CHAPTER XLVI

JUTE

The commercial fibre jute is obtained from the following species of Corchorus--_Corchorus Capsularis_, grown mostly in Northern, Central, and Eastern Bengal, and _Corchorus Olitarus_, raised in the vicinity of Calcutta. The great bulk of the fibre is obtained, however, from the former variety.

The plant may be described as a long wand, from 8 to 10 feet in height, and of the thickness of one’s finger at the bottom. The stem is smooth, and more or less branched towards the top, bearing vivid green leaves and yellow flowers. It possesses an outside covering of hard bark; underneath this is the commercial fibre, and within the latter a pithy stick.

Jute is an annual, and appears to be capable of cultivation in almost any kind of soil, but is grown to best advantage upon that of a loamy nature, or on rich clay and sand. The coarser and larger plants are cultivated chiefly upon the “churs” or mud banks, and islands formed by the rivers, while others are raised upon submerged lands and in salt-impregnated soils. A hot, damp climate, such as is found in the vast delta of the Ganges, and Brahmapootra, with annual heavy rains and inundations, fulfils the conditions under which jute can be successfully cultivated. In November or December the soil is ploughed over five or six times, the clods broken up, pulverised, and at the final ploughing the weeds are collected, dried, and burned. The seeds are sown during the months of April, May, and June, according to the district, and covered over with a thin sprinkling of earth. Germination takes place in from three to seven days, and when the plants rise a few inches above the ground, the cultivator weeds and thins them out, ultimately leaving a space of, approximately, 6 inches between each.

The crop is considered to be in season for cutting when the flowers appear during August and September. By this time the plants have attained a height of from 8 to 10, or even in some instances, 17 feet. The stems are cut with knives close to the ground, tied up in bundles, and removed to the steeping or “retting” pond.

The system of “retting,” as practised by the natives of India, consists in steeping the plants in stagnant pools or tanks for from two to twenty-five days. Weights are placed above the bundles to ensure that all the material may be submerged. The stagnant water thus used for steeping purposes has a strong and somewhat offensive smell, which, however, is not remarked in the fibre itself, and the fetid liquid is valuable as a manure.

To ascertain that the process is complete, the cultivator has to visit the tank daily, and test the fibre to see that it has begun to separate from the stem or pith. In removing the fibre from the woody portion the operator, standing waist deep in the tank, seizes a bundle of stems in his left hand, beats the ends out flat, turning the bundle deftly meantime, and then breaks the stems about eighteen inches from the point, first one way and then another. A little more manipulation, and the short sticks at the end fall out, leaving the fibre clear. The remaining portion is separated in a somewhat similar manner. The operator then, striking the surface repeatedly with the fibre, and drawing it through towards him, relieves it of any remaining impurities. By a dexterous throw he next spreads it on the surface of the water, and picks off any remaining black spots or hard patches.

It is then wrung out and hung on bamboos to dry in the sun, when it is ready for the market.

The fibre for exportation is bought by dealers, shipped to Calcutta, and made up into hydraulically-compressed bales of about 400 pounds weight, lashed round with ropes made of strong jute, the various qualities being distinguished by different marks affixed to the bales.

Jute is now a source of considerable revenue to the Indian Government, about 3,500,000 bales being exported annually to Europe and America, and over 2,900,000 bales manufactured into cloth and sacks in and around Calcutta. The distribution of the exported material is approximately as follows:--

To the United Kingdom 1,900,000 bales. To the Continent 1,000,000 „ To America 500,000 „

Dundee is the chief seat of jute manufacturing in the United Kingdom, only a very small proportion of the material imported being operated upon elsewhere. According to the latest procurable statistics there are slightly over 43,000 persons employed in the industry, and of this number quite 40,000 are engaged in and around Dundee, almost three-fourths of these being women. The figures do not include several hundreds who make up cloth into bags--a separate industry. Indirectly, the staple trade gives employment to a considerable number of persons, such as shuttle-makers, bobbin-turners, hackle-makers, yarn-bleachers, etc., and practically supports about 1000 sack-sewers who are out-workers.

Jute as imported consists of coils or bundles of fibre of a pale yellowish colour, and possesses a faint yet not unpleasant, though characteristic, smell. It cards and spins easily when properly treated with oil and water, the yarn produced being relatively coarse, fairly strong, and is much sold as twine, the output of this article amounting to hundreds of tons per annum. The bulk of the yarn spun, however, is woven into what are termed “Hessians,” plain jute cloth of various widths up to four yards. This material is seen everywhere, and is constantly used for packing and wrapping goods of all descriptions. A certain amount of cloth is cut up into suitable lengths and sewn into sacks.

