164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that of flax and hemp is cylindrical ; then, too, cotton is more readily 

 bleached than hemp or flax. The manufacture of calico came, as the 

 name implies, from India ; and the first printed textures thence brought 

 to Europe were very coarsely printed, with figures in black, red, or blue, 

 the colors being dull, but very fast. Imitation calico was first manufac- 

 tured at Bordeaux, and from that city the industry passed over into 

 Switzerland and Germany, with the Protestants who were driven from 

 France by the dragonnades of Louis XIV. It quickly attained excep- 

 tional importance at Neufchatel and at Miihlhausen, which then be- 

 longed to Switzerland ; but it is in Alsace that it has made most prog- 

 ress, and taken the lead of all other industries. 



Chaptal, the famous Minister of Commerce under Napoleon I., said 

 that the manufacture of calico is the most difficult of industries, for it 

 requires most capital, most patience, the longest training, and the 

 largest amount of good sense and intelligence. Chaptal was in the 

 right ; for all the great manufacturers of cotton-prints take rank 

 among men of note. I need only cite a few names. In Switzerland 

 we have our Dupasquiers, Bovets, and Verdans ; France has her 

 Haussmanns, Schlumbergers, Koechlins, and Dolfus ; and this roll is 

 sufficient to show the justice of Chaptal's assertion. Every year, every 

 day, has witnessed some new improvement in the manufacture of calico ; 

 the dull colors of former times have been superseded by a series of 

 novel shades, and coarse patterns have given way before artistic de- 

 signs which may well compare with the finest designs on paper. 



The fixation of colors was the result of chance, aided more or less 

 by the manufacturer's experience, which was not unfrequently non- 

 plussed by a change of the atmosphere, or by a variation in the quality 

 of the drugs employed. In such a state of things, which threatened 

 to ruin the manufacture, recourse was had to science, and the dyers 

 became chemists and physicists. But then the charm was broken : 

 there was no more chance, no more tentative ; the fabrication of 

 printed tissues was now a science, and soon, in addition to liquid dyes, 

 we had our dye-stuffs in the shape of vapor, which yield brilliant tints 

 indeed, but not very stable. Finally, besides cotton fabrics, we began 

 to print textures of silk and of wool, or of mixed wool, silk, and cot- 

 ton, which have given rise to an entirely new class of tissues called 

 chalys or bareges, when they contain wool and silk, and cotton Avarp 

 when they are comprised of cotton and wool. 



In order to form some idea of the cotton industry, let us go back 

 to the gathering-in of the crop. The cotton-wool, when it starts from 

 the pod, contains three times its own weight in large oily seeds. 

 These are separated from the cotton by means of machines which are 

 in fact cards, and which seize the cotton, suffering the seeds to drop 

 out. During this process the seeds will be more or less crushed, and 

 give out an oil, which is absorbed by the cotton. If, now, there flows 

 in a current of hot air, the cotton takes fire. This is the cause of the 



