PAPER CLOTHES

Otago Witness, Issue 3333, 30 January 1918, Page 52

PAPER CLOTHES

AN ENEMY WAR ECONOMY. A French professor, who was in Austria when war broke out, and has only now been repatriated, gives the following curious details of the paper clothes which are being made and used in that country, and particularly in Germany. This is one of those war economies which may well be continued in times of peace. Two years ago the lack of wool and cotton began being felt. In looking about for a substitute it was decided to transform the manufacture of paper tissues, which Germany had been developing for other purposes for thirty years. The result has been considerable, and both Germany and Austria are now manufacturing paper cloth to bo made into clothes for men and women. To weave tho tissues and give them a look of cloth, woollen threads are mixed with the paper. There is an abundant supply of such threads to be had from the waste gathered by bagpickers and most of all from tho enormous stock of old and worn-out military uniforms. The inweaving of these woollen threads with the paper stuff counterfeits closely ordinary cloth. The demand for paper cloth and clothes is so great that, in Austria alone, 260 spinning and weaving mills are occupied in the production. The paper is cut in littlo endless rolls which, according to tho use intended, arc spun or milled or twisted. After two years' experience the factories aro now able to turn out fine and strong threads. In the weaving of this war cloth the warp only is of paper and the woof is of tho threads of wool or cotton waste. The gray-green caps of the Austrian and Hungarian soldiers have been made for a long time of such paper cloth exclusively. Refugees and prisoners of war, both in Germany and Austria, have their clothes made of this paper cloth. In the concentration camps particularly such clothes have given good results, as they aro warm in winter and cool in summer. In all the great factories the workmen wear paper suits, which are stout and Wear well, and look quite like real cloth. The cloth can bo dyed any colour just as easily as cotton or jute or wool. The German newspapers advertise an exhibition of paper tissues and cloth in Breslau to show the great progress made in this promising'industry. It_ is_ needless to say that Germany in all this is far ahead of Austria, In Austria the civil populais only beginning to try wearing linen and* skirts and aprons of paper tissue, whereas in Germany _ it is obligatory. An Austrian exhibition is being organised on a large vscale to popularise tho use. A surprising number of articles of wearing apparel are already in use, without the wearers dreaming that they aro imitations made of paper. There are shirts and knit flannels and jackets and cravats—but for the latter artificial silk is mixed with the paper. • Body linen made of paper can be washed without difficulty, but it will not stand steaming. The coarser tissues are even beautiful. Many Vienna shops have in their show windows carpets, blankets, and the like eo well imitated in these paper tissues that tho passer-by could not tell the difference from the real. Tho publio does not seem to know that the women conductors of street cars in Austria are dressed from head to foot in paper clothes And for lack of

other material the forms of ladies' hats are , also made of paper. j The solidity and wearing quality of these paper stuffs has been perfected to a high degree. Their cost is cheap. For a dollar and a-qnartcr you have a yard of paper I cloth, and a workman buys his suit of paper clothes for less than six dollars.