A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
CALICO-PRINTING (Impression d'Indiennes, Fr.; Zeugdruckerei, Germ.) is the art of impressing cotton cloth with topical dyes of more or less permanence. Of late years, silk and woollen fabrics have been made the subjects of a similar style of dyeing. Linens were formerly stained with various coloured designs, but since the modern improvements in the manufacture of cotton cloth, they are seldom printed, as they are both deare, and produce less beautiful work, because flax possesses less affinity than cotton for colouring matters.
This art is of very ancient date in India, and takes its English name from Calicut, a district where it has been practised with great success from time immemorial. The Egyptians, also, appear from Pliny's testimony to have practised at a remote era some of the most refined processes of topical dyeing. "Robes and white veils," says he, "are painted in Egypt in a wonderful way. They are firs imbued, not with dyes, but with dye-absorbing drugs, by which, though they seem to be unaltered, yet, when immersed for a little while in a caldron of the boiling dye-liquor, they are found to become painted. Yet, as there is only one colour in the caldron, it is marvellous to see many colours imparted to the robe, in consequence of the influence of the excipient drug. Nor can the dye be washed out. A caldron, which would of itself merely confuse the colours of cloths previously dyed, is thus made to impart several pigments from a single dyestuff, painting as it boils." The last expression, pingitque dum coquit, is perfectly graphic and descriptive of calico-printing.
The cotton chintz counterpanes of great size, called pallampoora, which have been manufactured in Madras from the earliest ages, have in like manner peculiar dye-absorbing drugs applied to them with the pencil, as also wax, to protect certain parts of the surface from the actions of the dye, and are afterwards immersed in a staining liquor, which, when wax is applied, is usually the cold indigo-vat, but without the wax is a hot liquor similar to the Egyptian. M. Koechlin Roder, of Mulhouse, brought home lately from India a rich collection of cloths in this state of preparation, which I saw in the cabinet of the Société Industrielle of that interesting emporium of calico-printing. The native implements for applying the wax and colouring bases are placed alongside of the cloths, and form a curious picture of promeval art. There is among other samples an ancient pallampoor, five French yards long, and two and a half broad, said to be the labor of Hiadoo princesses, which must have taken a lifetime to execute. The printing machinery of great Britain has begun to supersede, for these styles of work, the cheapest hand labor of India.
Calico-printing has been for several hundred years practised by the oriental methods in Asia Minor and the Levant; but it was unknown as an English art till 1697, when a small print-ground was formed upon the banks of the Thames, near Richmond, by a Frenchman - probably a refugee from his own country, in consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Some time afterwards, a considerable printing work was established at Bromley Hall, in Essex, and several others sprung up successively in Surrey, to supply the London shops with chintzes, their import from India having been prohibited by act of parliament in 1700. The silk and woollen weavers, indeed, had all along manifested the keenest hostility to the use of printed calicoes, whether brought from the East or made at home. In the year 1680 they mobbed the lndia House in revenge for some large importations then made of the chintzes of Malabar. They next induced the government, by incessant clamors, to exclude altogether the beautiful robes of Galicut from the British market. But the printed goods, imported by the English and Dutch East India companies, found their way into this country, in spite of the excessive penalties annexed to smuggling, and raised a new alarm among the manufacturing population of Spitalfields. The sapient legislators of that day, intimidated, as would appear, by the East London mobs, enacted in 1720 an absurd sumptuary law, prohibiting the wearing of all printed calicoes whatsoever, either of foreign or domestic origin, This disgraceful enaetment, worthy of the meridian of Cairo or Algiers, proved not only a death-blow to rising industry in this ingenious department of the arts, but prevented the British ladies from attiring themselves in the becoming drapery of Hindostan. After an oppressive operations of ten years, this act was repealed by a partially enlightened set of senators, who were then pleased to permit what they called British calicoes, if made of linen warp, with merely waft of the hated cotton, to be printed and worn, upon paying a duty of no less than sixpence the square yard. Under this burden, English calico-printing could not be expected to make a rapid progress. Accordingly, even so lately as the year 1750, no more than 50,000 pieces of mixed stuff were printed in Great Britain, and that chiefly in the neighborhood of London; whereas a single manufacturer, Mr. Coautes of Manchester, now-a-days will turn off nearly twenty times than quantity, and there are very many others who manufacture several hundred thousand pieces per annum. It was not till about 1766 that this art migrated into Lancashire, where it has since taken such extraordinary development; but it was only after 1774 that it began to be founded upon right principles, in consequence of the repeal of that part of the act of 1730 which required the warp to be made of linen yarn. Henceforth the printer, though still saddled with a heavy duty of 3d. the square yard, was allowed to apply his colours to a homogenous web, instead of the mixed fabric of linen and cotton substances, which differ in their affinities for dyes.
France pursued for some time a similar false policy with regard to calico-printing, but she emerged sooner from the mists of manufacturing monopoly than England. Her avowed motive was to cherish the manufacture of flax, a native product, instead of that of cotton, a raw material, for which prejudice urged that money had to be exported. Her intelligent statesmen of that day, fully seventy years ago, replied that the money expended in the purchase of cotton was the produce of French industry, beneficially unemployed, and they therefore took immediate measures to put the cotton fabrics upon a footing of equality. Meanwhile the popular prejudices became irritated to such a degree, by the project of permitting the free manufacture and sale of printed cottons,that every French town possessed of a chamber of commerce made the strongest remonstrances against it. The Roman deputies declared to the government, "that the intended measure would throw its inhabitants into despair, and make a desert of the surrounding country:" those oif Lyns said, "the news had spread terror through all its workshops:" Tours "foresaw a comotion likely to convulse the body of the state:" Amiens said "that the new law would be the grave of the manufacturing industry of France;" and Paris declared that "her merchants come forward to bathe the throne with their tears upon that insuspicious occasion."
The government persisted in carrying its truly enlightened principles into effect, and with so manifest advantage to the nation, as to warrant the inspector-general of manufactures to make, soon afterwards, the following appeal to those prejudiced bodies: - "Will any of you now deny that the fabrication of printed cottons has occasioned a vast extension of the industry of France, by giving profitable employment to a great many hands in spinning, weaving, bleaching, and printing the colours? Look only at the dyeing department, and say whether it has not done more good to France in a few years than many of your other manufactures have in a century?"
The despair of Rouen has been replaced by the most signal prosperity in the cotton trade, and especially in printed calicoes, for the manufacture of which it possesses 70 different establishments, producing upwards of a million of pieces of greater average size and price than English. In the district of the Lower Seine, round that town, there are 500 cotton factories of different kinds, which give employment to 118,000 operatives of all orders, and thus procure a comfortable livelihood to probably not less than half a million of people.
The repeal, in 1831, of the consolidated duty of 3½d. per square yard upon printed calicoes in Great Britain is one of the most judicious acts of modern legislation. By the improvements in calico-printing, dye to the modern discoveries and inventions in chemistry and mechanics, the trade had become so vast as to yield in 1890 a revenue of 2,280,000l. levied upon 8,596,000 pieces, of which, however, about three fourths were exported, with a drawback of 1,579,000l. 2,281,512 pieces were consumed in that year at home. When the expenses of collection were deducted, only 350,000 l. found their way into the exchequer, for which pitiful sum thousands of frauds and obstructions were committed against the honest manufacturer. This reduction of duty enables the consumer to get this extensive article of clothing from 50 to 80 per cent. cheaper than before, and thus places a becoming dress within the reach of thousands of handsome females in the humbler ranks of life. Printed goods which in 1795 were sold for two shillings and three-pence the yard, may be bought at present for eight-pence. In fact, a woman may now purchase the materials of a pretty gown for eight-pence. In fact, a woman may now purchase the materials of a pretty gown for two shillings. The repeal of the tax has been no less beneficial to the fair dealers, by putting an end to the contraband trade, formerly pursued to an extent equally injurious to them and the revenue. It has, moreover, emancipated a manufacture, eminently dependent upon taste, science, and dexterity, from the venal curiosity of petty excisemen, by whom private improvements, of great value to the inventor, were in perpetual jeopardy of being pirated and sold to any sordid rival. The manufacturer has now become a free agent, a master of his time, his workmen, and his apparatus; and can print at whatever hour he may receive an order; whereas he was formerly obliged to wait the convenience of the excise officer, whose province it was to measure and stamp the cloth before it could be packed, - an operation fraught with no little annoyance and delay. Under the patronage of parliament, it was easy for needy adventurers to buy printed calicoes, because they could raise such a sum by drawbacks upon the export of one lot as would go far to pay for another, and thus carry on a fraudulent system of credit, which sooner or later merged in a disastrous bankruptcy. Meanwhile the goods thus obtained were pushed off to some foreign markets, for which they were possibly not suited, or where they produced, by their forced sales, a depreciation of all similar merchandise, ruinous to the man who meant to pay for his wares.
The principles of calico-printing have been very profoundly studied by many of the French manufacturers, who generally keep a chemist, who has been educated in the Parisian schools of science, constantly at work, making experiments upon colour in a well-mounted laboratory. In that belonging to M. Daniel Koechlin, of Mulhausen, there are upwards of 3000 labelled vials, filled with chemical reagents, and specimens subservient to dyeing. The great disadvantage under which the French printers labor is the higher price they pay for cotton fabrics above that paid by the English printers. It is this circumstance alone which prevents them from becoming very formidable rivals to us in the markets of the world. M. Barbet, deputy and mayor of Rouen, in his replies to the ministerial commission of inquiry, rates the disadvantage proceeding from that cause at 2 francs per piece, or about 5 per cent. in value. IN the annual report of the Société Industrielle of Mulhausen, made in December, 1833, the number of pieces printed that year in Alsace is rated at 720,000, to which if we add 1,000,000 for the produce of the department of the Lower Seine, and 280,000 for that of St. Quentin, Lille, and the rest of France, we hall have for the total amount of this manufacture 2,000,000 of pieces, equivalent to nearly 2,400,000 pieces English; for the French piece usually measures 33½ aunes, = 41 yards nearly; and it is also considerably broader than the English pieces upon an average. It is therefore probable that the home consumption of France in printed goods is equal in quantity, and superior in value, to that of England. With regard to the comparative skill of the workmen in the two countries, M. Nicholas Koechlin, deputy of the Upper Rhine, says, that one of his foremen, who worked for a year in a printfield in Lancashire, found little or no difference between them in that respect. The English wages are considerably higher than the French. The machines for multiplying production, which for some time gave us a decided advantage, are now getting into very general use among out neighbors. In my recent visit to Mulhausen, Rouen, and their environs, I had an opportunity of seeing many printing establishments mounted with all the resources of the most refined mechanisms.
The calico-printing of this country still labors under the burden of considerable taxes upon madder and gallipoli oil, which have counteracted the prosperity of out Turkey red styles of work, and caused them to flourish at Elberfeldt, and some other places on the continent whither a good deal of the English yarns are sent to be dyed, then brought ack, and manufactured into gingjhams, checks, &c., or forwarded directly thence to our Russian customers. This fact places our fiscal laws in the same odious light as the facility of pirating printers' patterns with impunity does our chancery laws.
Before cloth can receive good figured impressions its surface must be freed from fibrous down by SINGEING, and be rendered smooth by the CALENDER. See these articles. They are next bleached, with the exception of those destined for Turkey red. See BLEACHING and MADDER. After they are bleached, dried, singed, and calendered, they are lapped round in great lenghts of several pieces, stitched endwise together, by means of an apparatus called in Manchester a candroy, which bears on its front edge a rounded iron bar, transversely grooved to the right and left from the centre, so as to spread out the web as it is drawn over it by the rotation of the lapping roller. See a figure of this bar subservient to the cylinder print-machine.
Four different methods are in use for imprinting figures upon calicoes: the first is by small wooden blocks, on whose face the design is cut, which are worked by hand; the second is by larger wood-cut blocks, places in either two or three planes, standing at right angles to each other, called a Perrotine, from the name of its inventor; the third is by flat copper plates, a method now almost obsolete; and the fourth is by a system of copper cylinders, mounted in a frame of great elegance, but no little complexity, by which two, three, four, or even five colours may be printed on in rapid succession by the mere rotation of the machine driven by the agency of steam or water. The productive powers of this printing automation are very great, amounting for some styles to a piece in the minute, or a mile of cloth in the hour. The fifth colour is commonly communicated by means of what is called a surface cylinder, covered with wooden figures in bass-relief, which, by rotation, are applied to a plane of cloth imbued with the thickened mordants.
The hand blocks are made of sycamore or pear-tree wood, or of deal faced with these woods, and are from two to three inches thick, nine or ten inches long, and five broad, with a strong box handle on the back for seizing them by. The face of the block is either carved in relief into the desired design, like an ordinary wood-cut, or the figure is formed by the insertion edgewise into the wood of narrow slips of flattened copper wire. These tiny fillets, being filed level on the one edge, are cut or bent into the proper shape, and forced into the wood by the tape of a hammer at the traced lines of the configuration. Their upper surfaces are now filed flat, and polished into one horizontal plane, for the sake of equality of impression. As the slips are of equal thickness in their whole depth, from having been made by running the wire through between the steel cylinders of a flatting mill, the lines of the figure, however much they get worn by use, are always equally broad as at first; an advantage which does not belong to wood-cutting. The interstices between the ridges thus formed are filled up with felt-stuff. Sometimes a delicate part of the design is made by the wood-cutter, and the rest by the insertion of copper slips.
The colouring matter, properly thickened, is spread with a flat brush, by a child, upon fine woollen cloth, stretched in a frame over the wax cloth head of a wooden drum or sieve, which floats inverted in a tubful of old paste, to give it elastic buoyaney. The inverted sieve drum should fit the paste tub pretty closely. The printer presses the face of the block on the drum head, so as to take up the requisite quantity of color, applies it to the surface of the calico, extended upon a flat table covered with a blanket, and then strikes the back of the block with a wooden mallet, in order to transfer the impression fully to the cloth. This is a delicate operation, requiring equal dexterity and diligence. To print a piece f cloth 25 yards long, and 30 inches broad, no less than 672 applications of a block, 9 inches long and 5 inches broad, are requisite for each color; so that if there are three colours, or three hands as the French term it, no less than 2016 applications will be necessary. The blocks have pin-points fixed into their corners, by means of which they are adjusted to their positions upon the cloth, so as to join the different parts of the design with precision. Each printer has a colour-tub placed within reach of his right hand; and for every different colour he must have a separate sieve. Many manufacturers cause their blocks to be made of three layers of wood, two of them being dead with the grain crossed to prevent warping, and the third sycamore for engraving.
