JUTE SANDBAGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23394, 10 July 1939, Page 5

JUTE SANDBAGS

BENGAL MILLS BUSY BIG ORDER FROM BRITAIN [from our own correspondent] CALCUTTA. June 6 Befigal jute mills arc sending a steady supply of sandbags to Britain, following the order, received last February from the British Government, for 200,000,000. to be delivered by the end of June. A stafi' 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 boon seleted 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 1 , a machine which com lis; the jute and forms it into a luond ribbon. The same prnees.?. but on a finer scale, is repeated on the finisher card. Passing through the drawing machines, which draw the ribbons, or "sliver*'* as they nro technically called, out to the desired weight, the into is then made into a "rove," which is rather like a soft quarter-inch rope. From this "rove" are spun the two yarns, warn 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. I'ho 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 4cwt. and are sent to the river Hooghly where they are loaded on steamers for Britain.