21G 
Ordinary Meeting, March 6th, 1860. 
Thomas Hopkins, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
A Paper was read by John Graham, Esq., F.C.S., &c., 
“ On the History of Invention as applied to the Dyeing and 
Printing of Fabrics, Part 1st, Chemistry.” 
The Author stated that the elements of a history of the 
printing of fabrics exist in considerable abundance, but at 
present they are in a very scattered form. Up to this time 
the existence had been established of no less than two hundred 
and fifty works or treatises on the subject, in different 
languages, in Latin, Italian, German, French, and English. 
The most of these are accessible, and many are to be found 
in the British Museum. The authentic records of the 
Patent Office furnish, also, a rich mine for the historian. 
Few, on the first consideration, would be prepared to learn 
that there are existing no fewer than nearly twelve hundred 
specifications of inventions strictly bearing upon the subject. 
And there is, lastly, tradition, from which much of an 
interesting character may be expected. Although the field 
of tradition becomes more and more contracted every year, 
we may still expect some good fruit from its immediate 
cultivation. Some traditions are of great antiquity, the 
knowledge of them very widely spread, and of great 
interest. For example, a tradition exists in Holland, in 
France, and the Author had heard of it also from the late 
Mr. James Thomson, of Clitheroe, namely, that the art of 
printing books was derived from that of printing of fabrics. 
It is stated that the first printing of fabrics in Europe was 
practised by the Dutch at Leyden, and that their knowledge 
of the art was derived from the East. 'I’he patterns of the 
Dutch were said to be scriptural subjects, with mottoes, cut 
upon wood, and impressed upon linen. Tradition goes on 
PuocEEDiNGS— L it. & Piiii,. Society— No. 11.— Session, 18o9-60. 
