'M6 



CALENDER. 



Calender, may be of any length. The goods to be pressed be- 

 ^ irig placed between the press boards G and F, if the 

 admitting cock be opened and the discharging cock 

 shut, the under press board F will be forced up by 

 the pressure of the whole weight of the column of 

 water in the main pipe D ; which, at 33 feet height, 

 will give 15 lb pressure on every square inch. When 

 the press is to be opened, it may be done in an instant 

 by shutting the receiving and opening the dischar- 

 ging cock, which will discharge the water in the recei- 

 ver into the drain at E. The simplicity of this press, 

 and its immense power, render it one of the greatest 

 improvements which have been lately applied to the 

 practical purposes of manufacture, and where there 

 is a command of water sufficiently elevated to fill the 

 main pipe, it is wrought with no trouble or expence. 

 Indeed, the waste of water is so very small,, that the 

 quantity may be easily collected from rain in a cis- 

 tern, or may be sent up by means of a small forcing 

 pump. A well bored iron cylinder, with a close fil- 

 led piston, would be a safer and more durable receiver 

 than the leather tube represented. But from the im- 

 mense pressure, the piston would require much care 

 in the packing. 



For lawns and muslins of a light texture, the opera- 

 tion of smoothing requires a different process in some 

 respects than close heavy fabric. They only require 

 to be slightly smoothed, to remove any marks which 

 they may have received at the bleaching ; and as their 

 beauty depends rather on their transparency than 

 their closeness, the more the cylindrical form of the 

 yarn is preserved the better. They are therefore put 

 through a small machine, consisting of three rollers 

 or cylinders ; and as the power required to move this 

 is small, the person who attends it generally drives it 

 ca- by a small winch. It is represented by Fig. 7, A 

 being the frame, B the winch or handle, and the rol- 

 lers 1, 2, and 3. The mid roller 2 is of smoothly 

 turned iron, the other two of wood. It is always 

 wrought cold. Bouk and mull muslins, which are 

 finished with starch at the bleachfield to give them a 

 clear wiry appearance, receive no other finishing at 

 the calender than folding and pressing. 



In the thick fabrics of cloth, including both those 

 kinds which are used for many parts of household 

 furniture, and those for female dress, the operation 

 of glazing is used both to add to the original beauty 

 of the cloth, and ta render it more impervious to 

 dust or smoke. The glazing operation is performed 

 entirely by the friction of any smooth substance upon 

 the cloth ; and to render the gloss brighter, a small 

 quantity of bleached wiij^is previously rubbed over 

 the surface. The operation of glazing by the com- 

 mon plan is very laborious, the apparatus being of 

 the most simple kind. A representation of it is given 

 in Figs. 2. and 3. A, is a table, 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, and is generally placed 

 near a wall, as represented in the figure, both for 

 convenience in suspending the glazing apparatus, and 

 for the sake of light. A long piece of wood B, is 

 supeuded in a groove formed between two longitudi- 

 nal beams D, D, placed parallel to the wall, and fixed 

 to it,. The groove resembles exactly the aperture 



lender. 

 PLATE 



cvii i. 



Fig. 7. 





between the sheers of a common turning lath. The Calender. 

 lever B, of which the groove may be supposed to v" 1 ' 

 be the centre or fulcrum, is faced at the bottom with Glazing 

 a semicylindrical piece of finely polished flint C, table. 

 which gives the friction to the cloth stretched upon PLATE 

 the table below. Above the flint are two cross han- ^, 

 dies at B, of which the operator lays hold, and moves 3 

 them backward and forward with his hands, keeping 

 the flint pressing slightly upon the cloth. When he 

 has glazed a portion equal to the bn adth of the flint 

 C, he moves his lever between the sheers DD, and 

 glazes a fresh part : thus he proceds 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 preserve the cloth at a proper ten- 

 sion, it may be wound smoothly upon a roller or 

 beam, which being placed 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. Fig 2. a profile, 

 and Fig 3. a front elevation, will serve sufficiently to 

 illustrate this description. 



To save a great part of the labour employed in 

 glazing cloth, the common five bowl calender has 

 been recently altered to fit this purpose, and upon 

 some years trial has succeeded to the satisfaction 

 of those who use it. It is still confined to the 

 extensive calender works of the late Mr Miller 

 of Glasgow, and was the invention of the superin- 

 tendant of his works. A profile view of this ma- Glazing 

 chine will be found in Fig. 5. It consists of five alender. 

 bowls or cylinders, like the common calender, but 

 instead of those bowls revolving with a velocity in p,g. 

 the inverse ratio of their respective diameters, so as 

 always to present an equal surface, and to act merely 

 by their presure against each other ; the bowls or cy- 

 linders 2 and 4 move with greater velocity than the 

 bowls 1, 3, and 5, and thus create or generate fric- 

 tion at three several parts of the operation. This 

 difference is produced merely by the addition of a 

 few wheels ; and the difference between the common 

 and glazing calender will be seen at a single glance, 

 by comparing the wheel work of Figs. 4. and 5. In 

 Fig. 4. the motions of all the cylinders is in the in- 

 verse ratio of their diameters, so that each presents 

 an equal surface. In Fig. 5. the motion, instead of 

 being directly communicated from 3 to 2, as in Fig. 

 4. is given by the intervention of two additional 

 wheels. The increase of motion depending entirely 

 on the relative number of the teeth in the wheels B 

 and C, on the axis of the cylinders 3 and 2 to each 

 other (for the intermediate wheels E and F merely 

 communicate the motion without affecting the velo- 

 city), 3 is made to revolve considerably quicker than 

 in the common calender, and thus the necessary fric- 

 tion i created. To reduce the glazing to the com- 

 mon calender, it is only necessary to remove the 

 wheels E and F entirely, and^jto substitute a larger 

 wheel for the wheel B, which may be calculated to 

 work directly into the wheel C. The profile view 

 given in this figure affords an opportunity also of 

 shewing the way in which the cloth is conducted 

 from the table H over the roller I, through ii*e ca- 

 lender, and received again at G. This is commoE 

 2 



