Substitutes
Natural fiber adulterants and substitutes: How else can we eke out supplies?
Quotation:
“The industrious German, however, has made the best of a bad job. . . At an exhibition of fibre and paper materials organized in Berlin by the Imperial Clothing Office all kinds of goods were shown…The military section displayed paper saddles and harness (for export rather than for use in the German army), paper sandbags, towels,..”and lots of other things..."
Capt. H.B.C. Pollard, "The New Land of Paper." Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’Advocate (NSW: 1876-1954); Sat Jul 20 1918 p. 4 (TROVE)
It might come as a shock to those for whom the word “merino”describes a very particular breed of sheep, but for several decades in the late 19thand early 20thcenturies, in the U.S. the word merino was used for a yarn blended from wool (possibly from merino sheep, but not necessarily) and a particular strain of long staple (fiber length) cotton found in Peru and China. And that was in peacetime, partly because the U.S. imported about half the raw wool it needed to meet demand for woolen yarns and cloth. In wartime, with shipping from South America and the Far East more difficult than usual, manufacturers in the U.S. AND many other nations sought additional ways to stretch the wool supply. Textile chemists and engineers—particularly in the US and Germany—experimented with ramie, jute, stinging nettle, milkweed, and seaweed during World War I, and added milk, corn, and chicken feathers to the list during World War II.
ADD IMAGES: Caption: Stycos Wool Substitute, 1915. Ramie fibre for extending wool supplies. (NMAH/Textiles. Accession 57996); "Khaki-Kool" advertisement, H.R. Mallinson & Co., Inc. March, 1915, American Silk Journal. (RISD Library)
During World War I, British control of half the world's supply of apparel wools led to shortages in neutral countries and desperation in the countries Britain was at war with. Americans tried blending a chemically treated ramie (a plant stem fibre) with wool, for civilian use. They also sought ways to replace civilian need for wool with other fibres, in greater supply, such as silk, by devising new weaves and yarns.
ADD IMAGES: Caption: Left - Poster, Germany, ca. 1917. "Gather Nettles if You Want Clothes and Thread." (Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004665876/)
Right - Photograph, New Zealand, April 1917. "Hun underclothes worn by prisoners captured by New Zealanders was made of material resembling sack cloth." (Auckland War Memorial Museum, Tamaki Paenga Hira. PH-ALB-419-H509)
Nettle fiber was considered a cotton replacement in Germany and Austria during both the First and Second World Wars. Another plant fibre, from the stem of the jute plant, was treated chemically to soften it, in a process called "woolenizing", and added to wool for making uniform cloth, in both World Wars. Jute is commonly used to make twine and rope, and coarse fabrics like sacking. In fact, millions of jute sandbags lined the trenches of the Western Front during World War I. Whether uniforms of jute and wool were durable or comfortable is difficult to know at the remove of more than half a century.