621 



CALICO-PRINTING. 



CALICO-PRINTING. 



22 



by the madder copper. An example will illustrate the mode of pro- 

 cedure. The goods are to be padded in the following mordant at a 

 specific gravity of 1-047. In 30 gallons of boiling water dissolve 

 30 Ibs. of alum, 5 Ibs. of dry carbonate of soda, and 1 5 Ibs. of acetate 

 of lead. After mixture and subsidence, draw off the supernatant 

 acetate of alumina. After being padded, the goods are to be dried 

 over the hot flue, and, after being hung up three days, they are to be 

 washed in chalky water at 133 Fahr., then rinsed in clear water and 

 dried. The goods should be smoothed by the calender before being 

 printed. A mordant for steam-colour may be thus prepared Dissolve 

 in 7 gallons of boiling water 10 Ibs. of aluni, 5 Ibs. of acetate of 

 lead, and 20 oz. of sal ammoniac. Let the mixture settle ; decant 

 the supernatant liquor, of specific gravity 1'075; and thicken with 

 gum. Black figures are given by printing-ou the following paste. In 

 two quarts of strong decoction of logwood, thickened with 8 oz. of 

 starch, dissolve, while tepid, 2 oz. of sulphate of iron. Pour into a 

 pipkin containing 1 oz. of olive oil ; stir, and when it is cold, add 

 4 oz. of nitrate of iron containing a little acetate. 



Other colours are produced as follows. For a full-bodied red, 

 thicken 2 quarts of a strong decoction of peach-wood by boiling 

 8 oz. of starch in it; when cold, add 12 oz. of solution of nitro- 

 muriate of tin. For a steam-blue with Prussiate of iron ; dissolve 

 in one quart of water 3 oz. of oxalic acid, or 3J oz. of tartaric; 

 and in another quart dissolve 6 oz. of prussiate of potash ; mix these 

 two solutions, let them settle during twenty-four hours, decant the 

 clear supernatant liquor, and thicken it with 1^ Ib. of gum. A steam- 

 green paste is prepared by adding to the preceding blue a strong 

 decoction of Persian berries, mixed with the above aluminous mordant 

 containing sal ammoniac, and thickened; the proportions of the 

 yellow and blue pastes determine the shade of green. The super- 

 natant liquid of the blue formula contains ferrocyanic acid, con- 

 vertible, by the steam-heat and the agency of the vegetable acid, into 

 Prussian blue, which fixes on the cloths. For producing lemon- 

 yellow ; take 2 quarts of a decoction of Persian berries, made from 

 2 Iba. of berries, 2 quarts of the above mordant with sal ammoniac, 

 thickened with 3 Ibs. of gum. 



The goods, after having one or more of these or other such colours 

 printed on them with the cylinder machine, should be suspended for 

 two days in a chamber of a temperature not exceeding 88 Fahr. The 

 colours are afterwards raised and fixed by the application of dry steam ; 

 for any aqueous condensation will spoil the prints. There are five 

 kinds of apparatus for applying steam in steam-colour printing : the 

 column or cylinder ; the lantern ; the cask ; the steam-chest : and the 

 chamber. We shall content ourselves with describing the column, as 

 it ia most generally used in this country. It is a hollow cylinder of 

 copper from two to six inches in diameter, and about forty-five inches in 

 length, perforated along its whole surface with small holes about one- 

 sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and one quarter of an inch apart. To 

 the lower end of the cylinder a circular plate is soldered of about nine 

 inches diameter, which serves to prevent the cloth coiled round the 

 cylinder from falling down from it. The bottom of the hollow cylinder 

 is terminated by a tube one inch wide, which fits tight into the socket 

 of an iron chest beneath it, into whose side the steam-pipe of supply 

 enters. The water condensed from the steam is also received into that 

 chest, and may be run off by means of a stop-cock near its bottom. In 

 some cylinders the steam is admitted at the top, and the condensed 

 water is allowed to run off by a small siphon tube at the bottom. The 

 goods printed with the above bteam-colours and properly dried are 

 lapped tight round this hollow cylinder and covered exteriorly with an 

 envelope of strong cotton cloth, blanket-stuff, or flannel. The steam is 

 then let on, and continued for twenty or thirty minutes, according to 

 the nature of the dyes. The steam being stopped, the printed goods 

 are rapidly unrolled from the column while still hot, lest any conden- 

 sation of vapour should take place to stain them. 



Fifth Style. Spirit colours. These are brilliant, but fugitive ; they 

 consist generally of decoctions of dye-woods, mixed with nitrornuriate 

 or muriate of tin. The following red will serve as an example. Thicken 

 two quarts of decoction of peach wood with four ounces of starch ; dis- 

 solve in the paste while hot four ounces of alum ; add to the mixture 

 when cold four ounces of oxymuriate (perchloride) of tin, and two 

 drachms of sulphate of copper. This and similar colours are applied by 

 th two, three, or four-coloured printing-machine, and passed through a 

 drying room slightly heated. The goods are next tenderly rinsed in 

 running water : afterwards washed, and dried quickly, but with a 

 moderate heat. 



The above are the general principles and processes of calico-printing. 

 We shall now treat briefly of two or three collateral matters. 



It would scarcely be possible, if necessary, to notice all the patented 

 improvements in calico-printing, introduced within the last few years. 

