584 CALICO-PRINTING 



at the second stamp a' b', covering a b, and d d' ; and so on, through the rest, as denoted 

 by the accented letters. When one table length is finished, he draws the cloth along, 

 so as to bring a new length in its place. 



The grounding in, or re-entering (rentragc), of the other colours is the next process. 

 The blocks used for this purpose are furnished with pin-points, so adjusted that, when 

 they are made to coincide with the pin-points of the former block, the design will be 

 correct ; that is to say, the new colour will be applied in its due place upon the flower 

 or other figure. The points should not be allowed to touch the white cloth, but should 

 be made to fall upon the stem of a leaf, or some other dark spot. 



Every colour is printed separately, the printer going all through the piece with one 

 block ; the rest of the colours are next separately fitted into their places by the appro- 

 priate blocks, and the piece is then ready for the subsequent operations for raising the 

 colours. Calico intended for printing by block is always smoothed by the calender (see 

 CALBNDEB) the object being to leave the cloth stiff, so as to facilitate the printer joining 

 the different block impressions. When pieces that have been printed by machine are 

 required to have other colours inserted by block, as for instance, the grounding-in of 

 blues, yellows, greens, &c., after printing and dyeing in madder colours, the same sort 

 of process is adopted, the pieces being dried and calendered, and then printed by blocks 

 technically termed grounds ; these grounds are cut from sketches or tracings, taken 

 from the dyed piece when calendered, and, consequently, fit accurately those parts 

 which are intended to be blocked. The grounding-in of colours, after the operations of 

 dyeing, was formerly done by pencils, which were merely small thin pieces of wood, 

 which were dipped in the colour, and the necessary portions of the patterns, such as 

 leaves, &c., painted in by hand. Of course, this method soon gave way to blocks ; but 

 the use of these pencils was continued down to a comparatively recent period for certain 

 colours, such as pencil-Mice, which being a solution of reduced indigo, was too speedily 

 oxidised when spread on the sieve, and required instantapplication of the pencil. Even 

 this colour was eventually applied by block, by a peculiar kind of sieve. 



Of late years the tedious hand labour of cutting or coppering blocks has been much 

 reduced .by stereotyping ; when the pattern has several repeats on the block, a cast- 

 ing in type-metal being made of the pattern, and as many of these as requisite arranged 

 on a plain block, and securely nailed down. It is obvious that the matrix once made, 

 an infinite number of castings can be easily produced ; the skilled labourer is therefore 

 reduced to a small portion of what was formerly requisite. The ordinary way of 

 making the mould is to draw or trace on a small block of pear tree (sawn across the 

 grain, so that, the pattern is put on the end of the grain), the pattern to be typed. Slips 

 of copper of varying thickness, but uniform width, are then driven down to a certain 

 distance in the wood, just as in the ordinary way of coppering blocks. When the 

 pattern is thus completed, the slips are pulled out, of course leaving the pattern in- 

 dented in the wood ; the block is now rubbed with chalk, and a border about j^th of an 

 inch deep of card nailed round the block. Melted type-metal is now run in level with 

 the top of the card, and when cold, a tap with a hammer on the under side of the block 

 easily detaches the type, which requires very little trimming to be ready for putting 

 on the block ; when a number of these are arranged on a block, the surface is filed and 

 ground on a stone till perfectly level. The introduction of Burch's patent typing 

 machine still further simplified the stereotyping process. In this beautiful invention 

 the matrix is formed by steel punches of varying shapes, which are moved up and 

 down by a stirrup and lever, and which are kept heated, by a gas flame ingeniously 

 applied, to the temperature sufficient to char wood, and by moving the block about 

 under these punches and depressing them, the pattern is burnt into the wood to a 

 uniform depth, and the labour of cutting and bending slips of copper, &c., done away 

 with. 



There are some interesting modifications of block-printing apparatus which may be 

 hero described. In 1834, Mr. Hudson, of the Gale Print Works, near Rochdale, patented 

 a mechanical teerer which was to dispense with the labour of children. The contri- 

 vance consists in a travelling endless web, moved by power, which by passing pro- 

 gressively from the colour vat over the diaphragm, brings forward continuously an 

 equable supply of the coloured paste for the workmen's block. 



Fig. 326 represents the construction of this ingenious apparatus, shown partly in 

 section, a a is a vessel of iron, supported upon wooden standards, b b, over the 

 upper surface of which vessel a sheet or diaphragm, c c, of oiled cloth, or other 

 euitable elastic material, is distended, and made fast at its edges by being bent over 

 a flange, and packed or cemented, to render the joints water-tight. A vertical pipe d 

 is intended to conduct water to the interior of the vessel a, and, by a small elevation 

 of the column, to create such upward pressure as shall give to the diaphragm a slight 

 bulge like the swimming tub. 



An endless web, e e, passing over the surface of the diaphragm, is distended over 



