keep you nice and warm through winter.

But now it's time to say goodbye.

BOTH: Goodbye!

Goodbye, children!

Hello, children, what are you up to?

We're putting a picture onto the glass window.

So the light can shine through.

Good thing you have glass windows in the classroom.

Do you want to find out how glass is made?

BOTH: Yeah!

Well, glass starts off as sand...

..a bit like the sand you might find on a beach,

but, to make clear glass, a special sand called silica sand is used.

This fine sand is needed because it's very pure

and does not contain any other unwanted chemicals.

This special sand comes from all over the world.

To find out what happens to the sand,

Susan will show you around the glass factory. Off you go!

Is glass only made of sand?

No, sand is just the main ingredient that goes into glass,

but it also has lots of other things in it, like soda ash and limestone.

Do you want to go have a look?

Glass is made from sand, soda ash and limestone,

which are three minerals that come from the ground.

They're mixed together, then put into a very hot oven,

called a furnace.

So this is where all the raw ingredients are fed into the oven

and melted, so it has to be very, very hot,

so it goes almost like toffee.

-Do you want to have a look?

-Yes.

-Yes? Right, step up on here.

Oh, my gosh!

That is so cool!

Wow, it looks like popcorn!

The furnace needs to be super hot.

In fact, it's 1,600 degrees Celsius.

This is what it looks like inside.

Wow!

So now we've seen the raw ingredients melting in the oven, almost like toffee.

So what happens next is that this spreads across a big bath,

which is full of liquid metal, and that gloopy substance

floats along the top and spreads out so that it's perfectly flat.

So we're going to go to the lab and do a little experiment so you can see what I mean.

OK? Let's go.

So, let's pretend that this oil is our liquid glass

which is made up of our different raw materials.

Remember, we've got our sand, and our soda ash here, and limestone.

So, this is our liquid glass and this water is our liquid metal.

So, let's see what happens when we pour the glass onto the liquid metal.

Ooh!

So, what's happening? Can you see what's happening?

It's floating on top of the water.

That's right, so the liquid glass floats on top of the liquid metal

and doesn't mix together so the glass stays perfectly flat.

Ah, cool! It's wicked!

That's brilliant!

So, just like this oil and water, the glass in the furnace

floats on top of the liquid metal and stays completely flat.

Now, let's see how the real glass is doing.

So this is the first time that we can actually see the glass coming out. Do you want to have a look?

-Stopping here...you can see it going past!

-Yeah!

-Look at that!

-Cool!

-It looks like see-through paper!

At this stage, it's about half as hot as it was, and it's still quite soft.

For the glass to get hard, it needs to cool down very slowly.

Why is the glass cooled slowly?

Because, if we cool it too quickly, then it could break,

and at this stage we're also checking for any other faults in the glass

like stress breaks, or bubbles, which are obviously no good.

OK now, from this point, the glass is one continuous ribbon

right back to that bath of liquid metal,

and so the next stage is to cut it into pieces.

This long piece of glass is far too big to be used in our homes,

so it needs to be cut down.

This is what it uses to cut it. It scores across the glass with these little wheels.

That cutting bridge that's going across there makes a little line in the glass across

and then, when it gets to these little wheels,

it just gives it a little knock and it just breaks perfectly along that line.

And then it moves away. Look - watch here.

It's going to come up and break it, watch.

Look at that!

Wow, what a clever machine!

If you look up ahead, you'll see the line go past.

-It's hard to see, isn't it, because it's so clear.

-Oh, yeah!

-See it?

And then it's going to go along and those wheels are just going to break it out.

Up there. Ready? There it is, and then that piece of glass goes away!

Cool!

How old do you think this machine is?

This machine, it is 11 years old.

11. It's called Claritude.

-That's its name.

-So it's a boy?

OK, so here we're going to see the glass being stacked onto the pack.

Once the glass is cut,

it travels along to a machine that uses suckers

to gently pick up the glass and stack it,

ready to be used in our homes.

These big machines are used to lift up the packs of glass and move them around

and put them on the lorries so they can be delivered to our customers.

So, you've seen the raw ingredients go in one end and glass come out the other end.

And that's how glass is made out of sand!

Hello, children! How was your journey?

The glass-making factory was great!

We saw glass being made out of sand.

The sand is mixed with other ingredients,

and put into a big hot oven and heated up until it's extremely hot

and then it all melts.

Then it's poured onto a bath of liquid metal, but they don't mix.

The glass floats on top. Then it goes really smooth and flat.

They have to cool it down slowly, or it would break.

Then the glass is cut into different sizes

and then it is stored until it is needed.

Well done! Now you know all about making glass!

What en exciting journey you've had! Now it's time to say goodbye.

-BOTH: Bye!

-Goodbye, children!

Hello, children. What are you doing?

-We're making things out of paper.

-Look, I've made a paper hat!

Wow, that's brilliant.

Paper is really useful for lots of things - drawing pictures,

books to read, letters to write, and many other things.