 Nor would it, indeed, lie desirable ; for however they may differ in 

 detail, the leading principles remain nearly unaltered. A clever 

 chemist and there are now clever chemists in all the print-works of 

 any note will devise a new mordant for a particular colour, or a new 

 drug for a particular dye ; he may find new modes of conducting the 

 niMiiy remarkable processes incidental to the printing; the skilled 

 machinist* of Lancashire and Glasgow may invent new forms of 

 machinery ; and artistic designers may throw new beauty into the 

 designs and patterns selected ; but there are certain general points of 



resemblance in all these arrangements. There is one novelty, however, 

 which we must notice, as it drew forth an honorary medal from the 

 Society of Arts. The Society offered a premium in 1853 for " Im- 

 provements in machinery for printing calico and other fabrics, by which 

 ten or more different colours may be worked simultaneously, and with 

 accurate register." The motive for this offer was, to produce if pos- 

 sible as delicate printing by the machine as by the block method. " Of 

 late years, cylinder machines for printing cheap cotton and other 

 fabrics have attracted much attention, to the neglect of the ordinary 

 block machines, which are known to produce a superior article in point 

 of softness and artistic effect." Mr. Daltou, of the Hollingworth 

 calico print works, near Mottram, thereupon sent a paper and a model 

 to the Society, which gained for. him a silver medal, as one who had 

 responded .to the invitation sent out by the Society. He had lung 

 known the inefficiency of the iron cylinders, with their folds of lapping 

 and their endless webs, as ordinarily used. " It is of primary import- 

 ance to the attainment of a perfect impression from the engraved 

 rollers on the cloth, that the surface of such medium should be per- 

 fectly smooth and even, and should also possess sufficient softness and 

 elasticity to enable the cloth to take up the colour from the depressed 

 lines of the engraving, without being in itself permanently indented or 

 marked by the pressure. It is a matter of extreme difficulty to obtain 

 these desiderata by the usual mechanical arrangement. Numerous 

 inequalities in the texture, and slight variations in thickness, exist in 

 the newest webs ; and after being a short time subjected to the abra- 

 sive action of the machinery, accumulations of woollen particles, termed 

 in the trade ' flocking." This unevenness of surface necessarily occa- 

 sions a corresponding variation in the depth of shade produced by the 

 impression, and an omission altogether of the finer lines of the pattern." 

 This led Mr. Dalton to the use of an impression-cylinder covered with 

 an inch and a-half of gutta percha, and so arranged as to work without 

 lapping or webbing. This cylinder he calls a bowl, but it will be more 

 familiar to ordinary readers to call it a roller. He employs two wholly 

 distinct forms of apparatus for applying the rollers, first method. 

 Having prepared a gutta-percha roller, solid, elastic, smooth, and even, 

 suitable for producing a uniformity and regularity of impression, a 

 saving of power and an economy both of material and of labour, he 

 surrounds it with ten engraved cylinders (supposing there to be ten 

 colours in the design). The cylinders are pressed against the gutta- 

 percha rollers by screws and springs, each having its colour-box and 

 its spreaders. The different parts of the machine being properly 

 adjusted, the calico is brought into contact with the roller, clings to its 

 surface, and travels on as it revolves, receiving as it goes the pressure 

 of the first engraved cylinder. The elastic surface of the roller gives 

 way to the pressure sufficiently to enable the depressed lines of the 

 engraving to imprint the colours on the cloth without any consequent 

 depression remaining on the roller. The cloth travels on around the 

 roller, receiving an impression from each cylinder in turn, all falling 

 precisely in register, or on the proper places. Second method. This 

 differs very materially from the former. The machinery is in three 

 sections, each with three gutta-percha rollers. The two outer rollers 

 of each section are pressed upon the engraved cylinder by weights and 

 levers; the central one is pressed by springs and screws. The en- 

 graved copper cylinders are placed at equal distances horizontally, in 

 such way that the pressure from each roller is received by the two 

 cylinders revolving in contact with it. Thus the first and last cylinders 

 receive the pressure of one roller only each ; whereas all the others 

 receive the pressure of two rollers. The calico, unwinding from its 

 roll, travels to the first roller, where it receives the impression of 

 colour from the first cylinder ; passing on with the revolution of the 

 roller, it receives an impression of another colour from the second 

 cylinder; moving with this second cylinder, a second impression is 

 given to it by the second roller thus receiving what is technically 

 called two " nips " by each cylinder, except the first and the last. The 

 advantage sought for by this " nip " is to bring out the impression 

 more fully and forcibly on the fabric ; and in case the pressure of the 

 first roller should chance to be ineffective, the omission will be 

 rectified on its coming into contact with the second roller. Thus the 

 calico traverses the whole machine, receiving ten colours one after 

 another in its passage. In the ordinary method of cylinder calico- 

 printing, the pressure is made by each engraved cylinder against the 

 blanketed cylinder; but hi Mr. Dalton's method, the gutta-percha 

 presses against the engraved cylinder ; by which any casual variation 

 or inequality on the surface of the cloth will merely aft'ect the pressure 

 roller, without producing any injury. 



The establishments in which calico-printing is conducted are among 

 the most interesting of our scenes of industry. In those belonging 

 to the leading manufacturers there is always a chemical department, 

 comprising not only a store of all kinds of drugs and dyes required, 

 but every requisite for making experiments on the almost, number- 

 less mordants, baths, pigments, oils, acids, alkalies, &c. ; retorts, 

 sand-baths, furnaces, stills, steam-heaters, mixing vessels, crushing 

 and grinding apparatus, all are here to be seen. Then there is the 

 artistic department, in which the important matters of design and 

 pattern are treated; if it be an establishment (there are such) in 

 which the owners do not scruple to appropriate the patterns of another 

 firm, the artistic department is little other than a place where stolen 

 goods may be sophisticated to escape detection ; but in the honestly 