Jute sacks are required for holding all kinds of material; they are cheap and strong, and although they rapidly deteriorate if exposed to wet, they are, owing to their low price, easily replaced.

Jute fibre takes kindly to most dyes, and this characteristic allows of its being largely used in the manufacture of carpets and rugs. A large trade has grown up in this department, fabrics being produced of beautiful designs and brilliant colouring. Jute is also interwoven with cotton and other textiles, but it does not readily spin with any fibre of an elastic nature.

The inelasticity of the fibre is a distinct drawback, affecting the utility of the articles manufactured, and although the durability of the fabric is great if kept dry, the colours are fugitive.

The first operation in the process of the manufacture of jute consists in cutting the binding ropes of the bale, and opening out the hard, compressed material. This is invariably done by hand, and immediately afterwards the fibre, still in a compressed state, is passed through between four heavy deeply-fluted rollers intersecting each other, which open the material somewhat and facilitate its disentanglement, before it is placed on the feeding table of the softener. During these processes, while the fibre is in a dry condition, a considerable quantity of dust is shaken out, much of it being of a gritty nature, and consisting largely of fine particles of the sand or mud in which the plant grows. The latter impurities adhere to the rooty portion of the plant, but become dispersed when the fibre is shaken out and disturbed. It is in this dust that tetanus spores have been found in very considerable quantities.

Once placed on the softener, the fibre passes through a long series of spirally fluted rollers, pressure being brought to bear on the top row by means of springs. Hot water and oil are applied to the material during the progress along the machine, care being taken to spread the liquids evenly.

This moistening of the fibre is rendered necessary owing to its inherent brittle nature. Although this application of oil and water is to facilitate the subsequent manipulation of the material, it serves a beneficial purpose in reducing to an enormous extent the quantity of dust which would otherwise be diffused in carding and other processes. As matters at present stand, the preparing operations in jute factories are much more dusty than subsequent processes, but the particles thrown off in carding, drawing, and rove-spinning are more of a light fluffy nature, and prove less irritating to the respiratory organs than the gritty dust evolved in handling the dry jute. After the material has been effectively softened, and while in a slightly moist condition, it is fed into the “breaker” card. Here, owing to the splitting and combing action of the rapidly running card teeth, many rooty particles and other impurities are removed, but the heavier matter falls below the machines, from which it is taken away periodically, so that only the lighter dust rises, and is breathed by the operators.

When delivered from the “breaker” it is passed over the “finisher” card, but less dust if possible is evolved in the second carding. To equalise the thickness of the jute sliver as it emerges from the cards, and to lay the fibres parallel, the material is passed over drawing frames, and, when delivered, is spun by roving machines into “rove,” that is, thick loosely-twisted yarn. The twist given is just sufficient to keep the fibre together during its treatment in the spinning frame, before the actual twist is administered which completes it as finished yarn.

The operations subsequent to carding evolve little dust relatively, but owing to the excessive speed of spinning frame flyers, and the friction on the yarn, very light fluffy particles are continually rising in spinning rooms, so that the atmosphere becomes charged with extremely fine portions of fibre. All horizontal surfaces, and the clothing and hair of the workers in these departments, soon become coated with this dust.

The yarn intended for weft is never dressed, but is wound or built up into solid “cops” for insertion in the shuttle. It is so coiled in the cop as to unwind regularly and easily when in the shuttle, but is still of sufficient firmness to withstand handling without collapsing. The warp yarn is wound into solid balls, or on large bobbins, and thereafter arranged upon angular frames at each end of the dressing machines.

The dressing, the basis of which consists mostly of flour, is contained in troughs affixed to the machines, the yarn passing through the liquid, and then round steam-heated cylinders to ensure its thorough dryness before being wound on the weaving beam. As in the dressing of linen yarn, considerable heat is constantly maintained in the departments of factories apportioned for this purpose. The cylinders, round which the damp yarn passes, radiate heat, and where the ceilings of the rooms are low, or the cubic capacity restricted, much discomfort is occasioned in summer, unless exhaust fans, or wide-opened windows, are arranged for. The beams when filled are removed, and inserted in the looms, the “dressed” or starched yarns constituting the warp of the woven fabric.

The weaving of jute cloth calls for little comment or description, the process being of the simplest character, except where figured carpets are woven. This work is comparatively pleasant and clean. To give finish to the cloth, calendering is necessary. The webs are passed through ponderous machines, known as either calenders or mangles; hot rollers and heavy pressure, combined with the dressing in the yarn, effecting an evenness to the fabric, and, if necessary, a gloss to the surface.

