I860.] Professor Calvert, on Calico- Printing. 201 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 17, 1860. 



John Webster, M.D. F.R.S. in the Chair. 



Professor F. Grace Calvert, F.R.S. 

 On the Influence of Science on the Art of Calico-Printing . 



Calico printing has partaken of the general progress of the manufac- 

 turing arts ; and this can be easily understood when it is remembered 

 that it is based upon three distinct branches of knowledge — mechanics, 

 art, and chemistry. Not being acquainted with machinery, I shall 

 not attempt to describe the various mechanical improvements and 

 machines which have been introduced ; but shall confine myself to 

 stating that ever since 1815, the period at which it was first extensively 

 applied in the printworks of Lancashire, machinery has gradually 

 supplanted hand labour, and thereby immensely decreased the cost of 

 production, at the same time that it has improved the beauty and pre- 

 cision of the results obtained. 



Pencilling and Block- Printing. — During the early part of this 

 century, the production of designs upon calico was performed by 

 means of hand-blocks, made of sycamore or peartree wood, two or 

 three inches thick, nine or ten inches long, and about nine broad. The 

 face of the block was either carved in relief into the desired pattern, 

 like ordinary woodcuts ; or the figure was formed by the insertion edge- 

 wise into the wood of narrow slips of flattened copper wire, and the 

 patterns were finished by the hand labour of women with small brushes 

 called pencillings. Owing to a strike amongst the block-printers in 

 1815, to resist the threatened introduction of machinery, great efibrts 

 were made on the part of the employers to render themselves indepen- 

 dent of hand labour ; and the result has been the gradual introduction 

 of cylinder printing. Without entering into the intricate details of 

 the steps by which the art of engraving has been carried to its present 

 high degree of perfection, I shall simply give an outline of the succes- 

 sive improvements alluded to. 



Engraving. — The first kind of roller used was made by bending a 

 sheet of copper into a cylinder, soldering the joint with silver, and then 

 engraving upon the continuous surface thus obtained. 



The second improvement consisted in producing the pattern on 

 copper cylinders obtained by casting, boring, drawing, and hammering. 

 In this case, the pattern is first engraved in intaglio upon a roller of 



