From rug history

During the war every mill was largely converted to making blankets or duck for the Army and Navy.

By the beginning of 1945, the industry had produced enough duck a yard wide to go three and a half times around the globe and more than ten million blankets.

One company alone became the largest manu­facturer of woolen blankets in the world. Their machine shops produced parts for guns and ships and planes, and even had a small finger in the atomic bomb.