-But have you ever wondered how paper is made?

-Doesn't it come from trees?

Yes! That's right! Paper has been around a long, long time.

In fact, it's been around since the ancient Egyptians!

Look at all these trees.

That's where it all starts, in the forest.

This is where paper comes from, trees!

There are young trees growing in amongst the old ones.

If we kept cutting down all the trees, there wouldn't be any left,

so we have to plant new ones.

Paper is made from a mix of all types of trees.

The trees are cut down and the branches are cut off

and then loaded onto a truck, where they go to the paper mill.

So you see, the trees are where the paper's journey begins.

-Do you want to find out what happens to the logs at the paper mill?

-Yes, please!

-That would be brilliant!

-Then off you go!

Hello! My name is Liz and I work at the paper mill, and I'm going to tell you how we make paper.

This is called the wood yard.

This is where we store all the logs that come in straight from the forest.

They come in on lorries.

How many trucks deliver logs here?

There's about 40 lorries coming in per day.

Where are the logs going now?

The logs all go into a big drum called the de-barker

and it's like a great big washing machine,

which tumbles all the logs together to take off the outer skin,

the bark of the log, and then the logs come out of the other side and there's no bark on it.

Why does the bark have to come off of the logs?

Bark has to come off because you don't want to open up your comic or your magazine and see bits of wood.

Ah! The bark is removed as it does not make good quality paper.

These logs have had their bark removed,

but they're still too big to make paper.

So Liz is taking the children into the grinding room to show them what happens next.

-What happens in the grinder?

-What happens in the grinder?

The logs that we saw getting de-barked,

they come in and they're pushed against this rotating stone,

which is rotating very, very fast, and the logs are pushed against it,

which crushes the logs up into fibres.

The grinding stones squeeze the logs so hard that it crushes them up into tiny pieces.

These are called fibres.

And then water is added.

Why is water added?

We want it to look like a porridgy mix to get the pulp.

The pulp is what we need to go on to make the paper.

And this is what the pulp looks like.

Liz is going to show the children how to turn this into paper.

We'll add the pulp in here.

Now we're going to press this button here and that's going to mix up the water and the pulp.

Can you hear it bubbling away?

It's just mixing all the fibres and the water together.

OK, that's that done.

So now I'm going to drain away the water

so that only the fibres are going to be left.

And there we go.

-Can you see all the fibres have all stuck together?

-Yeah.

Wow, it's now starting to look like paper.

It's really wet!

There's quite a lot of water in it yet, isn't there?

What we have to do is put a piece of this dried paper on top of it

to soak all the water out of it.

What I'm going to do now is roll this,

roll this...

just to squeeze more of the water out.

Peel this off.

There we go.

-Oh!

-Woah! It feels quite smooth.

It's not delicate now.

Here's one we dried off earlier just to show you.

-There we go.

-It's impressive.

-Yep!

Actually holding a tree!

This way of making paper takes a long time.

That's why we have this great big paper-making machine.

What happens first is that the pulp is sprayed onto a wire mesh

and, as it moves along, the water drains away.

Why do you have to get rid of the water?

We have to get rid of the water so that the fibres are left on the wire mesh,

so all the water drains through the wire,

which is like a big sieve, and only the fibres are left on top.

Next, the pulp is pressed by really big rollers

that squeeze the last drop of water out.

The last section is called the drier section,

which is a series of heated rollers, which dries the paper out and keeps it flat.

How many rollers does the mash go through?

At the drier section it goes through 41 cylinders, heated cylinders,

which squeeze out all the water and dry up the paper.

Finally, the dried paper is rolled up, ready to leave the factory.

Oh, look! It's coming down now!

Why's it doing that?

They're lowering it because it'll get sent to the warehouse

ready to be transported straight to the printers.

OK, you've seen all the paper process from when the logs came in at the beginning,

-OK, so shall we have a closer look at the finished paper?

-Yeah!

OK. Here we are.

So now we have paper.

Can you believe that we've made that paper from the trees?

BOTH: Woah!

That feels really soft.

Really amazing how you get this thin paper.

-Quite strong as well, isn't it?

-I know!

Yeah, you can't really break it.

It's amazing how it's so light it can actually fly.

-It's just so beautiful!

-I know.

-Hello, children!

-How was your journey?

It was incredible!

Look, we have paper made from trees!

That's great! So what did you learn?

First the paper mill takes the bark off the trees in the de-barking drum.

It tumbles all the logs together

and all the bark falls through a hole.

And then they put the logs through the grinder,

which smashes the logs up with humungous stones.

Then they add lots of water to make pulp,

which looks like horrible porridge!

To get the water out of the pulp,

they spray it onto a moving wire mesh,

where the water drains through the bottom.

Then the wet paper can be dried.

Then it actually gets turned into real paper,

the one that you use for drawing.

That is how paper is made from trees.

That's really good work. Well done, children! Goodbye!

BOTH: Goodbye, Curious Cat!

Goodbye, children!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd