INDUSTRIES 



This account does not enable us to fix the 

 date of the introduction of cylinder printing, but 

 at another place "Graham mentions that 'Charles 

 Taylor began printing at Broughton Grove, Man- 

 chester, in 1786, with 8 tables and one cylinder 

 machine, being the first set up in Manchester.' 

 If this date is correct the following words of 

 an American refugee in England, written on 

 12 June, 1780, must refer to the flat printing 

 press : — ' We arrived safely at Manchester. 

 Examined the ingenious machinery and opera- 

 tions of cahco printing.' ^^ 



These varying accounts of the early develop- 

 ment of processes in the calico-printing industry 

 are not very easily reconciled. We suggest the 

 following as a possible explanation : As in the 

 case of so many mechanical inventions in the 

 cotton industry, it seems likely that cylinder 

 printing was invented at an early period, and 

 then re-invented some twenty years later. Bell 

 may, or may not, have been aware of the patent 

 of Fryer, Greenhow and Newbery. The dis- 

 covery of cylinder printing by Robert Peel and 

 Christopher Roberts of Bury was probably 

 entirely independent of Bell's invention, or 

 even of the earlier invention of Fryer, Green- 

 how and Newbery. One is led to suppose this 

 by the knowledge that various improved pro- 

 cesses were tried at Bury, from which cylinder 

 printing gradually evolved. The fact that Peel 

 and Roberts did not patent their invention is no 

 objection, because, as they were in the trade, it 

 would pay them best to keep it secret and use it 

 themselves. Whether Bell or Roberts invented 

 cylinder printing first it is impossible to say. 



Whatever the exact part may have been which 

 the Peels took in the introduction of the calico- 

 printing industry into Lancashire and in its subse- 

 quent development there, it is certain that before 

 the end of the eighteenth century they were 

 engaged in the business on a very large scale for 

 those times. Besides their works at Brookside 

 and Church, they had taken out licences to print 

 calico at Lower House, Foxhill Bank, Ramsbottom, 

 Brinscall, and at Bury Ground. When the first 

 Sir Robert Peel retired from business his wealth 

 was estimated at two and a quarter million pounds. 

 The various print works with which he and his 

 family had been connected passed into other 

 hands — those in Rossendale to Messrs. Grant, 

 those at Church Bank to Messrs. Ford, and those 

 at Lowerhouse to Messrs. Dugdale. Between 

 1788 and 1794 the Manchester warehouse of 

 the various Peel firms, which had been situated 



"Op. cit. 357. 



^° G. A. Ward, Journ. and Letters of an American 

 Refugee in Engl, from 1775 to 1784 (New York, 

 1842) ; quoted in Earwaker's Local Gleanings, i, 259. 



in St. Ann's Square and Cannon Street, were left 

 for more commodious premises in Peel Street, 

 where they occupied Nos. 5, 6, and 10. After 

 the removal of Mr. Robert Peel, who was made 

 a baronet in 1800, to Drayton Manor, his brother, 

 Mr. Lawrence Peel, became the representative of 

 the family in Manchester, and his attendances at 

 the meetings of the Commercial Society are 

 recorded in its minutes with fair regularity .^^ 



Other well-known names associated with the 

 early commercial history of the trade, besides 

 those of Clayton and Peel, are Cobden of Sab- 

 den ; Simpson of Foxhill Bank ; Fort and Taylor 

 of Broadoak ; Hargreaves, Dugdale and Thomp- 

 son of Primrose ; Hoyle of Mayfield ; Steiner of 

 Church ; and John Mercer of Openshaw Works. 



Regarding designs, there are some well-known 

 traditions in the trade. In the first place there 

 was the parsley-leaf pattern of Messrs. Peel, and 

 the equally famous diamond pattern of Messrs. 

 Simpson of Foxhill Bank. Another well-known 

 pattern was the broom or brush pattern designed 

 by Edmund Potter. 



In connexion with the development of the 

 industry, it is noteworthy that the cylinder 

 printing machine was being successfully used all 

 over Lancashire before it was adopted in either 

 London or Scotland. It was not until the begin- 

 ning of the nineteenth century that there was a 

 cylinder machine in London, and it was still 

 later before there was one in use in Scotland. 



The year 1832 marks an important era in the 

 history of calico printing, when one of the first 

 acts of the reformed Parliament was to repeal 

 the excise duty of 3^^. per yard on calicoes. In 

 that year there were seventy-eight calico printing 

 works in England, sixty-two in Scotland, and two 

 in Ireland. Twenty years later the numbers had 

 increased to one hundred and twenty-two, eighty- 

 one, and four respectively.^'' 



The two most important recent developments 

 of the calico printing industry, the one technical 

 and the other economic, have been the discovery 

 of the coal-tar colours, and the organization of 

 the Calico Printers' Association in November, 

 1899. The association comprises, among others, 

 all the principal cahco printers of Lancashire, the 

 chief exception being F. Steiner & Co., Ltd., of 

 Church. It has a share capital of ;^6,ooo,ooo, 

 and a 4 per cent, debenture issue amounting to 

 j^3, 200,000, but it was far from being successful, 

 to judge from dividends, during the first six 

 years of its existence. 



" Elijah Helm, Hist, of the Manchester Chamber of 

 Commerce, 13. 



*' The material for writing the last paragraphs has 

 been taken from Stirling's Hist, of Calico Printing in 

 the United Kingdom, 



397 



