CALICO-PHINTING- 



597 



in passing between the cylinders is stretched laterally from the central line of the -web, 

 the figures engraved upon the cylinders must be proportionately shortened, in their 

 lateral dimensions, especially for the first and second cylinders. 



Cylinder printing, although a Scotch invention, has received its wonderful deve- 

 lopment in England, and does the greatest honour to this country. The economy of 

 labour introduced by these machines is truly marvellous ; one of them, under the 

 guidance of a man, to regulate the rollers, and the service of two boys, to supply the 

 colour-troughs, &c., being capable of printing as many pieces as nearly 200 men and 

 boys could do with blocks. 



Pieces for printing by machine are stitched together end to end, in bundles con- 

 taining from 20 to 40 pieces. This was formerly done by girls, but they are now 

 more economically employed in tending stitching machines. Perhaps the original 

 stitching machine employed in print-works is that shown mfig. 339. It is still used 

 in dyehouses, where pieces are temporarily stitched together to enable them to 

 undergo various dyehouse operations, and where rapid unstitching is of consequence, 

 which is easily performed by unloosing the ends of the thread and pulling it straight 

 out. 



339 



This machine was the invention of Charles Morey, in 1849. A pair of wheels are 

 fitted with leaves on their peripheries, and gear into one another like cog-wheels. 

 These wheels are mounted in suitable bearings fixed to a sole plate, and receive 

 rotatory motion by means of a winch-handle. The centre of the teeth of both wheels 

 is cut away, so as to form a circular groove between the two teeth which happen to 

 be together. Opposite to this groove, and attached to the frame, there is a bracket which 

 carries a sliding piece, with a spiral spring wrapped round it. In the end of the 

 sliding piece, which passes through the bracket, there is a receptacle for the eye-end 

 of a needle, the point of which rests in the groove formed by the wheel ; the needle is 

 threaded, and the fabric to be stitched placed behind the wheels, to which rotatory 

 motion is communicated, whereby the fabric is successively folded into undulations, 

 which, as the operation proceeds, are forced on the point of the needle ; when the 

 needle is full, and the piece at the other side of the wheels, the needle is pushed back 

 on the spring, removed from the machine, and the thread drawn through the pieces, 

 which are then basted or stitched together. This is a very rapid mode of stitching 

 ends of pieces together ; but where a number of pieces are stitched end to end for the 

 purpose of being put through several operations without unstitching, a firmer descrip- 

 tion of stitching is required, and a machine of more elaborate construction is used. A 

 machine invented in America, and hence called the American Machine, was for a long 

 time used. In this machine the ends of the pieces were hooked round a circular table, 

 three sets of pieces being put on at once ; the needle now traversed the inside circum- 

 ference, sewing the ends, which were then unhooked. This was found troublesome 

 and not sufficiently expeditious, and afterwards a modification of the Wilcox and 

 Gibbs sewing-machine was introduced. This is being rapidly superseded by a very 

 beautiful machine invented by William Birch, of Manchester (Jig. 340). It is not 

 within the scope of this article to give a satisfactory description of the details of this 

 machine ; in general terms, we may say that it makes the common flat chain-stitch, 

 which is easily drawn out again when required. It is simple in its working, and is so 