The printing shop is an oblong apartment, lighted with numerous windows at each side, and having a solid table opposite to each window. The table, n. fig. 231, is formed of a strong plank of well-seasoned hard wood, mahogany, or marble, with a surface truly plane. Its length is about 6 feet, its breadth 2 feet, and its thickness 3, 4, or 5 inches. It stands on strong feet, with its top about 36 inches above the floor. At one of its ends there are two brackets c for supporting the axles of the roller x, which carries the white calico printed. The hanging rollers x are laid across joints fixed near the roof of the apartment above the printing shop, the ceiling and floor between them being open bar work, at least in the middle of the room. Their use is to facilitate the exposure, and, consequently, the frying of the printed pieces, and to prevent one figure being daubed by another. Should they come to be all filled, the remainder of the goods must be folded lightly upon the stool D.
The printer stretches a length of the piece upon his table A B, taking care to place the selvage towards himself, and one inch from the edge. He presents the block towards the end, to determine the width of its impression, and marks this line A B, by means of his square and tracing point. The spreader now besmears the cloth with the color, at the commencement, upon both sides of the sieve head; because, if not uniformly applied, the block will take it up unequally. The printer seizes the block in his right hand, and daubs it twice in different directions upon the sieve cloth, then he transfers it to the calico in the line A B, as indicated by the four points a b c d, corresponding to the four pins in the corners of the block. Having done so, he takes another daub of the color, and makes the points a b fall on c d , so as to have at the second stamp a' b', covering a b and c' d'; and so on, through the rest, as denoted by the accented letters. When one table lengths is finished, he draws the cloth along, so as to bring a new length in its place.
The grounding-in, or re-entering (rentrage), of the other colours is the next process. The blocks used for this purpose are furnished with pin-points, so adjusted that, when they are made to coincide with the pin-points of the former block, the design will be correct; that is to say, the new colour will be applied in its due place upon the flower or other figure. The points should not be allowed to touch the white cloth, but should be made to fall upon the stem of a leaf, or some other dark spot. These rentrages are of four sorts: - 1. One for the mordants, as above; 2. one for topical colours; 3. one for the application of reds; and, 4. one for the application of resist pastes or reserves. These styles have superseded the old practice of pencilling.
The Perrotine is a machine for executing block-printing by mechanical power; and it performs as much work, it is said, as 20 experts hands. I have seen its operation, in many factories in France and Beldium, in a very satisfactory manner; but I have reason to believe that there are none of them as yet in this country. Three wooden blocks, from 2½ to 3 feet long, according to the breadth of the cloth, and from 2 to 5 inches broad, faced with pear-tree wood, engraved in relief, are mounted in a powerful cast-iron frame work, with their planes at right angles to each other, so that each of them may, in succession, be brought to bear upon the face, top, and back of a square prism of iron covered with cloth, and fitted to revolve upon an acid between the said blocks. The calico passes between the prism and the engraved blocks, and receives successive impressions from them as it is successively drawn through by a winding cylinder. The blocks are pressed against the calico through the agency of springs, which imitate the elastic pressure of the workman's hand. Each block receives a coat of coloured paste from a woollen surface, smeared after every contact with a mechanical brush. One man, with one or two children for superintending the colorgiving surfaces, can turn off about 30 pieces English per day, in three colours, which is the work of fully 20 men and 20 children in block printing by hand. It executes some styles of work to which the cylinder machine, without the surface roller, is inadequate.
The copper-plate printing of calico is almost exactly the same as that used for printing engravings on paper from flat plates, and being nearly superseded by the next machine, need not be described.
The cylinder printing machine consists, as its same imports, of an engraved copper cylinder, so mounted as to revolve against another cylinder lapped in woollen cloth, and imbued with a coloured paste, from which it derives the means of communicating coloured impressions to pieces of calico passed over it. Fig. 223 will give the reader a general idea of this elegant and expeditious plan of printing. The pattern is engraved upon the surface of a hollow cylinder of copper, or sometimes gunmetal, and the cylinder is forced by pressure upon a strong iron mandrel, which serves as its turning shaft. To facilitate the transfer of the impression from the engraving to the cotton cloth, the latter is lapped round another large cylinder, rendered elastic by rolls of woollen cloth, and the engraved cylinder presses the calico against this elastic cushion, and thereby prints it as it revolves. Let A be the engraved cylinder mounted upon its mandrel, which receives rotatory motion by wheels on its end, connected with the steam or water power of the factory. B is a large iron drum or roller, turning in bearings of the end frames of the machine. Against that drum the engraved cylinder A is pressed by weights or screws; the weights acting steadily, by levers, upon its brass bearings. Round the drum B the endless web of felt or blanket stuff a a, travels in the direction of the arrow, being carried round along with the drum B, which again is turned by the friction of contact with the cylinder A. C represents a clothed wooden roller, partly plunged into the thickened colour of the trough D D. That roller is also made to bear, with a moderate force, against A, and thus receives, by friction, in some cases, a movement of rotation. But it is preferable to drive the roller C from the cylinder A, by means of a system of toothed wheels attached to their ends, so that the surface speed of the wooden or paste roller shall be somewhat greater than that of the printing cylinder, whereby the colour will be rubbed, as it were, into the engraved parts of the latter.
As the cylinder A is pressed upwards against B, it is obvious that the bearers of the trough and its roller must be attached to the bearings of the cylinder A, in order to preserve its contact with the colour-roller C. b is a sharp-edged ruler of gun-metal or steel, called the color doctor, screwed between two gun-metal stiffening bars; the edge of which wiper is slightly pressed as a tangent upon the engraved roller A. This ruler vibrates with a slow motion from side to side, or right to left, so as to exercise a delicate shaving action upon the engraved surface, as this revolves in the direction of the arrow. c is another similar sharp-edged ruler, called the lint doctor, whose office it is to remove any fibres which may have come off the calico in the act of painting, and which, if left on the engraved cylinder, would be apt to occupy some of the lines, or at least to prevent the colour from filling them all. This lint doctor is pressed very slightly upon the cylider A, and has no transverse motion.
What was stated with regard to the bearers of the colour through n, namely, that they are connected, and moved up and down together with the bearings of the cylinder A, may also e said of the bearers of the two doctors.
The working of this beautiful mechanism may now be easily comprehended. The web of calico, indicated in the figure by the letter d, is introduced or carried in along with the blanket stuff a a, in the direction of the arrow, and is moved onward by the pressure of the revolving cylinder A, so as to receive the impression of the pattern engraved on that cylinder.
Before proceeding to describe the more complex calico-machine which prints upon cloth 3, 4, or 5 colours at one operation, by the rotation of so many cylinders, I shall explain the modern methods of engraving the cylinder, which I am enabled to do by the courtesy of Mr. Locket, of Manchester, and artist of great ingenuity in this department, who politely allowed me to inspect the admirable apparatus and arrangements of his factory.
To engrave a copper cylinder 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and from 30 [[X]] 36 inches long, with the multitude of minute figures which exist in many patterns, would be a very laborious and expensive operation. The happy invention made by Mr. Jacob Perkins, in America, for transferring engravings from one surface to another by means of steel roller dies, was with great judgement applied by Mr. Locket to calico-printing, so long ago as the year 1808, before the first inventor came to Europe with the plan. The pattern is first drawn upon a scale of about 3 inches square, so that this size of figure being repeated a definite number of times, will cover the cylinder. This pattern is next engraved in intaglio upon a roller of softened steel, about 1 inch in diameter, and 3 inches long, so that it will exactly occupy its surface. The engraver aids his eye with a lens, when employed at this delicate work. This roller is hardened by heating it to a cherry-red in an iron case containing pounded bone-ash, and then plunging it into cold water; its surface being protected from oxydizement by a chalky paste. This hardened roller is put into a press of a peculiar construction, where, by a rotatory pressure, it transfers its design to a similar roller in the soft state; and as the former was in intaglio, the latter must be in relievo. This second roller being hardened, and placed in an appropriate voluntory press, is employed to engrave by indentation upon the full-sized copper cylinder the whole of its intended pattern. The first roller engraved by hand is called the die; the second, obtained from it by a process like that of a milling tool, is called the mill. y this indentation and multiplication system, an engraved cylinder may be had for seven pounds, which engraved by hand would cost fifty or upwards. The restoration of a worn-out cylinder becomes extremely easy in this way; the mill being preserved, need merely the properly rolled over the copper surface again.
At other times, the hard roller die is placed in the upper bed of screw press, not unlike that for coining, while the horizontal bed below is made to move upon strong rollers mounted in a rectangular iron frame. In the middle of that bed a smooth cake or flat disc of very soft iron, about 1 inch thick, and 3 or 4 inches in diameter, is made fast by four horizontal adjusting screws, that work in studs of the bed frame . The die being now brought down by a powerful screw, worked by toothed wheel-work, and made to press with force upon the iron cake, the bed is moved backwards and forwards, causing the roller to revolve on its axles by friction, and to impart its design to the cake. This iron disc is now case-hardened by being ignited amids horn shavings in a box, and then suddenly quenched in water, when it becomes itself a die in relievo. This disc die is fixed in the upper part of a screw press with its engraved face downwards, yet so as to be moveable horizontally by traverse screws. Beneath this inverted bed, sustained at its upper surface by friction-rollers, a copper cylinder 30 inches long, or thereby, is mounted horizontally upon a strong iron mandrel, furnished with toothed wheels at one of its ends, to communicate to it a movement upon its axis through any aliquot area f the circle. The disc die being now brought down to bear upon the copper cylinder, this is turned round through an are corresponding in length to the length of the die; and thus, by the steady downward pressure of the screw, combined with the revolution of the cylinder, the transfer of the engraving is made in intaglio. This is, I believe, the most convenient process for engraving, by transfer, the copper of one-cylinder machine. But when 2, 3, or 4 cylinders are to be engraved with the same pattern for a two, three, or four-colored machine, the die and the mill roller plan of transfer is adopted. In this case, the hardened roller die is mounted in the upper bed of the transfer press, in such a way as to be capable of rotation round its axis, and a similar roller of softened steel is similarly placed in the under bed. The rollers are now made to bear on each other by the action of the upper screw, and while in hard contact, the lower one is caused to revolve, which, carrying round the upper by friction, receives from it the figured impression in relief. When cylinders for a three-colored machine are wanted, three such mills are made fac-similes of each other; and the prominent parts of the figure which belong to the other two copper cylinders are filed off in each one respectively. Thus three differently figured mills are very readily formed, each adapted to engrave its particular figure upon a distinct copper cylinder.
Some copper cylinders for peculiar styles are not graved by indentation, as just described, but etched by a diamond point, which is moved by mechanism in the most curious variety of configurations, while the cylinder slowly revolves in a horizontal line beneath it. The result is extremely beautiful, but it would require a very elaborate set of drawings to represent the machinery by which Mr. Locket produces it. The copper is covered by a resist varnish while being heated by the transmission of steam through its axis. After being etched, it is suspended horizontally by the ends, for about five minutes, in an oblong trough charged with dilute nitric acid.
With regard to the two and three-colored machines, we must observe, that as the calico in passing between the cylinders is stretched laterally from the central line of the web, the figures engraved upon the cylinders must be proportionally shortened, in their lateral dimensions especially, for the first and second cylinder.
Cylinder printing, though a Scotch invention, has received its wonderful development in England, and does the greatest honor to this country. The economy of labor introduced by these machines is truly marvellous; one of them, under the guidance of a man to regulate the rollers, and the servive of a boy, to supply the colour troughs, being capable of printing as many pieces as nearly 200 men and boys do with blocks. The perfection of the engraving is most honorable to our artisans. The French, with all their ingenuity and neat-handedness, can produce nothing approaching in excellence to the engraved cylinders of Manchester, - a painful admission, universally made to me by every eminent manufacturer in Alsace, whom I visited in my late tour.
Another modification of cylinder printing, is that with wooden rollers cut in relief; it is called surface printing, probably because the thickened colour is applied to a tense surface of woollen cloth, from which the roller takes it up by revolving in contact with the cloth. When the copper cylinders and the wooden ones are combined in one apparatus, it has got the appropriate name of the union printing machine.
In mounting three or more cylinders in one frame, many more adjustments become necessary than those described above. The first and most important is that which ensures the correspondence between the parts of the figures in the successive printing rollers, for unless those of the second and subsequent engraved cylinders be accurately inserted into their respective places, a confused pattern would be produced upon the cloth as it advances round the pressure cylinder, B, figs. 233, 234.
Each cylinder must have a forward adjustment in the direction of rotation round its axis, so as to bring the patterns into correspondence with each other in the length of the piece; and also a lateral or traverse adjustment in the line of its axis, to effect the correspondence of the figures across the piece; and thus, by both together, each cylinder may be made to work symmetrically with its fellows.
Fig. 234 is a cross section of a four-color cylinder machine, by which the working parts are clearly illustrated.
A A A is a part of the two strong iron frames or cheeks, in which the various rollers are mounted. They are bound together by the rods and bolts a a a a.
B is the large iron pressure cylinder, which rests with its gudgeons in bearings or bushes, which can be shifted up and down in slots of the side cheeks A A. These bushes are suspended from powerful screws b, which turn in brass nuts, made fast to the top of the frame A, as in plainly shown in the figure. These screws serve to counteract the strong pressure applied beneath that cylinder, by the engraved cylinders D E.
C D E F are the four printing cylinders, named in the order of their operation. They consist of strong tubes of copper or gun-metal, forcibly thrust by a screw press upon the iron mandrels, round which as shafts they revolve.
The first and last cylinder C and F are mounted in brass bearings, which may be shifted in horizontal slots of the frame A. The pressure roller B, against whose surface they bear with a very little oliquity downwards, may be nicely adjusted to that pressure by its elevating and depressing screws. By this means C and F can be adjusted to B with geometrical precision, and made to press it in truly opposite directions.
The bearings of the cylinders D and E are lodged also in slots of the frame A, which point obliquely upwards, towards the centre of B. The pressure of these two print cylinders C and Y is produced by tw screws c and d, which work in brass nuts, made fast to the frame and very visible in the figure. The frame-work in which these bearings and screws are placed, has a curvilinear form, in order to permit the cylinders to be readily removed and replaced; and also to introduce a certain degree of elasticity. Hence the pressure applied to the cylinders c and w, partakes of the nature of a spring; a circumstance essential to their working smoothly, on account of the occasional inequalities in the thickness of the felt web and the calico.
The pressure upon the other two print cylinders D and E is produced by weights acting with levers against bearings. The bearings of D are, at each of their ends, acted upon by cylindrical rods, which slide in long tubular bosses of the frame, and press with their nuts g at their under end upon the small arms of two strong levers G, which lie on each side of the machine, and whose fulcrum is at h (in the lower corner at the left hand), The long arms of these levers G, are loaded with weights H, whereby they are made to press up against the bearings of the roller D, with any degree of force, by screwing up the nut g, and hanging on the requisite weights.
The manner in which the cylinder K is pressed up against B, is by a similar construction to that just described. With each of its bearings, there is connected by the link k, a curved lever I, whose fulcrum or centre of motion is at the bolt l. To the outer end of this lever, a screw, m, is attached, which presses downwards upon the link n, connected with the small arm of the strong lever k, whose centre of motion is at o. By turning therefore the screw m, the weight L, laid upon the end of the long arm of the lever K (of which there is one upon each side of the machine), may be made to act or not at pleasure upon the bearings of the cylinder K.
In tracing the operation of this exquisite printing machine, we shall begin with the first engraved cylinder c. Its bearings or bushes shift, as was already tated, in slots of the frame A. Each of them consists of a round piece of iron, to which the end of the screw c is joined, in the same way as at d, in the opposite side. In each of these iron bearings, a concave brass is inserted to support the collar of the shaft, and in a dovetailed slit of this brass, a sliding piece is fitted, upon which a set or adjusting screw in the iron bearing acts, and which, being forced against the copper cylinder c, serves to adjust the line of its axis, and to keep it steady between its bearings, and true in its rotatory motion. Upon the iron bearing a plate is screwed, provided with two flanges, which support the colour through q, and the colour roller M. This through, as well as the others to be mentioned presently, is made of sheet copper in the sides and bottom, and fixed upon a board; but its ends are made of plates of cast copper or gun-metal to serve as bearings to the colour roller M. The trough and its roller may be shifted both together into contact with the printing cylinder c, by means of the screw r. Near a, seen above the roller, c, and t below it, are sections of the two doctors, which keep the engraved cylinders in sound working condition; the former being the colour doctor, and the latter the lint doctor. Their ends lie in brasses, which may be adjusted by the screws u and v, working in the respective brackets, which carry their brasses, and are made fast to the iron bearings of the cylinder.
The pressure of the colour doctor is produced by two weights w, (see high up on the frame work,) which act on a pair of small levers x, (one on each side of the machine,) and thus, by means of the chains, tend to lift the arms y, attached to the end axles of the doctor. The pressure of the lint doctor upon the cylinder c, is performed by the screw x[?], pressing upon an arm which projects downwards, and is attached to the axle of that doctor.
The bearings of the second printing cylinder D, consists at each end of a mass of iron (removed in the drawing to show the mechanism below it), which shifts in the slanting slot of the frame A. In each of these masses there is another piece of iron, which slides in the transverse direction, and may be shifted by the adjusting screw a fixed to it, and working in a nut cast upon the principal bearing above described. To the inner bearings, which carry the brasses in which the shaft lies, are screwed the two curved arms b' b' to which are attached the bearings /c., for the colour trough and the doctors. In these basses there are also dovetailed pieces, which slide and are pressed by set screws furnished with square heads in the iron secondary bearings, which serve, as before said, to adjust the printing cylinder in the line of its axis, while other screws adjust the distance of the cloth upon which the second colour is printed, and the line of contact with the cylinder B.
N, is the colour roller of n, and d' the colour trough, which rests by its board upon the lever e´[?]; whose centres of motion f', are made fast to the curved arms V, fixed at the bearings of the cylinder, and whose ends are suspended by screws g´; whereby the colour roller M, may be pressed with greater or less force to the cylinder D. k' and i' are the two doctors of this cylinder; the former being the color, the latter the lint doctor. They rest, as was said of the cylinder c, in brasses which are adjustable by means of screws, that work in the studs or brackets by which the brasses are supported. These brackets must of course be screwed to the secondary bearing-pieces, in order that they may keep their position, into whatever direction the bearings may be shifted. k' and l' are there set screws for the colour and lint doctors. The pressure of the former upon the cylinder D, is produced by weights m', acting upon levers n', and pressing by rods or links o', upon arms attached to the end of the axis of the doctor. (See the left hand side of the figure near the bottom.) The lint doctor i' is pressed in a similar way at the other side upon the cylinder D, by the weights acting upon levers p', and by rods q' upon arms fixed at each end of the axis of the doctor.
The bearings of the third printing cylinder K, are of exactly the same construction as that above described, and therefore require no particular detail. The lint doctor s, is here pressed upon the engraved cylinder by screws t', working in the ends of studs or arms fixed upon each end of the axis of the doctor, and pressing upon flanges cast upon the brackets in which the brasses of the doctor's axis lie, which are made fast to the bearings of the cylinder K.
The bearings of the fourth copper cylinder F, are also constructed in a similar way. Each consists of a first bearing, to which is joined the end of the screw d, by which it is made to slide in a slot of the frame. Another bearing, which contains the brass for the shaft of the cylinder, can be shifted up and down in a transverse direction by a screw s'[?], of the second bearing, working in a nut cast upon the first bearing. To this secondary bearing, plates are made fast by the screws v' v' to the inside, to carry the studs or brackets of the doctors x' and y'. In the brasses of the cylinder shaft, dovetailed pieces are made to slide, being pressed by set screws w', against the engraved cylinder F, similar to what has been described for adjusting the cylinders to one another. This cylinder has no separate colour roller, nor trough, properly speaking, but the colour doctor y' is made concave to serve the purpose of a trough, properly speaking, but the colour doctor y' is made concave to serve the purpose of a trough in supplying the engraved lines of the cylinder with color. With this view the top plate of the doctor is curved to contain the coloured paste, and it is shut up at the ends by pieces of wood made to fit the curvature of the doctor. Its pressure against the engraved surface is produced by weights a'', acting at the ends of arms b'', attached to the ends of the axis of the doctor. The pressure of the lint doctor x' is given by screws c'', working in arms attached to the ends of the axis of the doctor, and pressing upon the flanges d'', cast upon the brackets which carry the brasses for the axis of the doctor. These brasses are themselves adjustable, like those of all the other cylinders, by set screws in the brackets, which work in the nuts formed in the brasses.
e'' e'', is the endless web of felt stuff which goes round the cylinder B, and constitutes the soft elastic surface upon which the printing cylinders C, D, E, and F exercise their pressure. This endless felt is passed over a set of rollers at a certain distance from the machine, to give opportunity for the drying up of any colouring paste which it may have imbibed from the calico in course of the impressions. In its return to the machine in the direction of the arrow, it is led over a guide roller o, which is thereby made to revolve. Upon the two ends of this, and outside of the bearings which are fixed upon the tops of the frame A, are two eccentries, one of which serves to give a vibratory traverse movement to the colour doctors g', h', and r' of the three cylinders, C, D, and E, whilst the other causes the colour doctor y' of the cylinder F, to make lateral vibrations.
Q is one of a pair of cast-iron brackets, screwed on at the back of the side-frames or cheeks A A, to carry the roller filled with white calico R, ready for the printing operations. Upon the end of the shaft whereon the calico is coiled, a pulley is fixed, over which a rope passes suspending a weight in order to produce friction, and thereby resistance to the action which tends to unwind the calico. In winding it upon that and similar rollers, the calico is smoothed and expanded in breadth by being passed over one or more grooved rods, or over a wooden bar d, fig. 235, the surface of which is covered with wire, so as to have the appearance of a united right and left-handed screw. By this device, the calico, folded or creased at any part, is stretched laterally from the centre, and made level. It the passes over the guide-roller o, where it comes upon the surface of the felt e'' e'', and thence proceeds under its guidance to the series of printing cylinders.
Three and four-color machines, similar to the above, are now at work in many establishments in Lancashire, which will turn off a piece of 28 yards per minute, each of the three or four cylinders applying its peculiar part of the pattern to the cloth as it passes along, by ceaseless rotation of the unwearied wheels. At this rate, the astonishing length of one mile of many-colored web is printed with elegant flowers and other figures in an hour. When we call to mind how much knowledge and skill are involved in this process, we may fairly consider it as the greatest achievement of chemical and mechanical science.
Before entering upon the different styles of work which constitute calico-printing, I shall treat, in the first place, of what is common to them all, namely, the thickening of the mordants and colours. This is an operation of the greatest importance towards the successful practice of the art. Several circumstances may require the consistence of the thickening to be varied; such as the nature of the mordant, its density, and its acidity. A strong acid mordant cannot be easily thickened with starch; but it may be by roasted starch, vulgarly called British gum, and by gum arabic or senegal. Some mordants which seem sufficiently inspissated with starch, liquefy in the course of a few days, and, being apt to run in the printing-on, make blotted work. In France, this evil is readily obviated by adding one ounce of spirits of wine to half a gallon of colour - a remedy which the English excise duties render too costly.
The very same mordant, when inspissated to different degrees, produces different tints in the dye-copper - a difference due to the increased bulk from the thickening substance; thus, the same mordant, thickened with starch, furnishes a darker shade than when thickened with gum. Yet there are circumstances in which the latter is preferred, because it communicates more transparency to the dyes, and because, in spite of the washing, more or less of the starch always sticks to the mordant. The gum has the inconvenience, however, of drying too speedily, and of also increasing too much the volume of the mordants; by both of which causes it obstructs their combination with the stuff, and the tints become thin or scratchy.
The substances generally employed as thickeners are the following: -
1. Wheat starch.
2. Flour.
3. Roasted starch.
4. Gum senegal.
5. Gum tragacanth.
6. Salep.
7. Pipe-clay, mixed with gum senegal.
8. Sulphate of lead.
9. Sugar.
10. Molasses.
11. Glue.
After thickening with gum, we ought to avoid adding metallic solutions in the liquid state; such as nitrate of iron, of copper, solutions of tin, of subacetate of lead, &c.; as they possess the property of coagulating gum. I shall take care to specify the nature and proportion of thickening to be employed for each color; a most important matter, hitherto neglected by English writers upon calico-printing.
The atmosphere of the printing shops should never be allowed to cool under 65° or 70°F.; and it should be heated by proper stoves in cold weather, but not rendered too dry. The temperature and moisture should therefore both be regulated with the aid of thermometers and hydrometers, as they exercise a great influence upon all the printing processes, and especially upon the combination of the mordant with the cloth. In the course of the desiccation, a portion of the acetic acid evaporated with the water, and subacetates are formed, which combine with the stuff in proportion as the solvent principle escapes; the water, as it evaporates, carries off acetic acid with it, and thereby aids the fixation of bases. These remarks are peculiarly appropriate to delicate impressions by the cylinder machine, where the printing and drying are both rapidly effected. In the lapis lazuli style, the strong mordants are apt to produce patches, being thickened with pipe-clay and gum, which obstruct the evaporation of the acids. They are therefore apt to remain, and to dissolve a portion of the mordants at their immersion in the blue vat, or at any rate in the dung bath. In such a case, a hot and humid air is indispensable, after the application of the mordants, and sometimes the stuffs so impregnated must be suspended in a damp chamber. To prevent the resist pastes becoming rapidly crusty, substances apparently useless are mixed with them, but which act beneficially by their hygrometric qualities, in retarding the desiccation. Oil also is sometimes added with that view.
It is often observed that goods printed upon the same day, and with the same mordant, exhibit inequalities in their tints. Sometimes the colour is strong and decided in one part of the piece, while it is dull and meager in another. The latter has been printed in too dry an atmosphere. In such circumstances a neutral mordant answers best, especially if the goods be dried in a hot hue, through which humid vapors are in constant circulation.
In padding, where the whole surface of the calico is imbued with mordant, the drying apartment of flue, in which a great many pieces are exposed at once, should be so constructed as to afford a ready outlet to the aqueous and acid exhalations. The cloth ought to be introduced into it in a distended state; because the acetic acid may accumulate in the foldings, and dissolve out the earthy or metallic base of the mordant, causing white and gray spots in such parts of the printed goods. Fans may be employed with great advantage, combined with HOT FLUES. (See this article.)
In the colour laboratory, all the decoctions requisite for the print work should be ready prepared. They are best made by a steam heat, by means of copper boilers of a cylindric form, rounded at the bottom, and encased within a cast-iron cylinder, the steam being supplied to the space between the two vessels, and the dyes-stuff and water being introduced into the interior one, which for some delicate purposes may be made of tin, or copper tinned inside. A range of such steam apparatus should be placed either along one of the side walls, or in the middle line of the laboratory. Proper tables, drawers, vials, with chemical reagents, measures, balances, &c., should also be provided. The most useful dye-extracts are the following: -
Decoction of logwood, of Brazil-wood, of Persian berries, of quercitron bark, of nutgalls, of old fustic, or archil or cutbear, of cochineal, of cochineal with ammonia, of catechu.
The following mordants should also be kept ready prepared: -
1. Aluminous mordant.
Take 50 gallons of boiling water.
100 lbs. of alum.
10 lbs. of soda crystals.
75 lbs. of acetate of lead.
The soda should be added slowly to the solution of the alum in the water, and when the effervescence is finished, the pulverized acetate of lead is put in and well stirred about till it be all dissolved and decomposed. During the cooling, the mixture should be raked up a few times, and then allowed to settle. The supernatant liquor is the mordant; it has a density of 11° or 11½° Baumé. It serves for red and pinks, and enters into the composition of puce and lilac.
2. Aluminous mordant.
Take 50 gallons of water.
100 lbs. of alum.
10 lbs. of soda crystals.
100 lbs. of acetate of lead; - operate as above directed.
The supernatant liquor here has a density of 12° Baumé; it is employed for lapis resists or reserves, and the cylinder printing of madder reds.
3. Aluminous mordant.
Take 50 gallons of water.
100 lbs of alum.
6 lbs. of soda crystals.
50 lbs. of acetate of lead; - operate as above directed.
This mordant is employed for uniform yellow grounds.
4. Aluminous mordant.
This is made by adding potash to a solution of alum, till its earth begins to be separated, then boiling the mixture to precipitate the subsulphate of alumina, which is to be strained upon a filter, and dissolved in acetic acid of moderate strength with the aid of heat. This mordant is very rich in alumina, and marks 20° B.
5. Aluminous mordant.
Take 12½ gallons of water.
100 lbs. of alum.
150 lbs. of liquid pyrolignite of lime at 11½° Baumé.
This mordant is made with heat like the first; after cooling, some alum crystallizes, and it marks only 12½° B.
A mordant is made by solution of alum in potash, commonly called--
6. Aluminate of potash. The caustic ley is prepared by boiling together for an hour 100 gallons of water, 200 lbs. of potash, and 80 lbs. of quicklime; the mixture is then allowed to settle, the supernatant liquor is decanted, and evaporated till its density be 35° B. In 30 gallons of that ley at a boiling heat, 100 lbs. of ground alum are to be dissolved. On cooling, crystals of sulphate of potash separate. The clear liquor is to be decanted off, and the crystals being washed with a little water, this is to be added to the ley. About 33 gallons of mordant should be obtained.
Mordant for Black.
