PAPER CLOTHES.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1918, Page 6

PAPER CLOTHES.

AN ENEMY WAR ECONOMY. A French professor, who was in Austria when war broke out, ond 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 Ggrnjany lias been developing for ■other purposes for thirty years. The result has been considerable and both and Austria are now manufacturing paper cloth to be made into clothes for men and women.

To weave the tissues and. give them the look of cloth, woollen thread is mixed with the paper. There is an abundant supply of such threads to be had from the waste gathered by bagpickers and mosf of all from the enormous stock of old and worn-out uniforms. The inweaving of these woollen threads with the paper stuffs counterfeits closely ordinary cloth. The demand for paper clotli and clothes is so great that, in Austria alone, 260 spinning and weaving mills are occupied in the production. The paper is cut in little endless rolls which, according to the Ise intended, are spun or milled or twisted. After two years experience the factories are now able to turn out fine and strong threads! In the weaving of this war cloth the warp only is of paper and the wool is of the tlireiuls 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 clotheß hai'e given good results, as they are 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 clotli can be dyed any color just as easily as cotton or jufe or wool.

The German newspapers advertise an exhibition of paper tissues' and cloth in Ereslau, 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 population is only beginning to try wearing linen, aild sliirts and aprons of paper tissue, whereas in Germany it is obligatory. An Austrian exhibition is being organised tin a large scale to popularise the use.

A surprising number of articles of wearing apparel are already in use, without the wearers dreaming'that they are imitations made of paper. There are shirts and kit flannels and jackets and cravats—but for the latter artificial silk is mixed with the paper. Both linen made of paper can ibo 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 so well imitated in these paper tissues that the passer-by could not tell the difference from the real. The public does not seem to know that the women conductors of street cars in Austria are dressed from head to foot in paper ■-•lotlies. And for lack of other material the forms of ladies hats are also made of paper. The solidity and wearing quality of these paper stuffs ha.ybeen perfected to a high degree. Their cost is cheap. For a dollar and a quarter you have a yard of paper cloth, and a workman buys his suit of paper clothes for less than six dollars.