4 Dr. Thomas Thomson on [Jan. 



not with dye-stuffs, but with substances which have the 

 property of absorbing (fixing) colours. These applications 

 are not visible upon the cloth ; but, when the pieces are 

 dipt into a hot caldron containing the dye, they are drawn 

 out an instant after, dyed. The remarkable circumstance 

 is, that though there be only one dye in the vat, yet dif- 

 ferent colours appear on the cloth ; nor can the colours be 

 again removed." # That this description of Pliny applies 

 to calico-printing, will be evident to every person who will 

 take the trouble to read the account of the processes which 

 we are going to give. 



The colours applied to calico in India, are beautiful and 

 fast. The variety of their patterns, and the great number 

 of colours which they understood how to fix on diffe- 

 rent parts of the cloth, gave to their printed calicoes a 

 richness and a value of no ordinary kind. But, their pro- 

 cesses are so tedious, and their machinery so clumsy, and 

 they could be employed only where labour is so cheap 

 as to be scarcely any object to the manufacturer. It is 

 little more than a century and a half since calico-printing 

 was transferred from India to Europe, and little more than 

 a century since it began to be understood in Great Britain . 

 The European nations who have made the greatest progress 

 in it, are Switzerland, France, especially in Alsace, some 

 parts of Germany, Belgium, and Great Britain. 



In Europe, the art has been in some measure created 

 anew. By the application of machinery, and by the light 

 thrown on the processes by the rapid improvements in 

 chemistry, the tedious methods of the Indians have been 

 wonderfully simplified ; while the processes are remarkable 

 for the rapidity with which they are executed, and for the 

 beauty and variety and fastness of the colours. 



I propose in this paper to give a sketch of the diffe- 

 rent processes of calico-printing, such as they are at present 

 practised by the most skillful printers in Lancashire, and in 

 the neighbourhood of Glasgow .f 



* Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv. c. 11. 



t I think it right to state, that for all my knowledge of Calico-Printing, I am 

 indebted to my friend, Mr. Walter Crum, Calico-Printer, in the neighbourhood 

 of Glasgow. With a liberality, for which I feel greatly indebted to him, he has 

 explained his processes to me without mystery or reserve. 