_Health Conditions._

The factories in Great Britain engaged in manufacturing jute are, with few exceptions, rather superior. Many of them are on the shed or one-floor system. They were built at a time when the industry was extremely remunerative, and much capital was sunk in substantial and well-designed premises. The shed construction with the saw-tooth roof is advantageous from many standpoints, facilitating the maintenance of an equable temperature, the free ingress of air through roof openings, while providing an abundance of light throughout. The latter advantage is important, when one considers the liability to accident which constant attendance on, and manipulation of, intricate mechanisms necessitate. Jute machinery is very similar to that utilised in the manufacture of flax, the various machines (with the exception of softeners and openers) differing only in small details, necessary owing to the greater length and relative coarseness of the former fibre. The liability to accidents is slightly greater in the manufacture of jute than in any other textile industry, to judge by the annual returns of casualties. This is partially due to the fact that the older types of machines have been fitted with crude and ineffective protections, to improve which requires much careful and systematic supervision, and partially to the proportionately large number of insignificant accidents, hitherto found unpreventable, occasioned by the oscillating slays of looms, which, though slight in themselves, are yet sufficiently serious to bring them just within the category of reportable accidents.

By slight alterations in the construction of certain machines and additions to the existing fencing of spinning, drawing frames and cards, certain kinds of accidents have been completely stamped out. Thus, since the insistence on travelling feed and delivery sheets or webs for jute softeners, a type of accident always severe, and often fatal, has entirely disappeared. Before these safeguards were introduced the operatives were frequently entangled in the long jute fibre in feeding or attending the delivery end of the machine, and instantly drawn forward and mangled by the rapid-running fluted rollers. As might be expected young persons are the commonest victims of factory accidents, owing to their ignorance and indiscretion. A careful note of all such casualties has revealed lurking dangers in certain machines, and where these have been effectually protected, accidents decrease in number and in seriousness. Since shuttle-guards have become universal, the annual return of injuries from flying shuttles has decreased to less than half the former figure. The liability to tetanus of persons injured in jute manufactories makes the adequate and effective protection of all dangerous mechanism, even to the minutest details, of the utmost importance.

The dirtiest and most objectionable processes in the manufacture of the material are undoubtedly those of preparing and spinning. The remuneration of the operatives in these departments is considerably less than that earned by the weavers. Thus a distinctly lower class of employés engage in the former processes, the more self-respecting taking up weaving as a means of livelihood.

Where the finer qualities of fibre are treated, the amount of dust evolved is comparatively small, and the factories fairly clean; but in the coarser varieties it becomes excessive, and the whole premises assume a dirty and objectionable aspect.

It may be of interest to observe here that many women engaged in the preparing and spinning operations of jute manufacture habitually snuff, presumably to rid the nostrils of dust. The custom is rarely observed among women outside Dundee.

The prevention of the dispersal of dust in carding and spinning is extremely difficult, for it appears to rise, more or less, from the fibre, wherever it is sufficiently disturbed, and from any number of points, even in one room. Exhaust fans, however, when placed immediately above the softening machines, and properly erected, undoubtedly remove much of the fine gritty particles shaken out of the raw material, and where a hood is arranged above the exact seat of dust production, and communicates with a fan, there is little to complain of.

This particular dust from the raw material is most irritating to breathe, and is presumably injurious, but fortunately few persons in any one mill come in contact with it.

The ample cubic space of most carding departments greatly counteracts the injurious effects of this ever-present dust; and indeed, in establishments where very fine material is spun, it is scarcely noticeable. The prevailing high temperature of spinning departments, together with the crowded arrangement of the frames and the number of workers congregated in a limited floor space, makes such rooms somewhat disagreeable to work in, and the occupation is increasingly unpopular. The friction of the numerous small bearings, and especially that generated by the temper bands on the bobbins, raises the temperature to 30 or more degrees above that existing outside, and maintains it thus even when the outer air has fairly free ingress. This over-heating of the spinning room is a constant source of trouble, and is difficult to regulate. A temperature of 80° is common in the coldest weather, and persists at times, even when many windows are open. The provision of exhaust fans in premises where high temperatures were hitherto troublesome has, however, effected a distinct improvement. The application of oil, already referred to, reduces the tendency of the material to give off dust, but the subsequent operations disperse fine particles of fibre throughout the workrooms. The oily jute gives to the preparing departments a somewhat peculiar and rather offensive odour, and where the atmosphere is abnormally heated, creates a feeling of closeness.

