JUTE Jute is spun by processes similar to those employed for flax, but as it is from 10 to IS feet long, it is necessary to cut. it into three-foot lengths before it can be heckled. The fibre, which is obtained by macera tion from the inner bark, also requires to he saturated with whale oil and water, so as to soften and render it. more elastic, preparatory to spinning. Ilt•ckling is the first of the spinning operations, and its object is to remove the coarser portions of the jute, and lay the fibres in parallel order. The heckle is a kind of comb, with sharp pointed steel teeth, front one to tcwa inches in length. Formerly the work was done by hand, hut now heckling-machines are used. Recently the heckling process has omitted and the jute hat been span directly without heckling off the tow. The heckled strips are next taken to the spreader. or first drawing-frame, where they arc spread upon an endless creeping-sheet, so as to supply the jute continuously to another part of the machine, where, by a peculiar arrangement of rollers, it is drawn out, through combs of closely ranged steel pins, into a rib bon, called a sifter. A n ttttt ber—say 14—of these slivers are then taken to another drawing-ma chine, with steel combs, and drawn into GIIC. III like manner some twenty of these slivers are again drawn into one. The first sliver from the spreader has thus, so to speak, been drawn out 280 times its original length; and by continuing this doubling and drawing, the fibres become thor mighly parallel and eilnalized. The sliver from the last drawing-frame is still further drawn out, and at the same time receives a slight twist in the roving-frame. Finally the bobbins of 'rove' are taken to the spinning-frame, and Spill/ into yarn upon the 'throst le' principle. See SPINNING.
Just as in the ease of Ilax, the jute tow from the heckling process is also spun into yarn, in which case it is that carded by means of at 'breaker' and 'finisher' card, and then drawn, rcred, and spun, as above described.
The larger portion of jute fabrics is woven from yarn of the natural color; but for some purposes it is bleached; and when used for car pets, it is dyed various colors. It bleaches with difficulty. but is easily dyed. Jute fabrics are not nearly so durable as flax, the jute being more brittle and more easily affected by water.
Jute has been manufactured on hand looms by the natives of India for centuries. They made not only the coarse fabric known as gunny, but a fine material which they used for clothing. They also have made a coarse paper, by heating the fibre into pulp, drying it in sheets, sizing it with rice starch. and polishing it with a stone or shell. Since 1857 there been a large num ber of jute-mills fitted up with modern textile machinery, and driven by steam, the number in 1899 aggregating 33.
The first mention of the word jute is in 1790. in the manuscript commercial index of the court of directors of the East India Company. It is the Bengal name used by the natives of Cuttaek and Balasore, where the first European manufac tories were established in the middle of the last century. in 1829 the total export from Calcutta was 20 tons, value £00. in 1833 it had increased sixteenfold, and about ISO-l-05 the increased de mand caused jute cultivation to extend to other districts, the exportation in 1870-80 reaching 4,626,710 hundredweight. In 1897-98 the amount of raw jute exported was 15.000.000 hundred weight, while the exports of jute eloth have in creased in ten years front 37,000,000 to 307, 000.000 yards.
England, Bombay, and America originally di vided the exports of jute, and up to the time of the Civil War North America took the largest share of the gunnies. (See GUNNY.) Jute and gunnies are now exported from Bengal to all parts of the world.
Until 1670 the entire cotton crop of the United States was baled in gunny-cloth imported from Calcutta. Gradually, however, an increasing amount of jute product has been made in the United States. According to the census of 1SS0 there were only four establishments in the United States making a specialty of this manufacture. In 1900 the number had increased to IS. They employed on the average 450 hands, and the value of their annual product was $5.3S3.787.
The kind, quality, and cost of the materials used in jute manufacture in the United States in 1900 is shoon in the following table: The kind, quantity. and value of the produce of jute manufactures tor the same year is given be low: