Canvas Manufacturer ID Needed

[David Dunlop]

Colin.

Good to know. The orange tone canvas is intriguing as a military item. Not exactly a colour that blends in.

Rob.

If you can find one of the pin bags marked from Holden in 1944, can you pick one up for me? I might as well keep the dust off the set of pins I have sitting on a shelf. I have an illustration and specs I can post if you need it.


David

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Good to know. The orange tone canvas is intriguing as a military item. Not exactly a colour that blends in.

Indeed

46FA4FA3-5486-4B94-B25A-6DB74418884D.jpg

[David Dunlop]

Good Afternoon, Hanno.

I got home from work yesterday and ended up unwinding, while thinking about this orange tent equipment that keeps popping up from time to time from Canadian manufacturers in the latter half of World War Two.

The initial questions in my head were all focused on the colour itself and why anyone in authority would have picked it for use, over the traditional Khakis or Greens, for military use. I could not come up with any useful answers, and then I started to wonder if the colour was not the end point goal, but merely a byproduct of an unrelated issue. I was starting to get into the wine now.

From 1939 to 1941, the war was European in nature, and then Japan entered the conflict. 1942 was something of a transition year. The Allies were trying to adapt to war in two distinct areas of the world and were starting to find serious shortcomings in a lot of their equipment in tropical combat conditions. These were slowly identified and prioritized. Top of the list were things like the Mosquito having its wood ply structure delaminating due to animal glues used in construction. So serious that De Havilland himself went to India to investigate. Wireless equipment was failing for everyone as well. Another important priority. A little further down the line, in all likelihood, it was probably noticed that heavy canvas goods like tents were rotting and falling apart far sooner than expected in the wet tropics.

So perhaps, to solve the rotting canvas problem, a new improved waterproofing/fungicide was developed in 1942/43 to replace what was in use, but a byproduct of this was the orange tint to the new product. Once a new product was available and new canvas in production, not all manufacturers would have received it at the same time. It would have been phased in across Canada. In addition, the individual tent manufacturers would not have abandoned existing stocks of the older canvas. The tent was the critical product so that production would have switched first. Finish the last complete khaki tent and move to the new fabric. The existing khaki fabric was likely used up on the smaller, storage type items like the Valise and Pin Bag. Then from that point, all further production would have been in the new orange tint canvas.

There seem to be a few surviving 1943 dated valises from Manitoba Tent & Awning. The one you posted, one I saw a few years ago on another European Website, and a friend of mine in BC has yet another, photo attached. Note the smaller, grommeted bag to the right in this photo. Also dated 1943, this is a product of Woods in Ottawa.

The Master Parts List for the 52-Set would have been written/assembled in 1943/1944. It shows S.S. Holden as the manufacturer for the Wireless Tent Station and describes the tent as being Khaki in colour. Based on the surviving example of a Wireless tent in Colin Alfords possession, it looks like 1944 may have been the transition year for S.S. Holden switching from khaki to orange tint canvas: an orange tint tent in a khaki valise. Too bad more of these wireless tents are not available to study. Chances are some may all be khaki and some all orange. Would also be nice to find some old time employees from these various tent makers who might remember when and why this orange tint canvas came into production.


David

[Bob Carriere]

Hi David

All of the wartime colours were NOT very UV resistant and faded to some weird shade.....the Orange canvass quickly turned to a beige tone eventually..... not to mention the dirt and grime while in service. Duffel bags inside cargo trucks would get dirty faster while the truck tarps over the cargo would totally discolor after one Summer.....CMP parts did provide for sand, OD Green, some form of Khaki....... even the OD green seat covers became dusty...bleached out...shade of green.

Did you know .... that the fungus that attacked clothing, radio wiring, etc. or often called jungle rot ......... the bacteria once isolated and reproduced........
is now manufactured and used by the industry to distress jeans and to soften the weave of heavy canvass work clothes.........

[Hanno Spoelstra]

That is very interesting, David.

Would that be (part of) the explanation why Candian webbing was more yellow/ golden than British manufactured webbing?

https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/equ...937pattern.htm