During the month of March 1900, samples of air were taken from three selected mills in Dundee, at various times, and in different atmospheric conditions. Two of the selected establishments were considered as typical of badly ventilated premises; the third, for contrast, was one of the most modern and airy factories in the city. Although the high winds which prevailed during the period of testing may detract from the assumption that the figures are really representative of the usual conditions, still after making all allowances it must be presumed that they approximately indicate the true condition of the inside atmospheres. Samples were procured from two of the mills on a Sunday about mid-day, a period of about twenty-four hours having elapsed since any workers had been in the premises.

The windows in both cases were all closed, and, on the day in question, a fresh cold wind prevailed.

The result showed a very pure atmosphere--3.1 and 3.3 volumes of CO_{2} respectively per 10,000 volumes of air.

The following day, samples were secured in the two establishments and from a third between 1 and 2 P.M. (the meal hour being from 2 to 3 P.M.), and again just before the factories stopped running, namely, between 5 and 6 P.M.

The following table gives the results:--

+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | No. of Samples. | | +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | +--------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ |Time |1.30 p.m.|1.40 p.m.|1.55 p.m.|5.15 p.m.|5.30 p.m.|5.50 p.m.| |Selected room |Spinning |Spinning |Spinning | Spinning| Spinning| Spinning| |Total cubic contents| 462,840 | 100,383 | 83,856 | 462,840 | 100,383 | 83,856 | |Number of Persons | | | | | | | | employed | 300 | 150 | 83 | 300 | 150 | 83 | |Cubic space per | | | | | | | | head | 1542 | 669 | 1010 | 1542 | 669 | 1010 | |Temperature:-- | | | | | | | | Inside | 70° | 77° | 77° | 75° | 81.5° | 83° | | Outside | 41° | 41° | 41° | 40° | 40° | 40° | |Ventilation | Natural | Natural | Natural | Natural | Natural | Natural | | | windows | windows | windows | windows | windows | windows | | | ¼ open | ½ open | ⅓ open | ¼ open | ⅓ open | ⅓ open | |No. of Factory | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |Carbonic acid in | | | | | | | | 10,000 vols. of | | | | | | | | air | 5.4 | 7.0 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 9.8 | 9.0 | +--------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

Factory No. 1 was of modern construction and built on the one-floor system. The relative purity of the sample is noticeable as compared with Nos. 2 and 3, both old premises with low ceilings. There was no artificial lighting in either case, consequently the carbonic acid present must have been entirely due to respiration. Other examinations of samples obtained from both spinning and weaving rooms show almost similar results, except that the weaving sheds were purer, owing to their ample cubic space, and the temperature, as is always the case, considerably lower.

In the instance of factory No. 1, carding, spinning, and winding were all proceeding under one roof, 300 persons being at work, as will be seen from a reference to the table. Had gas as an illuminant been burning for even a short time in any of the premises examined the proportion of CO_{2} would presumably have been higher. This is supported by the analysis of air in a dressmaker’s workroom, selected at 8 P.M. There were ten persons at work, three large gas jets burning (lit for two hours), and 259 cubic feet capacity per head. An examination of the sample showed the proportion of CO_{2} to be 26.4 per 10,000 volumes of air: temperature inside 73°, outside 41°F. Electric light is now the illuminant in almost all the jute factories of any size, and a distinct improvement in the condition of the inside atmospheres has resulted. Unquestionably the high temperatures of spinning rooms are distinctly harmful, perhaps more so than is usually imagined; in fact, the writer from close observation of operatives in various parts of the country and in dissimilar industries, exposed persistently to warm atmospheres, is of opinion that a general lowering of the health (in certain instances marked) very frequently follows such employment. The effects of constantly breathing warm air, quite apart from the liability to chills which such atmospheres engender, are worthy of closer study and scientific investigation. Certainly exposure to great radiated heat, if the air is not particularly warm, does not affect workmen in a similar manner.

As has been already remarked, the weaving of jute is apparently a healthy occupation, judging from the general appearance of the operatives. The wage of the weaver enables her to occupy a comfortable home, and ensures a sufficiency of suitable food. The same may be said of the sack-sewers, who, like the weavers, usually work in premises kept at a reasonable temperature, and present a ruddy and robust appearance.

With reference to the subject of tetanus, no more authoritative statement can be submitted than that of H.M. Medical Inspector of Factories, Dr T. Morison Legge, and his remarks are accordingly quoted from the Annual Report of H.M. Chief Inspectors of Factories for the year 1899:--

“When visiting Dundee in February, my attention was called by the district inspector, Mr Wilson, to the fact that within the preceding twelve months two fatal cases of tetanus had occurred in one jute