RAINBOW KHAKI

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 74, 6 July 1942, Page 6

RAINBOW KHAKI

HUGE COMBS CLAW IT FROM BLUE, YELLOW AMD MAUVE WOOLS Five bright hucd wools are now blended together to produce the earthy colour of kliaki first Avidely used in South Africa for the uniforms of the British Army. In peace time the process was a secret belonging to the West Riding of Yorkshire Avhere the heavy Avcollen industry first discoA'ered how to blend avools of six colours into khaki thread. But to-day the West Riding shares its secret with all other avool spinning areas in the United Kingdom so that the whole industry can go ahead Avith the colossal job of putting the troops into uniform. The blending is now standardised and the number of colours reduced by one. The correct proportions of blue, yellow, brown, red and mauve wools are torn up by huge combs which separate, mix and blend them. Gradually each coloucr begins to lose its identity, .just as the colours on a spinning top Avill merge into a misty grey. At first the mass of clawed avool is patchy—bluish here, yelloAvish there—and then, as the machines complete the job, the colours become so Avell blended that khaki finally emerges from the rainboAV of colour. This blending process gives an CA r ener and more lasting result than dyeing the cloth in the piece as was done in the early days. In the war of f9l 1-18 the difficulties of replacing dyes formerly imported from Germany produced colours which varied in different parts of the country from almost grass green to dark brown. To-day colour charts and Ministry of Supply specifications result in cA-ery mill Aveaving exactly the same shade and each piece of khaki cloth is carefully inspected.