The pyrolignite of iron, called iron liquor in this country, is the only mordant used in calico-printing for black, violet, puce, and brown colours. The acetate of alumina, prepared from pyroligneous acid, is much used by the calico-printers under the name of red or yellow liquor, being employed for these dyes.
We may observe that a strong mordant, like No. 2, does not keep so well as one of mean density, such as No. 1. Too much mordant relatively to the demands of the works would therefore not be made at a time.
There are eight different styles of calico-printing, each requiring different methods of manipulation, and peculiar processes.
1. The madder style, to which the best chintzes belong, in which the mordants are applied to the white cloth with many precautions, and the colours are afterwards brought up in the dye-bath. These constitute permanent prints.
2. The padding or plaquage style, in which the whole surface of the calico is imbued with a mordant, upon which afterwards different coloured figures may be raised, by the topical application of other mordants joined to the action of the dye-bath.
3. The reserve style, where the white cloth is impressed with figures in resist paste, and is afterward subjected first to a cold dye, as the indigo vat, and then to a hot dyebath, with the effect of producing white or coloured spots upon a blue ground.
4. The discharge or rougeant style, in which thickened acidulous matter, either pure or mixed with mordants, is imprinted in certain points upon the cloth, which is afterwards padded with a dark-colored mordant, and then dyed, with the effect of showing bright figures on a darkish ground.
5. China blues; a style resembling blue stone-ware, which requires very peculiar treatment.
6. The decoloring of enlevage style; by the topical application of chlorine or chromic acid to dyed goods. This is sometimes called a discharge.
7. Steam colours; a style in which a mixture of dye extracts and mordants is topically applied to calico, while the chemical reaction which fixes the colours to the fibre is produced by steam.
8. Spirit colours; produced by a mixture of dye extracts, and solution of tin, vulgarly called spirit by dyers. These colours are brilliant but fugitive.
I. The madder style; called by some dip colours. The true chintz patterns belong to it; they have from 5 to 7 colours, several of which are grounded-in after the first dye has been given in the madder bath.
In dyeing with madder, sumach, fustic, or quercitron, is sometimes added to the bath, in order to produce a variety of tints with the various mordants at one operation.
1. Suppose we wish to produce flowers or figures of any kind containing red, purple, and black colours, we may apply the three mordants at once, by the three-color cylinder machine, putting into the first trough acetate of alumina thickened; into the second, acetate of iron; and into the third, a mixture of the two; then drying in the air for a few days to fix the iron; and into the third, a mixture of the two; then drying in the air for a few days to fix the iron, dunging and dyeing up in a bath of madder and sumach. If we wish to procure the finest madder reds and pinks, besides the purple and black, we must apply at first only the acetate of alumina of two densities, by two cylinders, dry, dung and dye up, in a madder bath. The mordants of iron liquor for the black, and of iron liquor mixed with the aluminous for purple, must be now grounded-in by blocks, taking are to insert these mordants into their precise spots: the goods being then dried with airing for several days, and next dunged, are dyed up in a bath of madder and sumach. They must be afterwards cleared by branning. See BRAN, DUNGING, and MADDER.
2. Suppose we wish to produce yellow with red, pink, purple, and black; in this case the second dye-bath should contain quercitron or fustic, and the spots intended to be yellow should receive the acetate of alumina mordant.
3. The mordant for a full red may be acetate of alumina, of spec. grav. 1*055, thickened with starch, and tinged with Brazil-wood; that for a pale red or pink, the same at spec. gravity 1*014, thickened with gum; that for a middling red, the same at spec. gravity 1*027, thickened with British gum; and for distinction's sake, it may be tinged yellow with Persian berries. The mordant for black is a pyroligneous acetate of iron, of specific gravity 1*04; for purple the same, diluted with six times its volume of water; for chocolate, that iron liquor mixed with acetate of alumina, in various proportions according to the shade wanted. Sumach is mixed with the madder for all these colours except for the purple. The quantity of madder required varies according to the body of colour to be put upon the cloth, being from one pound per piece to three or even four. The goods must be entered when the copper is cool, be gradually heated during two or three hours, up to ebullition, and sometimes boiled for a quarter of an hour; the pieces being all the while turned with a wince from the one side of the copper to the other. (See WINCE.) They are then washed and boiled in bran and water for ten or fifteen minutes. When there is much white ground in the chints, they must be branned in a second or even a third time, with alternate washing in the dash-wheel. To complete the purification of the white, they are spread upon the grass for a few days; or what is more expeditions, and equally good if delicately managed, they are winced for a few minutes in a weak solution of chloride of lime.
4. In the grounding-in for yellow, after madder reds, the aluminous mordant being applied, &c., the piece is dyed, for about an hour, with one pound of quercitron bark, the infusion being gradually heated to 150° or 160°, but not higher.
5. A yellow is sometimes applied in chints work after the other colours are dyed, by means of a decoction of Persian berries mixed with the aluminous mordant, thickened with flour or gum, and printed on with the block; the piece, when dry, is passed through a weak carbonated alkaline water, or lime water, then washed and dried for the market.
6. Black mordant. - Take half a gallon of acetate of iron, of spec. grav. 1*04, 4 ounces of starch, and 4 ounces of flour. The starch must first be moistened with the acetate, then the flour must be added, the rest of the acetate well mixed with both, and the whole made to boil over a brisk fire for five minutes, stirring meanwhile to prevent adhesion to the bottom of the pot. The colour must be poured into an earthen pipkin, and well mixed with half an ounce of gallipoli oil. In general, all the mordants, thickened with starch and flour, must be boiled for a few minutes. With British gum or common gum, they must be heated to 160° F., or thereby, for the purpose merely of dissolving them. The latter should be passed through a sieve to separate the impurities often present in common gum.
7. Puce mordant. - Take a quart of acetate of alumina and acetate of iron, each of spec. grav. 1.01, mixed and thickened like the black, No. 6. To give the puce a reddish tinge, the acetate of alumina should have a specific gravity of 1.048, and the iron liquor only 1.007.
Red mordants are thickened with British gum, and are sufficiently coloured with the addition of any tinging decoction.
8. Violet mordants. - These consist either of a very weak solution of acetate of iron, of specific gravity 1.007, for example; or of a little of the stronger acetate of 1.04, mixed with acetate of alumina, and a little acetate of copper, thickened with starch or British gum. The shades may be indefinitely varied by varying the proportions of the acetates.
When black is one of the colours wanted, its mordant is very commonly printed on first, and the goods are then hung upon poles in the drying-room, where they are aired for a few days, in order to fix the iron by its peroxidizement; the mordants for red, violet, & c., are then grounded in, and the pieces are dyed up, after dunging and washing, in the madder bath, into which, for certain shades, sumach, galls, or fustic is added. The goods are brightened with a boil in soap water; occasionally also in a bath, containing a small quantity of solution of tin or common salt. The following mode of brightening is much extolled by the French, who are famous for their reds and roses.
1. A soap boil of forty minutes, at the rate of 1 pound for every 2 pieces. Rinse in clear water.
2. Pass through chloride of soda solution of such strength that two parts of it decolour one part of Gay Lussac's test liquor. See CHLORIDE OF LIME and INDIGO. Wince the pieces trough it for 40 minutes. Rinse again.
3. Pass it again through the soap bath, No. 1.
4. Brighten it in a large bath of boiling water, containing 4 pounds of soap, and 1 pound of a cream-consistenced salt of tin, containing nearly half its weight of the muriate of tin, combined with as much nitric acid of spec. grav. 1.2888. This strong nitro-muriate having been diluted with a little water, is to be slowly poured into the bath of soap water, and well mixed by stirring. The pieces are now put in, and winced through it for one half or three quarters of an hour.
5. Repeat the soap boil, No. 1. Rinse and dry.
9. Grounding in of Indigo blue.
Take half of a gallon of water of 120° F., 8 ounces of ground indigo, and 8 ounces of red sulphuret of arsenic (orpiment), 8 ounces of quicklime, mix together, and heat the mixture to the boiling point; withdraw from the fire, and add, when it is lukewarm, 6 ounces of carbonate of soda, stir and leave the whole at rest till the next day. Then decant the clear liquor, and thicken every quart of it with half a pound of gum. This colour ought to be green, and be preserved in a close vessel. When used, it is put into a pot with a narrow orifice, the pencil is dipped into it, wiped on the edge of the pot, and immediately applied by hand. This plan is tedious, and is nearly superseded by the following grounding blue.
Take half a gallon of caustic soda ley of spec. grav. 1.15, heated to 120° F.
12 ounces of hydrate of protoxide of tin, obtained by precipitating it from the muriate of tin by solution of potash.
8 ounces of ground indigo; heat these mixed ingredients to the boiling point, then move the pot off and on the fire two or three times in succession, and finally thicken with 3 pounds of raw sugar. In order to apply this by the block, the following apparatus is employed, called the canvass frame; figs. 236, 237. It is formed of a copper case or box A, in which is laid a frame B, filled with pretty stout canvass. The box communicates by a tube with the cistern C, mounted with a stop-cock D. Fig. 237 represents the apparatus in plan: A, the box, B, the canvass, with its edges a a a a, fixed by pin points to the sides. The colour is teared (tiré), or spread even, with a wooden scraper as broad as the canvass. In working with this apparatus, the colour being contained in the vessel c is drawn off into the case A, by opening the stop-cock D, till it rises to the level of the canvass. The instant before the printer daubs the block upon the canvass, the tearer (tireur), boy or girl, runs the scraper across it to renew its surface; and the printer immediately transfers the colour to the cloth. In this kind of printing great skill is required to give evenly impressions. As the blue is usually applied to somewhat large designs, it is very apt to run; an inconvenience counteracted by dusting fine dry sand upon the cloth as soon as it is blocked. The goods must be washed within 24 hours after being printed.
10. Topical grounding blue for the cylinder press.
Take 3½ gallons of caustic soda ley of spec. grav. 1.15.
3½ lbs. of ground indigo.
5 lbs. of precipitated protoxide of tin (as above).
Boil the mixed ingredients for ten minutes, take them from the fire, and add, first, 3lbs. of Venice turpentine; then 11 lbs. of gum.
Put this mixture into the colour trough, print with it, and after two days wash in the dash-wheel; then pass it through a soap-bath, along with a little soda, to brighten the blue, and to take off its grayish tint.
The use of the turpentine is easily explained; it serves to exclude the atmospherical oxygen, and prevent the regeneration of the indigo blue, before it is spread upon the cloth.
After the application to white calico of a similar blue, into which a little acid muriate of tin has been put, the goods are dipped for ten minutes in thin milk of lime, shaking the frame all the time. They are then washed, and cleared with a soap boil. The following colour remains long in the deoxidized state from its containing 8 ounces of indigo, 10 ounces of hydrated protoxide of tin, and 1½ pounds of solution of muriate of tin, to 2 quarts of soda ley of 1.15, thickened with 2½ pounds of gum. This blue may be applied by either the block or the cylinder.
11. Topical Prussian blue for grounding.
2. quarts of water with 8 ounces of starch are to be mixed and boiled; add 2¼ ounces of liquid Prussian blue color, prepared by triturating three quarters of an ounce of that pigment with as much muriatic acid, leaving the ingredients to react upon each other for 24 hours, and then adding three quarters of an ounce of water.
Add 4 ounces of liquid perchloride of tin (oxymuriate).
Mix all together, and pass through a searce. This colour is not very fast; cloth printed with it will bear only rinsing.
12. Prussian blue figures are impressed as follows:-
Dissolve 8 ounces of sulphate of iron, and as much acetate of lead, separately in 2 quarts of boiling water; mix well, and settle. Take one quart of this clear liquor reduced to spec. Grav. 1.02, one quart of mucilage containing 3 pounds of gum, coloured with a little prussiate of potash, mix into a mordant, and print it on with the cylinder. Two days afterwards wash in tepid water containing a little chalk, and then pass the cloth through a solution of prussiate of potash in water, sharpened with a little muriatic acid, till it takes the desired hue. Finally rinse.
II. The padding or plaquage style, called foulard also by the French. See PADDING.
Any mordant whatever, such as the acetates of alumina, or of iron, or their mixture, may be applied to the piece by the padding machine, after which it is dried in the HOT FLUE, washed, dunged, dyed, washed, and brightened.
Colors from metallic oxydes are very elegantly applied by the padding process. Thus the iron buff, the manganese bronze, and the chrome yellows and greens are given.
1. Iron buff or chamois.
Take 50 gallons of boiling water;
150 pounds of sulphate of iron; dissolve along with
10 pounds of alum; which partly saturate by the gradual addition of
5 pounds of crystals of soda; and in this mixture dissolve 50 pounds of pyroligneous acetate of lead. Allow the whole to settle, and draw off the clear supernatant liquid.
For furniture prints this bath should gave the spec. grav. 1.07.
The calico being padded in it, is to be dried in the hot-flue; and after 48 hours suspension is to be washed in water at 170° containing some chalk, by the wince apparatus. It is then washed, by the same apparatus, in hot water, containing a pailful of soda ley of spec. grav. 1.04.
For light tints the padding liquor should be reduced to the spec. grav. 1.01. The dye in either case may be brightened by wincing through a weak solution of chloride of lime.
Nitrate of iron diffused through a body of water may be also used for padding, with alternate washings in water, and a final wincing in a weak alkaline ley.
With a stronger solution, similar to the first, the boot-top colour is given.
2. The bronze or solitaire.
The goods are to be padded in a solution of the sulphate or muriate of manganese, of a strength proportional to the shade desired, dried in the hot-flue, and then raised by wincing them in a boiling-hot caustic ley, of spec. grav. 1.08, and next through a weak solution of chloride of lime, or soda. They are afterwards rinsed. Instead of passing them through the chloride, they may be merely exposed to the air till the manganese attracts oxygen, then rinsed and dried.
When the manganese solution has the density of 1.027, it gives a light shade; at the density of 1.06, a shade of moderate depth, and at 1.12 a dark tint.
The texture of the stuff is apt to be injured during the oxidation of the manganese.
3. Carmelite is obtained by padding in a mixture of muriate or sulphate of manganese and acetate of iron, then proceeding as above.
4. Copper green is given by padding in a mixed solution of sulphate and acetate of copper with a little glue, drying in the hot-flue, and next day padding in a caustic ley of spec. graf. 1.05. The goods are then rinsed, and padded through a solution made with 8 ounces of arsenious acid combined with 4 ounces of potash diluted with 2 gallons of water. They are finally rinsed and dried.
5. Olive and cinnamon colours are given by padding through mixed solutions of the acetate of iron and sulphate of copper; drying, and padding in a caustic ley of spec. grav.1.05.
6. Green and solitaire form a pleasing umber, or hellebore shade, which may be obtained by padding through a mixed solution of manganese and aceto-sulphate of copper, and raising the shades as above prescribed.
