CALICO-PRINTING 



587 



east-iron framework, with their planes at right angles to each other, so that each of 

 them may, in succession, bo brought to bear upon the face, top, and back of a square 

 prism of iron covered with cloth, and fitted to revolve upon an axis between the said 

 blocks. The calico passes between the prism and the engraved blocks, and receives 

 successive impressions from them as it is successively drawn through by a winding 

 cylinder. The blocks are pressed against the calico through the agency of springs, 

 which imitate the elastic pressure of the workman's hand. Each block receives a 

 coat of coloured paste from a woollen surface, smeared after every contact with a 

 mechanical brush. One man, with one or two children for superintending the colour- 

 giving surfaces, can turn off about 30 pieces English per day, in three colours, which 

 is the work of fully 20 men and 20 children in block-printing by hand. It executes 

 some styles of work to which the cylinder machine, without the surface roller, is 

 inadequate. 



The annexed cuts are taken from the ' Traite de 1'Impression des Tissus,' of M. 

 Persoz. 



Fig. 329 is a vertical section, and. fig. 330 an elevation. 



A cast-iron framework. B B B cast-iron tables, planed smooth, over which circulate 

 the blanket, the backcloth, and the piece that is printed ; c c c sliding pieces, to which 

 the block holders 3, are screwed, and causing the engraved blocks, 2, to move alternately 



329 



against the woollen surface, from which they receive the colours and the stuff to be 

 printed, by the action of the arms 4 and 5, the supports of which, 6, rest on the frame 

 A, and which act, through the medium of connecting rods, on the beams, 7, keyed to 

 the slides c. The lower of these slides, being in a vertical position, takes by its own 

 weight a retrograde movement, regulated by a counterweight. EBB are moveable 

 colour-sieves, keyed to connecting rods, and receiving from the power applied to the 

 machine the kind of movement which they require. These sieves, which are flat, 

 and covered with cloth on the surface opposite to the blocks, slide in grooves on the 

 sides of the tables, and receive from the furnished rollers the colours which they 

 afterwards transmit to the blocks. F F F are the colour-troughs filled with colour, 

 and furnished each with two rollers 8 and 10, the last of which, dipping into the 

 troughs, are charged with colour, which they communicate to the roller 8, the latter 

 being covered with woollen cloth ; and these in their turn transmit their colour to the 

 sieves K, on which it is spread by the fixed brushes, 9. As it is important to bo able 

 fo vary at pleasure the quantity of colour supplied to the sieves, and consequently to 

 ttio blocks, the rollers, 10, are in connection with levers, 11, which, by means of 



