Bengal Mills Busy With Jute Sandbags

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 161, 11 July 1939, Page 8

Bengal Mills Busy With Jute Sandbags

BIG ORDER FROM BRITAIN

CALCUTTA, June 6.

Bengal jute mills are sending a steady supply of sandbags to Britain, following the order, received last February from the British Government, for 200,000,000, to bo delivered by the end of June. A staff of Government inspectors allocated to four different jute mill areas makes a daily inspection of the material used. Specimens are sent to the test house at Alipore, Calcutta, for laboratory tests. The jute employed in the manufacture of sandbags goes through many processes before it leaves the mill as the finished article. After the raw material has been selected, it is put through a softening machine, where oil and water are applied. The roots of the plant are cut off, and the jute is put on the breaker card, a machine which combs the jute and forms it into a broad ribbon. The same process, but on a finer scale, is repeated on the finisher card. Passing through the drawing machines, which draw the ribbons, or “slivers” as they are technically called, out to the desired weight, the jute is then made into a “rove,” which is rather like a soft quarter-inch rope.

From this “rove” are spun the two yarns, warp and weft, required for weaving. The warp is starched and wound and the weft is also wound. When the cloth leaves the loom, it is calendered or ironed and cut to the required lengths. The final process is the sewing, which takes place on power machines, the bags being afterward finished by hand sewing. They are packed into trusses of 200, with five trusses to a bale weighing about 4ewt., and are sent to the river Hooghly, where they are loaded on steamers for Britain.