7. Chrome yellow.
Pad in a solution of bichromate of potash containing 8 ounces of it to the gallon of water; then dry with moderate heat, and pad in a solution of acetate or nitrate of lead, containing 6 or 8 ounces in the gallon of water; wash, and dry. Or we may pad first in a solution of acetate of lead containing a little glue; dry, and pad in solution of bichromate of potash. Then rinse. The last process is apt to occasion cloudiness. To obtain a light lemon tint, we must pad in a solution of acetate of lead of double the above strength, or 16 ounces to the gallon, then wince the pieces through weak milk of lime, rinse, pad through bichromate of potash, rinse and dry.
8. Chrome orange.
Pad through a mixed solution of the subacetate and acetate of lead, three times in succession, and dry in the hot-flue; then wince for ten minutes through weak milk of lime; rinse; wince for a quarter of an hour in a warm solution of bichromate of potash; and finally raise the colour by wincing the goods through hot lime-water.
9. Prussian blue
Pad in the preceding chamois liquor of the spec. grav. 1.007; dry in the hot-flue; wince well in chalky water at 160° F., and then dye by wincing in the following liquor: -
Dissolve 5 ounces of prussiate of potash, in 25 gallons of water heated to 90° or 100°, adding 2 ounces of sulphuric acid; afterwards rinse, and brighten in a very dilute sulphuric acid.
10. Green is given by padding goods, previously dyed in the indigo vat, in a solution of acetate of lead containing a little glue; and then padding them in a warm solution of bichromate of potash; finally rinsing and drying.
III. Resist pastes or reserves; these are subservient to the cold indigo vat, and they may be distributed under four heads; 1. fat reserves; 2. reserves with bases of metallic salts; 3. coloured reserves capable of assuming different tints in the dyeing; 4. reserves with mordants, for the cloths to be afterwards subjected to a dyeing bath, whereby variously coloured figures are brought up on a blue ground, so as to resemble the mineral called lazulite; whence the name lapis or lapis lazuli.
1. The fatty resists are employed in the printing of silk; which see infra.
2. With regard to reserves the following general observations may be made. After printing-on the paste, the goods must be hung up in a chamber, rather humid than too dry, and left there for a certain time, more or less, according to the nature of the reserve. In dipping them into the blue vat, if the reserve be too dry, it is apt to swell, scale off, and vitiate the pattern. This accident is liable to happen also when the vat is deficient in lime, especially with deep blues.
1. Simple white resist paste for a full body of blue.
Take 1 gallon of water, in which are to be dissolved,
1 pound of binacetate of copper (distilled verdigris), and 3 lbs. of sulphate of copper.
This solution is to be thickened with
2 lbs. of gum senegal, 1 lb. of British gum, and 4 lbs. of pipe-clay; adding after wards, 2 ounces of nitrate of copper - as a deliquescent substance.
2. White reserve for light blues.
Take 1 gallon of water, in which dissolve
4 ounces of binacetate of copper,
1 lb. sulphate of copper; and thicken this solution with
2 lbs. of gum senegal, 1 lb. of British gum, and 4 lbs. of pipe-clay.
3. White reserve for the cylinder machine.
Take 1½ gallons of water; in which dissolve
2½ lbs. of binacetate of copper,
10 lbs. of sulphate of copper; and add to the solution
6 lbs. of acetate of lead; then thicken with
10 lbs. of gum; adding afterwards 10 lbs. of sulphate of lead.
After printing-on this reserve, the goods are to be hung up for two days, then dipped till the proper blue tint be obtained. Finally they must be winced through dilute sulphuric acid to clear up the white, by removing the cupreous tinge.
3. Coloured reserves.
1. Chamois reserve.
Take 1 gallon of the chamois bath (No. 1, page 232, at bottom); to which add
8 ounces of nitrate of copper,
24 ditto of muriate of zinc; thicken with
6 pounds of pipe-clay, and 3 pounds of gum senegal.
After printing-on this paste, the goods must be hung up for five or six days in a somewhat damp room. Then after having dipped them in the vat, they are to be steeped in water for half an hour, and slightly washed. Next wince for half an hour, through water at 100° F. containing 2 pounds of soda crystals per 30 gallons. Rinse and dry.
2. Chrome yellow reserve.
Take 1 gallon of water; in which dissolve
3 lbs. of nitrate of lead,
1 lb. of binacetate of copper; to the solution, add
½ lb. of subacetate of lead; and thicken the mixed solution with
3 lbs. of gum.
6 lbs. of pipe-clay. Grind all the ingredients together, and pass through a searce.
After treating the goods as in No. 1, they must be winced for half and hour in a solution containing 5 ounces of bichromate of potash, per piece of calico, and also in a dilute muriatic bath, till the chrome yellow becomes sufficiently bright.
A chrome orange reserve may be made by introducing a larger proportion of subacetate of lead, and passing the reserve printed goods through weak milk of lime, as already prescribed for producing an orange by chrome.
The basis of the resist pastes used at Manchester is sometimes of more complex composition than the above; since, according to the private information I received from an extensive calico printer, they contain china clay (instead of pipe-clay, which often contains iron), strong solution of sulphate of copper, oil, tallow, and soap; the whole incorporated by trituration with heat.
In the Lancashire print-works, a little tartaric acid is added to the nitrate of lead, which prevents the colour from taking a dingy cast.
4. Reserves with mordants, or the lazulite style.
1. Black upon a blue ground.
At Manchester the black pattern is printed-on with a mixture of iron liquor and extract of logwood, and the resist paste by the cylinder machine; in France the black is given by the following recipe: -
Take 1 gallon of decoction of galls of spec. grav. 1.04, mixed and boiled into a paste with
14 ounces of flour; into the paste, when nearly cold, there are added,
8 ounces of an acetated peroxyde of iron, made by adding 1 lb. acetate of lead to 3 lbs. of nitrate of iron, spec. grav. 1.56.
½ ounce of gallipoli oil.
This topical black forms a fast color, and resists the fine blue vat, weak potash ley, bichromate of potash, boiling milk of lime, drunging, and maddering.
The preceding answers best for the block; the following for the cylinder, -
2. Take 1 gallon decoction of galls of spec. grav. 1.056.
18 ounces of flour, mix, boil into a paste, to which, when cool, add
8 ounces of the aceto-nitrate of iron of the preceding formula, and
1 quart of iron liquor of spec. grav. 1.110.
In Lancashire a little prussiate of potash is sometimes added to nitrate of iron and decoction of logwood; and the goods are after washing, &c., finished by passing through a weak solution of bichromate of potash. The chromic acid gives depth and permanence to the black dye, being supposed to impart oxygen to the iron, while it does not affect any of the other colours that may happen to be impressed upon the cloth, as solution of chloride of lime would be apt to do. The solution of the bichromate deepens the spirit purples into blacks, and therefore with such delicate dyes becomes a very valuable application. This interesting fact was communicated to me by an eminent calico-printer in Lancashire.
Having premised the composition of the topical black dye, we are now prepared to apply it in the lazulite style.
1. Black resist.
Take 1 gallon of the above black without the flour,
2 ounces of sulphate of copper,
1 ounce of muriate of ammonia, dissolve and thicken with
4 pounds of pipe-clay and 2 pounds of gum.
Another good formula is the following:-
Take 1 gallon of iron liquor of 1.056 spec. grav.; dissolve in it,
2 ounces of binacetate of copper,
8 ounces of sulphate of copper; and thicken as just described.
2. Puce reserve paste, contains acetate of alumina mixed with the iron liquor.
3. Full red reserve.
Take 1 gallon of acetate of alumina, (made with 50 gallons water, 100 lbs. alum, 10 lbs. soda crystals, and 100 lbs. acetate of lead; the supernatant liquid being of spec. grav. 1.085;) dissolve in it
4 ounces of corrosive sublimate ; thicken with
2 pounds of gum senegal,
4 pounds of pipe-clay, and mix in 8 ounces of gallipoli oil.
4. Reserve paste for a light red.
Take 1 gallon of the weaker sulpho-acetate of alumina formerly prescribed; dissolve in it
4 ounces of corrosive sublimate; and thicken with
4 pounds of pipe-clay, and 2 pounds of gum; adding to the mixture
8 ounces of oil.
5. Neutral resist paste.
Take 1 gallon of water; in which dissolve,
3¼ lbs. of biarseniate of potash, and
12 ounces of corrosive sublimate; thicken with
3 lbs. of gum, and 6 lbs. of pipe-clay, adding to the paste 16 ounces of oil.
6. Carmelite reserve paste.
Take 1 half gallon of acetate of alumina, spec. grav. 1.014; (see second aluminous mordant, p. 230.)
1 half gallon iron liquor of spec. grav. 1.027; dissolve in them
4 ounces of sulphate of copper, 4 ounces of verdigris, and 1 ounce of nitrate of copper; thicken with
2 libs. of gum,
4 libs. of pipe-clay.
7. Neutral reserve paste.
Take 1 gallon of water; dissolve it,
44 ounces of biarseniate of potash, and
12 ounces of corrosive sublimate; thicken with
3 libs. of gum,
6 libs. of pipe-clay,
16 oz. of oil.
To explain fully the manipulation of the lazulite style, we shall suppose that the calicoes are printed with the following reserves, taken in their order:-
1. Black reserve, No. 1. above.
2. Full red reserve, No. 3.
3. Light red reserve, No. 4.
4. Neutral reserve, No. 7.
Four days after printing-on these reserves, the goods must be twice dipped in the blue vat, ten minutes in and ten minutes out each time; but more dips may be given according to the desired depth of the shade. The cloth must be afterwards rinsed in running water for half an hour. The next process is to remove the paste; which is done by wincing the goods in a bran bath, lowered to 150°, during twenty minutes. They are then winced for five minutes in a bath of water slightly sharpened with vinegar. When well cleansed they are ready for the madder bath. The lapis goods are finally cleared in a bran bath, by exposure on the grass, and a soap boil.
The lazulite style is susceptible of many modifications.
8. Deep blue ground, with light blue, carmelita, and white figures.
1. Print-on the white reserve, No. 1.
2. Dip in the strongest blue vat; rinse and dry.
3. Ground-in with the block, the carmelite reserve (containing the mixed acetates of iron and alumina.)
4. Ground-in the neutral reserve.
5. Dip for the light blue; rinse.
6. Dung, dye, and clear, as above.
By varying the proportions of the reserve mordants, and the dye-stuffs, as madder, quercitron, &c. a great variety of effects may be produced.
9. Deep green ground, with buff and white figures.
1. Print-on the white reserve.
2. Dip in the blue vat; rinse and dry.
3. Pad in the buff liquor, as formerly prescribed.
4. Ground in upon the buff spots, the discharge No. 2, presently to be described.
5. Wash away the paste in chalky water.
6. Wince through a boiling alkaline ley, to raise the buff iron color.
IV. The Discharge style; first, of simple discharges.
1. Discharge of block printing.
Take 1 gallon of lemon or lime-juice, of spec. grav. 1.09, in which dissolve,
1 pound of tartaric acid,
1 pound of oxalic acid, and thicken the solution with
4 pounds of pipe or china clay, and 2 pounds of pulverized gum; as soon as the gum is dissolve, the mixture must be put through a scarce.
2. Another discharge is made of half the above acid strength.
3. A third with one half of the solid acids of the second.
4. Take 1 gallon of water, in which dissolve with heat
1 pound of cream tartar, adding, to facilitate the solution,
1 pound of warm sulphuric acid of spec. grav. 1.7674; after 24 hours mix
4 lbs. of pipe or China clay, and three lbs. of gum, with the decanted clear liquor.
In some cases British gum is used alone, as a thickener.
5. Discharge for the cylinder machine.
Take 1 gallon of lime-juice, of spec. grav. 1.085; dissolve in it
3 pounds of tartaric acid, and one pound of oxalic acid; thicken with
6 pounds of gum senegal, or 5 pounds of British gum.
6, 7. A stronger and weaker discharge is made of the same materials; and one is made without the tartaric acid.
Second; combination of discharges with mordants.
1. Black, red, lilac, and white figures upon an olive ground
The olive being given in a madder bath, and the ground well whitened (see MADDER), the cloth is padded in a weak buff mordant; and upon the parts that are to remain white, the weakest simple discharge No. 3 is printed-on by the cylinder; (in some works the discharge paste is applied and made dry before padding through the iron liquor;) the goods are cleared of the paste in a tepid chalky water, then dyed in a quercitron bath, containing a little glue, and cleared in a bran bath.
Discharge mordants upon mordants may be regarded as a beautiful modification of the preceding style. Example.
A violet ground or impression, with red and white.
1. Pad with an acetate of iron of 1.004; or print-on with the cylinder, iron liquor of 1.027 thickened with British gum.
2. Print-on a red mordant, strongly acidulated with lime-juice of 1.226.
3. Ground in the discharge No. 2; dry.
4. Clear off the paste in chalky water.
5. Dung, madder, and brighten.
6. Ground-in the topical colours at pleasure.
V. China blues.
take 16 pounds of coarsely ground indigo, and
4 pounds of sulphuret or arsenic; dissolve 22 pounds of sulphate of iron in 6 gallons of water; introduce these three matters into the indigo mill, and grind them for three days. If it be wished to have a thickened blue, this mixture must have pounded gum added to it; but if not, 5 gallons of water are added. This colour may be called blue No. 1.
The following table exhibits the different gradations of China blue: -
I shall now give examples of working this style by the block and cylinder . -
Impression of a single blue with small dots.
For the block, blue No. 5, thickened with starch.
For the cylinder, No. 4, thickened with gum.
Impression of two different blues with the block.
First blue, No. 5, with starch.
Second blue, No. 7, with starch.
Third blue, No. 10, with gum.
After printing-on the blues, the pieces are hung up for two days, in a dry and airy place, but not too dry; then they are dipped as follows: - Three vats are mounted, which may be distinguished by the numbers 1, 2, 3.
No. 1. 300 pounds of lime to 1,800 gallons of water.
No. 2. Solution of sulphate of iron of spec. grav. 1.048.
3. Solution of caustic soda of spec. grav. 1.055; made from soda crystals, quicklime, and water, as usual.
The pieces being suspended on the frames, are to be dipped in the first vat, and left in it ten minutes; then withdrawn, drained for five minutes; next plunged into the second vat for ten minutes, and drained also for five, &c. These operations will be most intelligible when put into the form of a table: -
In the dipping of China blues, care should be taken to swing the frames during the operation; and when the last dip is given, the piece is to be plunged upon its frame into a fourth vat, containing dilute sulphuric acid of spec. grav. 1.027. This immersion is for the purpose of removing the oxyde of iron, deposited upon the calico in the alternate passages through the sulphate of iron and lime vats. They are then rinsed an hour in running water, and finally brightened in the above dilute sulphuric acid, slightly tepid. Sometimes they are subjected to a soap bath, at the temperature of 120°. By the addition of nitrate of lead to the indigo vat, the blue becomes more lively. Some use the roller dyeing apparatus for running the pieces through the respective baths instead of the square frames. (See WINCING). But the frame-dip gives the most evenly dyes, and preserves the vats in good condition for a much longer time.
