V. KALISTICS. 



It embraces the ornamenting and modifying of tissues, 

 such as yarns, cloths, horn, ivory, paper, leather, &c., and 

 may accordingly be divided into processes performed on textile 

 fabrics, yarn, cloth, and on sheet fabrics, paper, leather, gum- 

 elastic ; while a third division embraces the cements and var- 

 nishes employed upon those fabrics. 



1. Textile Fabrics 



Includes the preparation of fibre and dyes, the processes 

 of dyeing and calico-printing. 



1. Fibrous substances, such as cotton, wool, silk, &c. are 

 bleached and dyed of various colors, either in the crude state, 

 or as yarn, or woven into cloth. When colored uniformly, 

 throughout, they are said to be dyed ; when colored topically, 

 or according to figures and designs, they are said to be printed. 

 The term calico-printing has been applied to topical dyeing, 

 but the general term should be color-printing, since the art 

 consists in the application of colors to textile fabrics of cotton, 

 wool, silk, &c., as well as to wall-paper. 



Flax and Hemp Retting. — The process of retting, as usually 

 practised, is objectionable on many accounts ; it requires much 

 time, the putrefaction disseminates a disagreeable, and, it is 

 believed, a miasmatic odor; and it is moreover very liable to 

 be carried too far, to the injury of the fibre. Poole's method 

 (Rep. Pat. Inv. 1845) consists in the use of dilute acid to dis- 

 solve the material which glues the fibres together. A bundle 

 of flax or hemp is saturated with water and exposed to the air 

 for 8-9 hours, then again saturated towards evening and ex- 

 posed for the night. The following morning it is put into a vat 

 containing sulphuric acid diluted with 200 pts. water for hemp 



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