Printing of Woven Fabrics . 305 
face of this yielding mass was a piece of woollen cloth 
stretched tightly over a hoop. A pot of the requisite colour 
stood at the side, and the attendant, or “tearer,’ as he 
was called, with a flat brush smeared the hooped woollen 
sieve with the colour. The printer was furnished with a 
“block,” corresponding in length and width with the 
pattern to be printed, the face of which was cut in relief, as 
are the blocks used now in printing wood-cuts. By dipping 
lightly the block in the sieve, floating on the yielding 
surface, it took up enough of the colour to make an impres- 
sion on the cloth. The cloth being drawn tightly over the 
table, presented a smooth surface, upon which, by repeated 
applications of the block, its pattern was produced and re- 
produced indefinitely, the “ tearer”” smearing the sieve with 
fresh colour in each interval. The printer was guided in 
placing his block by a minute pin insertedat a corner of his 
block. The cloth on the surface of the table being printed, 
it was wound up over rollers traversing the room on racks, 
so that when it came back by the series of rollers to the 
end of the table, it was wound perfectly dry upon a shaft, 
from which it was taken to be “ lived” or “raised.” | 
This is, in brief, the modus operandi of block printing in 
its simplest form. It will be seen that several applications 
of the block were required to cover one single transverse 
section of the fabric, and many repeated applications to 
print a full web of thirty or forty yards in length. Some- 
times the ground itself was applied by blocks. In such a. 
case, the figure was first printed with the block cut in re- 
lief, and then the fabric was reprinted with a block cut in 
intaglio, the figure being sunk into its surface, and the sur- 
face itself being faced with woollen or felt, to convey a large 
portion of the colouring matter. Another style was that of 
printing several colours or shades at once by means of an 
apparatus which fed different colours at the same time. 
Technically this was termed a “ hokey- pokey” tub. The 
deposition of the colours, held in reservoirs, was effected by 
the pressure of the block, in dipping, acting upon com-. 
pressed air. 
This block printing is still employed in the printing of 
silk handkerchiefs, each one of which is a single pattern, 
and largely in the printing of floor and table oilcloths. In 
the latter case the colouring matter is not a dye but a paint, 
and i is deposited mainly on the surface of the fabric. _ 
~ Machine printing by means of engraved copper rollers, 
has now taken the place of block printing.. When machine 
