Milton Harris; Discovered Ways of Reducing Wool Shrinkage

Milton Harris, 85, a chemist whose World War II studies on decreasing the shrinking of Army socks led to new ways of reducing the shrinkage in wool generally. Harris, a director of Gillette Corp. and later of Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Co., succeeded in lengthening the life of more than 100 million GI socks. Forty years later he had published 200 scientific papers on the properties of textile fibers and fabrics and other subjects. He also was credited with urging the cultivation of the North American shrub jojoba so its oil could be used as a substitute for sperm whale oil, helping to prevent the systematic extinction of that mammal. On Thursday in Chevy Chase, Md.