576 CALICO-PRINTING 



table is mounted with a thick stout cover of level and well-smoothed wood, forming 

 an inclined plane ; that side where the operator stands at work being the lowest. 

 The table is generally placed near a wall, both for convenience in suspending the 

 glazing apparatus, and for the sake of light. A long piece of wood is suspended in a 

 groove formed between two longitudinal beams, placed parallel to the wall, and fixed 

 to it. The groove resembles exactly the aperture between the shears of a common 

 turning lathe. The lever, of which the groove may be supposed to be the centre or 

 fulcrum, is faced at the bottom with a semi-cylindrical piece of finely polished flint, 

 which gives the friction to the cloth stretched upon the table below. Above the 

 flint are two cross handles, of which the operator lays hold, and moves them back- 

 ward and forward with his hands, keeping the flint pressing slightly upon the cloth. 

 When he has glazed a portion equal to the breadth of the flint, he moves his lever 

 between the shears sidewise, and glazes a fresh part : thus he proceeds from one side 

 or selvage of the cloth to the other ; and when all which is upon the table is sufficiently 

 glazed, he draws it over, and exposes a new portion to the same operation. To pre- 

 serve the cloth at a proper tension, it may be wound smoothly upon a roller or beam, 

 which being set so as to revolve upon its own axis behind the table, another roller to 

 receive the cloth may be placed before, both being secured by a catch, acting in a 

 ratchet wheel. Of late years, however, a great part of the labour employed in glazing 

 cloth has been saved, as the common four or five bowl calender has been altered to 

 fit the purpose by direct pressure. 



As a matter of accommodation, the different processes of packing, cording of boxes, 

 sheeting of trunks, and, in general, all the arrangements preparatory to shipment, and 

 also the intimations, and surveys necessary for obtaining drawbacks, debentures, or 

 bounties, according to the Excise laws, are generally conducted at the calender houses 

 where goods are finished. 



CALEDONITE (from Caledonia). A cupreous sulphate-carbonate of lead found in 

 minute bluish-green crystals associated with other ores of lead at the Lead Hills 

 mines in Lanarkshire. This mineral has also been found in Cumberland, at Tanne 

 in the Hartz, at the Mine la Motte, Missouri. 



CALIBRE (Calibre, Fr. ; Calibro, It.) The bore or diameter of a gun, or the dia- 

 meter of a bullet ; it is measured in inches, and in smooth-bore guns is larger than 

 the diameter of the ball. 



CAXiXCO (from Calicut, in India). A term for any white cotton cloth, which was 

 first manufactured in, and introduced from, India. In this country we have shirting 

 calicoes, unbleached calicoes, and the like. In the United States the term is re- 

 stricted to cotton cloths having patterns printed upon them. 



C AlilCO-PRINTING is the art of producing a pattern on cotton cloth, by printing 

 in colours, or mordants, which become colours, when subsequently dyed. Calico 

 derives its name from Calicut, a town in India, formerly celebrated for its manufactures 

 of cotton cloth, and where calico was also extensively printed. Other fabrics than 

 cotton are now printed by similar means, viz. linen, silk, wool, and mixtures of wool 

 and cotton. Linen was formerly the principal fabric printed, but since modern 

 improvements have produced cotton cloth at a comparatively cheap rate, linen fabrics 

 are now sparingly used for printing, and then principally for handkerchiefs, linen 

 cloth not producing such beautiful colours, in consequence of the small affinity of flax 

 for mordants, or colouring matters. Silk printing, also, is chiefly confined to hand- 

 kerchiefs, but the printing of woollen fabrics or mousseline-de-laines is an important 

 branch of the art. The earliest mode of ornamenting cloth with designs was, no 

 doubt; by embroidery with the needle, and this mode was almost coeval with the art 

 of dyeing, which is of very remote antiquity. Herodotus mentions that Amasis, king 

 6f the Egyptians, sent to the Lacedaemonians a pectoral of linen, adorned with many 

 figures of animals, woven into the cloth, and enriched with gold and a variety of 

 colours. A .similar pectoral was taken among the spoils at the battle of Issus, and 

 presented to Alexander the Great, who wore it afterwards as part of his military 

 attire. Cloth was, however, stained in a rude manner by ancient tribes with 

 juices of plants. Herodotus mentions a Scythian tribe who stained their garments 

 with figures of animals by means of the leaves of a tree bruised with water, which 

 figures would not wash out, and lasted as long as the cloth. It is an interesting 

 speculation as to what this dye was. The garments so stained were probably woollen, 

 as in early times the outer garments were always woollen, and the particular dye 

 might have been indigo in a soluble state, as produced by fermenting the leaves with 

 water ; according to Sir William Jones, the leaves of the shrub henna, when bruised 

 in water, stain the skin or nails orange, and would doubtless do the same on woollen 

 cloth. The first record of calico-printing as an art is that of Pliny, who describes 

 the process followed by the Egyptians, who seemed to have attained a very considerable 

 degree of refinement in the art. ' Kobes and white veils,' says he, ' are painted in 