The various phenomena which occur in the dipping of China blues are not difficult of explanation with the lights of modern chemistry. We have, on the one hand, indigo and sulphate of iron alternately applied to the cloth; by dipping it into the lime, the blue is deoxidized, because a film of the sulphate of iron is decomposed, and protoxide of iron comes forth to seize the oxygen of the indigo, to make it yellow-green, and soluble, at the same time, in lime-water. Then, it penetrates into the heart of the fibres, and, on exposure to air, absorbs oxygen, so as to become insoluble and fixed within their pores. On dipping the calico into the second vat of sulphate of iron, a layer of oxyde is formed upon its whole surface, which oxyde exercises an action only upon those parts that are covered with indigo, and deoxidizes a portion of it; thus rendering a second dose soluble by the intervention of the second dip in the lime-bath. Hence we see that while these alternate transitions go on, the same series of deoxidizement, solution, and re-oxydizement recurs; causing a progressively increasing fixation of indigo within the fibres of the cotton. A deposite of sulphate of lime and oxyde of iron necessarily falls upon the cloth, for which reason the frame should be shaken in the lime-water vat, to detach the sulphate; but, on the contrary, it should be held motionless in the copperas bath, to favor the deposition of as much protoxide upon it as possible. These circumstances serve to account for the various accidents which sometimes befall the China blue process. Thus the blues sometimes scale off, which may proceed from one of two causes: 1. If the goods are too dry before being dipped, the colour swells, and comes off in the vats, carrying along with it more or less of indigo. 2. If the quantity of sulphate of lime formed upon the cloth be considerable, the crust will fall off, and take with it more or less of the blue; whence arise inequalities in the impression. The influence of temperature is important; when it falls too low, the colours take a gray cast. In this case it should be raised with steam.
VI. The decoloring or enlevage style; not by the removal of the mordant, but the destruction of the dye. The acid, which is here mixed with the discharge paste, is intended to combine with the base of the chloride, and set the chlorine free to act upon the color. Among the topical colours of this style are the following: -
1. Black. - Take on a gallon of iron liquor of spec. gra. 1.086.
One pound of starch; boil together , and while the paste is hot, dissolve in it
One pound of tartaric acid in powder; and when cold, add
Two pounds of Prussian blue, prepared with muriatic acid, see p. 232.
Two ounces of lamp black, with four ounces of oil.
2. White discharge. - Take one gallon of water, in which dissolve
One pound and a half of oxalic acid,
Three pounds of tartaric acid; add
One gallon of lime-juice of spec. grav. 1.22; and thicken with
Twelve pounds of pipe clay, and six pounds of gum.
3. Chrome-green discharge. -
Take one gallon of water, thicken with 18 ounces of starch; boil and dissolve in the hot paste;
Two pounds and a half of tartaric acid,
Two pounds of Prussian blue, as above.
4. Blue discharge. - Take one gallon of water, thicken with
18 ounces of gum; while the boiled paste is hot, dissolve in it
Two pounds of tartaric acid, and mix one pound of Prussian blue.
5. Chrome-yellow discharge. - This is the same as the chrome-green given above, but without the Prussian blue.
6. A white discharge on a blue ground requires the above white discharge to be strengthened with 8 ounces of strong sulphuric acid, per gallon.
7. White discharge for Turkey red needs to be very strong.
Take one gallon of lime-juice of sp. grav. 1.086; dissolve in it
Five pounds of tartaric acid; thicken with
Eight pounds of pipe-clay, four pounds of gum; then dissolve in the mixture
Three pounds of muriate of tin in crystals; and add, finally,
Twenty-four ounces of sulphuric acid.
8. Yellow discharge for Turkey red. -
Take one gallon of lime-juice of spec. grav. 1.086; in which dissolve
Four pounds of tartaric acid,
Four pounds of nitrate of lead; thicken the solution with
Six pounds of pipe-clay, and three pounds of gum.
9. For green discharge, add to the preceding 24 ounces of Prussian blue, as above.
The decoloring or chlorine bath is usually formed of wood lined with lead, and has an area of about 5 feet square, with a depth of 6 feet. A square frame, mounted with a horizontal series of rollers at top and bottom, may be let down by cords, at pleasure, into the cistern. The pieces are introduced and guided in a serpentine path, round the upper and lower rollers alternately, by a cord.
This bath is filled with a solution of chloride of lime, of the spec. grav. 1.045, whose decoloring strength is 65° by Gay Lussac's indigo chlorometer. It ought to be made turbid by stirring before purring in the goods, which should occupy three minutes in their passage. The piece is drawn through by a pair of squeezer cylinders at the end of the trough, opposite to that at which the piece enters. With black, white, and blue impressions of all shades, the goods are floated in a stream of water for an hour; then rinsed and dried. When there is yellow or green, the pieces must be steeped in water, than merely washed by the wince, and passed through solution of bichromate of potash, containing from 3 to 5 ounces of the salt per piece. Here the pieces are winced during 15 or 20 minutes, rinsed, and next passed through dilute muriatic acid to clear the ground; then rinsed and dried.
Discharge by the intervention of the chromic acid.
After having dipped the pieces to the desired shade, they are padded in a solution of bichromate of potash; dried in the shade without heat; and then printed with the following mordant: -
Take 1 gallon of water; dissolve in it
2 pounds of oxalic and 1 pound of tartaric acid; thicken with
6 pounds of pipe-clay, and 3 pounds of gum; lastly, add
8 ounces of muriatic acid.
After the impression, the pieces are winced in chalky water, at 120° F., then washed, and passed through a dilute sulphuric acid.
M. Daniel Koechlin, of Mulhausen, the author of this very ingenious process, considers the action of the bichromate here as being analogous to that of the alkaline chlorides. At the moment that the block applies the preceding discharge to the bichromate dye, there is a sudden decoloration, and a production of a peculiar odor.
The pieces padded with the bichromate must be dried at a moderate temperature, and in the shade. Whenever watery solutions of chromate of potash and tartaric acid are mixed, and effervescence takes place, during which the mixture possesses the power of destroying vegetable colours. This property lasts no longer than the effervescence.
VII. Steam colours. - This style combines a degree of brilliancy with solidity of color, which can hardly be obtained in any other way except by the chints dyes. The steam apparatus employed for fixing colours upon goods, may be distributed under five heads: - 1. the column; 2. the lantern; 3. the cask; 4. the steam-chest; and , 5. the chamber.
The column is what is most generally used in this country. It is a hollow cylinder of copper, from three to five inches in diameter, and about 44 inches long, perforated over its whole surface with holes of about one sixteenth of an inch, places about a quarter of an inch aaunder. A circular plate, about 9 inches diameter, is soldered to the lower end of the column, destined to prevent the coil of cloth from sliding down off the cylinder. The lower end of the column terminates in pipe, mounted with a stop-cock for regulating the admission of steam from the main steamboiler of the factory. In some cases, the pipe fixed to the lower surface of the disc is made tapering, and fits into a conical socket, in a strong iron or copper box, fixed to a solid pedestal; the steam pipe eaters into one side of that box, and is provided, of course, with a stop-cock. The consended water of the column falls down into that chest, and may be let off by a descending tube and a stop-cock. In other forms of the column, the conical junction pipe is at its top, and fits there into an inverted socket connected with a steam chest, while the bottom has a very small tubular outlet, so that the steam may be exposed to a certain pressure in the column, when it is encased with cloth.
The pieces, after being printed with the topical colours presently to be described, and dried, are lapped round this column, but not in immediate contact with it; for the copper cylinder is first enveloped in a few coils of blanket stuff; then with several coils of white calico; next with the several pieces of the printed goods, sticthed endwise; and lastly, with an outward mantle of white calico. In the course of the lapping and unlapping of such a length of webs, the cylinder is laid in a horizontal frame, in which it is made to revolve. In the act of steaming, however, it is fixed upright, by one of the methods above described. The steaming lasts for 20 or 30 minutes, according to the nature of the dyes; those which contain much solution of tin admit of less steaming. Whenever the steam is shut off, the goods must be immediately coiled, to prevent the chance of any aqueous condensation. I was much surprised, at dist, on finding the unrolled pieces to be free from damp, and requiring only to be exposed for a few minutes in the air, to appear perfectly dry. Were water condensed during the process, it would be apt to make the colours run.
Steam colour are all topical, though, for many of them, the places are previously padded with mordants of various kinds. Some manufacturers run the goods before printing them trough a weak solution of the perchloride of tin, with the view of brightening all the colours subsequently applied or raised upon them. I shall now illustrate steam calico-printing by some examples, kindly furnished me by a practical printer near Manchester, who conducts a great business with remarkable success.
Steam blue. - Prussiate of potash, tartaric acid, and a little sulphuric acid, are dissolved in water, and thickened with starch; then applied by the cylinder, dried at a moderate heat, and steamed for 25 minutes. They are rinsed and dried after the steaming. The tartaric acid, at a high temperature, decomposes here a portion of the ferrocyanic acid, and fixes the remaining ferrocyanate of iron (Prussian blue) in the fibre of the cloth. The ground may have been previously padded and dyed; the acids will remove the mordant from the points to which the above paste has been applied, and bring out a bright blue upon them.
Steam purple. - This topical colour is made by digesting acetate of alumina upon ground logwood with heat; straining, thickening with gum senegal, and applying the paste by the cylinder machine.
This preparation is made by adding 3 lbs. of sal ammoniac to 1 gallon of solution of tin (see SCARLET DYE, and TIN), evaporating, crystallizing. The sal ammoniac seems to counteract the separation of the tin by peroxidizement.Steam pink. - A decoction of Brazil-wood with a small quantity of the solution of muriate of tin, called, at Manchester, new tin crystals, and a little nitrate of copper to assist in fixing the color; properly thickened, dried, and steamed for not more than 20 minutes, on account of the corrosive action of muriate of tin when the heat is too strong.
Cochineal pink. - Acetate of alumina is mixed with decoction of cochineal, a little tartaric acid and solution of tin; then thickened with starch, dried, and steamed.
Steam brown. - A mixed infusion of logwood, cochineal, and Persian berries, with cream of tartar, alum (or acetate of alumina), and a little tartaric acid, thickened, dried, and steamed.
Green, blue, chocolate, with white ground, by steam. - Prussiate of potash and tartaric acid, thickened, for the blue; the same mixture with berry-liquor and acetate of alumina thickened, for the green; extract of logwood with acetate of alumina and cream of tartar, thickened, for the chocolate. these three topical colours are applied at once by the three-color cylinder machine; dried and steamed. Though green are fixed by the steam, their colour is much improved by passing the cloth through solution of bichromate of potash.
In France, solution of tin is much used for steam colours.
VIIII. Spirit of fancy colours.. - These all owe their vivacity, as well as the moderate degree of permanency they possess, to their tin mordant. After printing-on the topical color, the goods must be dried at a gentle heat, and passed merely through the rinsing machine. Purple, brown, or chocolate, red, green, yellow, blue, and white discharge; any five of these are printed on at once by the five-color cylinder machine. See RINSING MACHINE.
Chocolate is given by extract of Brazil-wood, extract of logwood, nitro-muriate of tin, with a little nitrate of copper: all mixed, thickened, and merely printed-on.
Red, by extract of Brazil-wood and tin, with a little nitrate of copper.
Green, by prussiate of potash, with muriate of tin and acetate of lead, dissolved, thickened, and printed-on.
The goods after rinsing must be passed through solution of bichromate of potash, to convert the Prussian blue colour into green, by the formation of chrome yellow upon it.
Blue. - Prussian blue ground with solution (nitromuriate) of tin; thickened, &c.
Yellow. - Nitrate of lead dissolved in solution of tartaric acid, thickened, tenderly dried, passed through the bichromate vat or padding machine, washed and dried.
This yellow is pretty fast; though topical, it can hardly, therefore, be called a fancy color.
When purple is to be inserted instead of the above blue, extract of logwood with tin is used in the place of the Prussian blue. Tartaric acid is a useful addition to tin in brightening fancy colours.
Chocolate. - A good topical chocolate is made by digesting logwood with liquid acetate of alumina, adding a little cream of tartar to the infusion; thickening, applying by the cylinder, drying, washing, then passing through solution of bichromate of potash, which serves to darken and fix the color.
I shall conclude my account of the printing of cotton goods with some miscellaneous formulæ, which were given me by skilful calico-printers in Lancashire.
Prussian blue is prepared for topical printing by grinding it in a handmill, like that for grinding pepper of coffee, and triturating the powder with solution of muriate of tin.
Green. - The deoxidized indigo vat liquor is mixed with a little pearlash, and thickened with gum. This is applied by the cylinder or block to goods previously padded with nitrate of lead; the goods, after being dried, are passed through milky limewater, rinsed, and then winced or padded through the bichromate of potash bath.
Another green. - Nitrate of lead, prussiate of potash, and tartaric acid, dissolved, and mixed with a little sulphate, nitrate, and muriate of iron; this mixture is either thickened for cylinder printing, or used in its liquid state in the padding trough. The goods subjected to one of these two processes are dried, padded in weak solution of carbonate of potash, which serves to precipitate the oxyde of lead from the nitrate; they are finally padded with bichromate of potash, which induces a yellow upon the blue, constituting a green colour of any desired tint, according to the proportion of the materials.
Chocolate and black, with while discharge; a fast color. - The cloth is padded with acetate of alumina, and dried in the hot-flue; it is then passed through a two-color machine, the one cylinder of which prints-on lime-juice discharge, thickened with gum senegal; the other : black topical dye (made with logwood extract and iron liquor). The cloths are now hung up to be aired during a week, after which they are dunged, and dyed up with madder, fustic, and quercitron bark, heated with steam in the bath.
Blue, white, and olive or chocolate. - 1. Pad with the aluminous mordant; 2. Apply thickened lemon-juice for discharge by the cylinder; 3. Dung the goods after they are thoroughly dried; 4. Pass them through the bath of madder, fustic, and quercitron, which dye a brown ground, and leave the discharge points white; then print-on a reserve paste of China clay and gum with sulphate of copper; dry, dip in the blue vat, which will communicate an olive tint to the brown ground; or a chocolate, if madder alone had been used.
When a black ground is desired, with white figures, the acid discharge paste should be printed-on by the cylinder, and dried before the piece is padded in the iron liquor. By following this plan the whites are much purer than when the iron is first applied.
Green, black, white. - The black is first printed-on by a mixture of iron liquor, and infusion (not decoction) of logwood; then resist or reserve paste is applied by the block, and dried; after which the goods are blued in the indigo vat, rinsed, dried, passed through solution of acetate of lead; next, through milky lime-water; lastly, through a very strong solution of bichromate of potash.
Turkey red, black, yellow. Upon Turkey red cloth, print with a strong solution of tartaric acid, mixed with solution of nitrate of lead, thickened with gum; dry. The cloth is now passed through the chloride of lime bath, washed, and chromed. Lastly, the black is printed-on by the block as above, with iron liquor and logwood.
Black ground dotted white, with red or pink and black figures. - 1. Print-on the lime-juice discharge-paste by the cylinder; dry; 2. Then pad with iron liquor, containing a little acetate of alumina, and hang up the goods for a few days to fix the iron; 3. Dye in a logwood bath to which a little madder has been added; clear with bran. The red or pink is now put in by the block, with a mixture of extract of Brazil-wood, nitromuriate of tin, and nitrate of copper, as prescribed in a preceding formula.
Orange or brown; black; white; pink. - The black is topical, as above; it is printed-on, as also the lemon-juice discharge and red mordant, with muriate of tin (both thickened), by the three-color machine. Then, after drying the cloth, a single-cylinder machine is made to apply in diagonal lines to it a mixture of acetate of iron and alumina. The cloth, being dried and dunged, is next dyed in a bath of quercitron, madder, and fustic.
Here the orange is the result of the mordant of tin and alumina; the brown, of the alumina and iron; white, of the citric acid discharge. The tin mordant, wherever it has been applied, resists the weaker mordant impressed in the diagonal lines. The pink is blocked-on at the end.
Orange brown, or aventurine; black and white. - The topical black (as above) and discharge lemon-juice, and printed-on by the two-color machine; then the cloth is subjected to the diagonal line cylinder, supplied with the alumino-iron mordant. The cloth is dried, dunged, and dyed in a bath of bark, madder, and fustic.
The manganese or solitaire ground admits of a great variety of figures being easily brought upon it, because almost every acidulous mordant will dissolve the oxyde of manganese from the spot to which it is applied, and insert its own base in its place; and of course, by dyeing such mordanted goods in various baths, any variety of coloured design may be produced. Thus, if the paste of nitrate of lead and tartaric acid solution be applied, and the goods after drying be passed first through lime-water, and then through a chrome bath, bright yellow spots will be made to appear upon the bronze ground.
Manganese bronze, buff and green; all metallic colours. - Pad-on the manganese solution, and dry; apply the aceto-sulphate of iron, of spec. grav. 1.02, and Scheele's green (both properly thickened), by the two-color machine. The goods are next to be dried, and padded through a cold caustic ley of spec. Grav. 1.086. They are then rinsed, and passed through a weak solution of chloride of lime, to raise the bronze, again rinsed, and passed through a solution of arsenious acid to raise the green.
Scheele's green for the calico-printer is made as follows:-
Take 1 gallon of water, in which dissolve with heat,
5 pounds of sulphate of copper, and 1 pound of verdigris. When the two salts are dissolved, remove the kettle from the fire, and put into it 1 quart of solution of nitrate of copper, and 5 pounds of acetate of lead. Stir the mixture to facilitate the decomposition, and allow the pigment to subside.
It must be thickened with 2½ lbs. of gum per gallon, for pencilling; or 12 oz. of starch for the block. The goods printed with this paste are to be winced through a caustic ley, till a fine sky-blue be produced; then washed well and rinsed. They are now to be passed through water, containing from half an ounce to an ounce of white arsenic per piece; 4 turns are sufficient; if it be too long immersed it will take a yellow tint.
Catechu has been considerably employed by calico-printers of late years, as it affords a fine permanent substantive brown, of the shade called carmelite by the French. The following formula will exemplify its mode of application: -
Take 1 gallon of water;
1 pound of catechu in fine powder; reduce by boiling to half a gallon, pass the decoction through a fine sieve, and dissolve in it 4 ounces of verdigris; allow it then to cool, and thicken the solution with 5 ounces of starch; while the paste is hot, dissolve in it 5 ounces of pulverized muriate of ammonia.
Print-on this paste, dry, and wash. it is a fast color.
I shall subjoin the prescriptions for two fancy cochineal printing colours.
Amaranth by cochineal. - Pad the pieces in the aluminous mordant of spec. grav. 1.027, page 230.
Dry in the hot flue; and after hanging up the goods during 3 days, wince well through chalky water, and then dye, as follows: -
For each piece of 28 or 30 yards, 8 ounces of cochineal are to be made into a decoction of 2 gallons in bulk, which is to be poured into a kettle with a decoction of 3 ounces of galls, and with two ounces of bran. The pieces are to be entered and winced as in the madder bath, during two hours and a half; then washed in the dash wheel. On mixing with the amaranth bath a certain quantity of logwood, very beautiful lilacs and violets may be obtained.
Mixture of quercitron and cochineal. - Pad in the aluminous mordant, and dye with 2 lbs. of quercitron, and 4 ounces of cochineal, when a capuchin colour will be obtained. If we pad with the following mordant, viz., 1 gallon of acetate of alumina of 1.56 spec. grav., and 1 of iron liquor of 1.02 spec. grav., and dye with 1 pound of quercitron, and 1 ounce of cochineal, we shall obtain a shade like boot-tops, of extreme vivacity.
Two ounces of cochineal will print a long piece of calico with rich pink figures, having acetate of alumina for a mordant. As the ground is hardly tinged by the dye, it neither needs nor admits of much clearing.
I have already mentioned that goods are sometimes padded with solution of perchloride of tin before printing-on them the steam colours, whereby they acquire both permanence and vivacity. I have also stated that the salts of tin at a high temperature are apt to corrode the fibre of the stuff, and therefore must be used with discretion. This danger is greatly lessened by adding to the perchloride of tin a sufficient quantity of caustic potash ley to form a stannate of potash. The goods are padded through this substance, diluted with water, dried with a moderate heat, and then immersed in very dilute sulphuric acid, which saturates the potash, and precipitates the tin oxyde within the pores of the cloth. Calico thus prepared affords brilliant and permanent colours by the steam process, above described.
Printing of silks or woollen stuffs, such as merinoes and mousselin de laine, as also of mixed stuffs of silk and wool, such as chalys. - All these prints are applied, not by the cylinder but the block, and are fixed by the application of steam in one of four ways; 1. By the lantern; 2. By the cask; 3. By the chest or, 4. By the chamber.
1. By the lantern. - In this mode of exposure to steam, the goods are stretched upon a frame; and therefore the apparatus may be described under two heads; the lantern and the frame. The former is made of copper, in the shape of a box A B C D E, fig. 238, open below, and with a sloping roof above, to facilitate the trickling down of the water condensed upon the walls. The sides B C D E are 4½ feet high, 6 feet long, and 4 feet wide. The distance of the point A from the line E is 2 feet. At F is a brass socket, which may be stopped with a cork; and there is a similar one at the other side. This kind of penthouse may be raised by means of a pulley with cords fixed to the four angles of the roof E B; and it rests upon the table G H, a little larger than the area of the box, which stands upon the four feet I K. Round the borders of the table there is a triangular groove a b, for receiving the lower edges of the box, and it is stuffed steamtight with lists of cloth. Through the centre of the table, the two-inch steam pipe as ----; it is surmounted with a hemispherical rose pierced with numerous holes for the equal distribution of the steam. Right above it, a disc M is placed upon four feet. The tube L communicates with a box P, which has a syphon Q to let off the condensed water. At the upper part of this box the tube L terminates which brings the steam. The little table G H slopes towards the part G, where the syphon R is placed for drawing off the water.
The frame has such dimensions, that it may stand in the four corners of the table at S S, as pointed out by the dotted lines. The second part embraces an open square frame, which is formed by spars of wool 2 inches square, mortised together; and is 3 feet 8 inches wide, 5 feet 8 inches long, and 4 feet 3 inches high; it is strengthened with cross bars. Upon the two sides of its breadth, two rows of round brass hooks are placed, about half an inch apart; they are soldered to a copper plate fixed to uprights by means of screws.
Before hanging up the goods, a piece of cloth 3 feet 8 inches long, and 4 feet wide, is placed upon the row of hooks; and 3 feet of it are left hanging out.
One foot within, the hooks pass through the cloth. A similar one is fitted to the other side. This cloth is intended to cover the goods hung upon the hooks; and it is kept straight by resting upon strings. The pieces are attached zig-zag from one hook to another. When the frame is filled, the bag is put within the cloths; it has the same rectangular shape as the frame. The pieces are in this way all encased in the cloth; a bit of it being also put beneath to prevent moisture affecting that part.
When shawls are framed, they are attached with pins; and if they be too large, they are doubled back to back, with the fringes at top.
These arrangements being made, the frame is set upon the table, the penthouse is placed over it, and the steam is admitted during from 35 to 45 minutes, according to circumstances. The orifice F is opened at first to let the air escape, and when it begins to discharge steam it is stopped. The frame is taken out at the proper time, the bag is removed, the cloths are lifted off, and the goods are spread out for airing. Three frames and six bags are required for a constant succession of work. The above apparatus is particularly suitable for silks.
2. The drum. - This is the most simple mode of steaming. The apparatus is a drum of white wood, 2 inches thick, fig. 239; the bottom is pieced with a hole which admits the steam-pipe F, terminating in a perforated rose. Four inches from the bottom there is a canvass partition E, intended to stop any drops of water projected from the tube F, and also to separate the condensed water from the body of the apparatus. The drum is covered in by a wooden head H, under which the goods are placed. It is made fast either by bolts, or by hooks, G G, thus -, to which weighted cords are hung. The frame 1, fig. 240, rests upon a hoop, a a, a few inches from the edge. The goods are hung upon the frame in the ordinary way, and then wrapped round with flannel. The frame is stuffed with pin points, like that of the indigo vat, fixed about 5 inches asunder. From 20 to 30 minutes suffice for one steaming operation. The upper part of the frame must be covered also with flannels to prevent the deposition of moisture upon it. At the bottom of the drum there is a stopcock to let off the condensed water. According to the size of the figure, which is 3 feet 2 inches, 50 yards may be hung up single; but they may be doubled on occasion.
3. The box. - This steaming apparatus is convenient from the large quantity of goods admissible at a time: it answers best for woollen stuffs. From 12 to 16 pieces, of 36 yards each, may be operated upon at once; and from 240 to 260 shawls. It is formed of a deal box, A B C D, fig. 241, 4 feet wide, 6 long, and 3 high; the wood being 5 inches thick. It is closed by a cover of the same substance, I, which is made steam-tight at the edges by a list of felt. The lid is fastened down by 5 cross bars of iron, a a a a a, which are secured by screws, c c c c c, fig. 242. The ends of these cross bars are let into the notches, b b b b b, on the edge of the box. The safety valve M, fig. 241, is placed upon the lid. For taking off the lid, there are rings at the four corners, d d d d, baring cords, F F F F. These join at the centre into one, which passes over a pulley. Eight inches from the bottom of the box there is a horizontal canvass partition, beneath which the steam is discharged from the pipe r., fig. 243.
There are two ledges, E F G H, at the sides for receiving the bobbins. The tube L runs round the box, as shown by the letters d a c b; the end d is shut; but the side and top are perforated with many holes in the direction towards the centre of the box. Fig. 244 shows the arrangement of the lower set of bobbins: that of the upper set is shown by the dotted lines: it is seem to be in an alternate position, one lying between two others. They are formed of pieces of deal 4 inches broad, 1 inch thick, and of a length equal to the width of the box. They are first wrapped round with 5 or 6 turns of doubled flannel or calico: the piece of goods is laid over it upon a table, and then wrapped round. At the end of the piece, several folds of the covering must be put, as also a roll of flannel. The two ends must be put, as also a roll of flannel. The two ends must be slightly tied with packthread. When these plat bobbins are arranged in a box, the steam is let on them, and continued about 45 minutes; it is then shut off, the lid is removed, and the pieces are unrolled.
4- The chamber. - The interior height of the chamber, A B C D, fig. 245, is nine feet, the length 12 feet, and the breadth 9 feet. The steam is introduced into it by two pipes, a b c, d e f. Their two ends, d c, are shut; but their sides are all along perforated with small holes. The frames E F G H, E F G H, are moveable, and run upon rollers: they are taken out by front doors, which are made of strong planks, shut by sliding in pressure screws. The cross rods, E F G H, are provided with books for hanging up the pieces. There is a safety-valve in the top of this large chamber. The dimensions of the frame are ten feet long, 3 feet wide, and 7 height. Three feet and a half from the upper part of the frame, a row of hooks is fixed for hanging on a double row of pieces, as shown in the figure. Over the frame, woollen blankets are laid to protect it from drops of water that might fall from the roof of the chamber. When the hooks are two thirds of as inch apart, 24 pieces, of 28 yards each, may be suspended at once. The period of steaming is from 45 to 60 minutes.
Muslins and silks do not require so high a temperature as woollen goods. When the stuffs are padded with color, like merinoes and chalys, they must not be folded together, for fear of stains, which are sometimes occasioned by the column in steam calico-printing, where the end which receives the first impression of the steam is seldom of the same shade as the rest of the roll of goods. The duration of the steaming depends upon the quantity of acid in the mordant, and of saline solution in the topical color; the more of which are present the shorter should be the steaming period. A dry vapor is requisite in all cases; for when it becomes moist, from a feeble supply or external condensation, the goods become streaky or stained by the spreading of the colours.
1. Black figures are given by decoction of logwood thickened with starch, to which a little oxalic acid is added while hot, and, after it is cold, neutralized solution of nitrate of iron.
2. Dark blue for a ground. - Decoction of logwood, and archil thickened with starch; to which, while the paste is hot, a little soluble Prussian blue is added; and, when it is cold, neutralized nitrate of iron; see supra.
3. Deep poppy or ponceau color. - Cochineal boiled in starch water, with oxalic acid (or tartaric), and perchloride of tin.
4. Rose. - Cochineal infusion; oxalic acid; perchloride of tin; thickened with gum.
5. Dark amaranth. - Decoctions of archil and cochineal, thickened with starch: to the paste, alum and perchloride of tin are added.
6. Capuchin color. - Quercitron and cochineal thickened with starch; to the paste add oxalic acid and perchloride of tin.
7. Annotto orange. - Dissolve the annotto in soda ley, of spec. grav. 1.07, at a boiling heat; add aluminate of soda, and thicken with gum.
8. Golden yellow. - Decoction of Persian berries thickened with starch; to which some alum and muriate of tin are added, with a little perchloride of tin and oxalic acid.
9. Lemon yellow. - Persian berries; starch; alum.
10. An ammoniacal solution of cochineal is used for making many violet and mallow colours. It is prepared by infusing cochineal in water of ammonia for 24 hours; then diluting with water, heating to ebullition, and straining.
11. Fine violet is given by ammoniacal cochineal, with alum and oxalic acid; to which a little aceto-sulphate of indigo is added, and gum for thickening. The following blue may be used instead of the solution of indigo. The mallow tint is given by adding a little perchloride of tin to the above formula, and leaving out the blue.
12. Dark blue. - Soluble Prussian blue; tartaric acid; alum; thicken with gum.
13. Emerald green. - One quart of decoction, equivalent to 1 pound of Persian berries; 1 quart of infusion of quercitron, of spec. grav. 1.027; in which dissolve 12 ounces of alum in powder; and add 6 ounces of the following blue bath for greens; thicken with 20 ounces of gum.
14. Blue bath for greens. Half a gallon of water at 140° F., one pound of soluble Prussian blue, 3 ounces of tartaric acid, and 2 ounces of alum.
I: Printing of Silks. - 1. Of the madder style. This is one of the most difficult to execute, requiring both much skill and experience. The first step is the removal of the gum. A copper being nearly filled with water, the pieces, tied up in a linen bag, are put into it, with a quarter of a pound of soap for every pound of silk, and are boiled for 3 hours. If the silk be Indian, half an ounce of soda crystals must be added. When the goods are taken out, they are rinsed in the river, then passed through water at 140° F., holding 8 ounces of crystallized soda in solution, as a scourer. They are next rinsed in cold water, and steeped in water very faintly acidulated with sulphuric acid, during 4 hours, then rinsed, and dried.
Preparation of Mordants. - 1 gallon of boiling water; 2 pounds of alum; dissolve:
1 pound of acetate of lead; 4 ounces of sal-ammoniac; 1 of chalk; mix well together: after decomposition and subsidence, draw off clear.
1. Red. - 1 gallon of the above mordant, thickened with 14 ounces of starch, and tinged with decoction of Brazil-wood. If dark red be wanted, dissolve, in a gallon of the above red, 4 ounces of sulphate of copper.
2. Black. - 1 gallon of iron liquor, of 1.056 spec. grav.; thicken with 14 ounces of starch; and dissolve in the hot paste 2 ounces of sulphate of copper.
3. Violet. - Take 1 gallon of iron liquor of 1.04 spec. grav.;
2 ounces of cream of tartar; 2 ounces of nitre; 2 ounces of copperas;
1 ounce of alum: dissolve, and mix the solution with
1 gallon of gum water, containing 6 lbs. of gum.
4. Puce. - Half a gallon of red mordant; half a gallon of iron liquor of 1.07; 7 ounces of starch for thickening; colour with logwood.
Manipulation of the above colours. - Print-on the black, then the puce, next the violet, and lastly the red. Dry in the hot flue, and 48 hours after the impression, wash away the paste. The copper employed for dyeing is of a square form: a boil is given with bran, at the rate of 4 lbs. per piece of the foulards: cold water is added to lower the temperature to 130° F. The pieces must be entered with the printed surface undermost, and winced for half an hour, taking care to keep them expanded and well covered with the liquor: they are then taken out and rinsed. When grounds are to be made on the foulards, 2 ounces of sumach must be added per piece.
Maddering. - Suppose 48 pieces are to be grounded with madder. 12 pounds of madder must be put into the copper, 1 pound of sumach, and 6 pounds of bran; the bath must be tepid when the pieces are entered: it must be heated to 104° F. in 20 minutes, and to the boiling point in an hour and a half. The goods must be briskly winced all the time, and finally turned out into cold water.
When they come out of the madder bath they are much loaded with color. They are cleared by a boil of half an hour in bran, then turned out into cold water, and rinsed. A copper must be now mounted with 3 pounds of soap, 1 ounce of solution of tin, and 2 pailsful of bran, in which the goods are to be boiled for half an hour, then rinsed, and passed through a very dilute sulphuric acid bath. Then rinse, and dry. By following this process, a light salmon ground is obtained.
II. Steam colours upon silk. - The same plan of operations may be adopted here as as described for calico-printing; the main difference being in the method of mordanting the stuffs. After boiling in soap water, in the proportion of 4 ounces per pound of silk, the goods are washed in cold water, and then in hot water at 140°; they are next rinsed, passed through weak sulphuric acid, rinsed, squeezed between rollers, and afterwards steeped in a bath containing 8 ounces of alum per gallon, where they remain for four hours, with occasionally wincing. They are now rinsed and dried. The subsequent treatment resembles that of steam-color printed cottons.
Black. - Take a gallon of decoction, made with 4 lbs. of logwood, with which
14 ounces of starch are to be combined: mix in
2 ounces of powdered nut-galls: boil, and pour the colour into a pipkin containing
2 ounces of tartaric acid; 2 ounces of oxalic, both in powder, and
2 ounces of olive oil. Stir the colour till it is cold, and add
8 ounces of nitrate of iron, and 4 ounces of nitrate of copper.
The red, violet, lilac, yellow colours, &c., are the same as for steam colour upon cotton. Topical colours are also applied without mordanting the silk beforehand. In this case a little muriate of tin is introduced. Thus for
Yellow. - Take 1 gallon of a decoction, made with 4 lbs. of Persian berries: dissolve in it 8 ounces of salt of tin (muriate), and 4 ounces of the nitro-muriatic solution of tin. Thicken with 2 pounds of gum.
Printing of foulard pieces. The tables which serve for the impression of silk goods are so constructed as to receive them in their full breadth. Towards the part between the colour or sieve tub and the table, the roller is mounted upon which the piece is wound. this roller, A B, fig. 246, has a groove, C, cut out parallel to its axis. Into this a bar is pressed, which fixes the end of the piece. The head, B, of the roller is pierced with several holes, in which an iron pin passes for stopping its rotation at any point, as is shown at B. At the other end of the table there is placed a comb, fig. 247, which is supported by pivots A B at its ends. The teeth of the comb are on a level with the cloth.
The piece is arranged for printing as follows: - It is unwound, and its end is brought upon the teeth of the comb, and made to pass into them by slight taps with a brush. It is now stretched, by turning round the roller, and fixing it by the pin-handle. After tracing the outline, the printing blocks are applied. Care should be taken, in the course of printing, always to fix the teeth of the comb in the middle line between two handkerchiefs. The operation of grounding-in is much facilitated by this plan of extension.
The pieces are washed in running water, and must be rapidly dried. The subsequent dressing is given by gum tragacanth: they are dried upon a stretching frame, and then folded up for the market.
III. Mandarining of silk stuffs and chalys. - This style of printing depends upon the property which nitric acid possesses of giving to silk and woollen stuffs a yellow color.
The First step is the scouring with a soap boil, as already described.
The designs are printed-on as also above described.
The swimming or colour tub is usually double, and serves for two tables; instead of being placed, therefore, at the end of the table, it is put between two, and, consequently, behind the printer. It is formed of a copper chest, fig. 248, A B C D, in which steam ay circulate, introduced by the pipe I; the excess being allowed to escape by the tube J, as also the water of condensation. The frame is placed in the hollow box K K. Between two such frames there is a plate of copper, L, which closes the box; it serves for laying the plates in order to keep them hot. At E and H are prolongations of the box, in which are set the vessels F G for holding the reserve paste.
Preparation of the reserve or resist paste. - Melt in a kettle 2½ lbs. of rosin; 1 lb. of suet; mix well, and put it into the basins F' G'. By means of steam the reserve is kept melted, as well as the false colour upon which the sieve floats. The piece of silk being laid upon the table, and the reserve spread upon the frame, the printer heats his block, which should be mounted with lead, if the pattern will permit, upon the little table L. He takes up the colour from the frame, and transfers it instantly to the piece. He must strike the block lightly, and then lift it, lest, by its cooling, it might stick to the silk. When the table pattern is completed, he dusts it over with sand, and proceeds to another portion of the silk. The piece must not be taken out of the stretch till it is quite fry, which requires usually 6 hours. Let us consider first the most common case, that of a white upon an orange ground. We shall afterwards describe the other styles, which may be obtained by this process. The piece, being printed and dry, must next be subjected to the mandarining operation.
The apparatus here employed consists of a sandstone trough A B C D, fig. 249. Upon the two sides, AC, BD, of this trough are fixed two wooden planks, pierced with a hole an inch from the bottom to receive the roller E, under which the piece passes. In this trough the acid mixture is put. That trough is put into a wooden or copper trough, F G H I. Into the latter, water is put, which is heated by means of steam, or a convenient furnace. Before and behind are placed two winces, or reels, K L; one serves to guide the piece in entering into the trough, and the other in its leaving it. The piece falls immediately into a stream of cold water, or, failing that, into a large back, containig a mixture of chalk and water. The two winces are moved by handles: the velocity is proportioned to the action of the acid. The wince L ought to be higher than K, to allow the acid to drain off. Fig. 250 shows a section of the apparatus.
The temperature of the acid mixture ought to be maintained between 95° and 100° F.; for if it be raised higher, the resist would run the risk of melting, and the impression would become irregular and blotty.
The proportions of the acid mixture are the following: -
1 gallon of water; and 1 gallon of nitric acid, of spec. grav. 1.288, which may be increased with the strength of the silk. It should be a little weaker for chalys. For the strong greens it may be 2 measures of acid of 1.288 to 1 measure of water. The durations of the passage through the acid should be 1 minute at most.
Mixture of orange color, and clearing away the resist. - The goods, on coming out of the mandarining apparatus, are rinsed in running water; then boiled in soap water, quickened with a little soda, at the rate of 2 lbs. of the former and 4 oz. of the latter for a piece of 30 yards. They must be worked by the wince for half an hour. They are now rinsed in cold water, then passed through hot, again rinsed, and dried. I shall give some examples of the mode of manufacture, which is undoubtedly on of the most curious applications of chemical ingenuity.
1. Orange ground with white figures.
(1.) Print-on the fat reserve; (2.) mandarine; (3.) brighten the orange, and clear.
2. Orange ground with blue figures.
(1.) Dip in the indigo vat as for calico; (2.) print-on the fat resist to preserve the blue; (3.) mandarine; (4.) clear, and brighten the orange by the boil.
3. Orange ground, with blue and white figures.
(1.) Print-on the resist to preserve the white; (2.) dip in the vat, rinse, and dry; (3.) ground-in the fat resist to preserve the blue; (4.) mandarine; (5.) cleanse, and brighten.
4. Full green ground, and white figures.
(1.) Print-on the resist; (2.) mandarine, and rinse without drying; (3.) dip in the blue vat; (4.) cleanse, and brighten.
5. Full green ground, and blue figures.
(1.) Dip a pale blue, rinse, and dry; (2.) print-on the fat resist; (3.) mandarine, wash and dry; (4.) dip full blue; (5.) clean, and brighten.
6. Full green ground, with white and blue figures.
(1.) Print on the resist; (2.) dip a pale blue, and dry; (3.) ground-in the fat resist; (4.) mandarine and rinse; (5.) dip a full blue; (6.) clean and brighten.
7. Full green ground, with white, blue and orange figures.
(1.) Print-on the fat reserve; (2.) Dip a pale blue, and dry; (3.) ground-in the reserve; (4.) mandarine, rinse, and dry; (5.) ground in the reserve; (6.) dip a full blue; (7.) clean, and brighten.
If blue grounds with white figures be wanted, the resist must be applied, and then the goods must be dipped in the blue vat: the resist is afterwards removed by a boil in soap-water.
The above processes are applicable to chalys.
The property which nitric acid possesses of staining animal matters yellow, such as the skin, wool, and silk, is here applied to a very elegant purpose.
Of the bronze or solitaire style by mandarining. - The mandarining mixture is 1 gallon of nitric acid, of 1.17 spec. grav.; mixed with 3 pints of solution of nitrate of iron, of spec. grav. 1.65. If the quantity of nitrate of iron be increased, a darker tint will be obtained. The temperature of the mixture should be 94° F. The pieces, after mandarining, are let fall into water, and steeped for an hour.
In order to raise the bronze, and clear away the fat resist, the goods must be boiled in a bath of soap and soda, as described for orange.
1. Bronze ground, with white figures.
(1.) Print-on the fat resist; (2.) dip in the blue vat, and dry; (3.) pad in a decoction of logwood, of 4 lbs. per gallon; dry, taking care to turn over the selvages; (4.) mandarine, and steep in water for an hour; (5.) cleanse, and pass through soap.
2. Bronze ground, with blue figures.
(1.) Dip in the blue vat, and dry; (2.) print-on the fat resist; (3.) pad in the above decoction of logwood, and dry; (4.) mandarine, and steep an hour; (5.) cleanse, and brighten.
3. Bronze ground, with white and blue.
(1.) Print-on the fat resist; (2.) dip in the blue vat, and dry; (3.) ground-in the fat resist; (4.) pad in the logwood liquor, and dry; (5.) mandarine, and steep for an hour; (6.) cleanse, and give the brightening boil with soap.
This style of manufacture may be executed on chalys; and is capable of producing beautiful effects, which will in vain be sought for by other means.
With silks, advantage may be derived from various metallic solutions which possess the property of staining animal substances; among which are nitrate of silver, nitrate of mercury, and muriate of iron. The solutions of these salts may be thickened with gum, and printed-on.
An orange upon an indigo vat ground. - After the blue ground has been dyed, orange figures may be produced by printing-on the following discharge paste: -
1 gallon of water, made into a paste with 1 pound of starch; when cold, add to it from 16 to 24 ounces of nitric acid, of spec. grav. 1.288. After fixing the colour by steam, the orange is brightened with a soap boil.
An orange upon a Prussian-blue ground. - The dye is first given by Prussian blue in the ordinary way, and then the following discharge is printed-on:-
A caustic ley being prepared, of 1.086 specific gravity, dissolve in a gallon of it 2 pounds of annotto, and thicken with 3 pounds and a quarter of gum. Two days after the impression of this paste, pass the goods through steam, and wash them in running water. With these two designs, the logwood and gall-black, formerly described, may be associated, to produce a rich effect.
To the preceding practical instructions for printing calicoes, silks, woollens, and mixed fabrics, made of the two latter, a few annotations may be added.
When a uniform colour is to be applied to both sides of the cloth, the padding process is employed; but, when only one side is to be thus colored, diagonal lines are cut very closely to each other upon the cylinder, which transfer so much colour from the trough to the cloth passed under it as to make the surface appear uniformly stained. This process is called mattage by the French. Mordants or topical dyes, to be applied in this way, should not be much thickened.
The doubler is the piece of felt or blanket stuff placed between the cloth to be printed, and the block printing-table, or the cylinders. It should be kept very clean; because, were it soiled with acetate of iron, it would spoil all the light shades made with acetate of alumina.
Filters for the colour shop of a print-house are best made of wool, formed into a substantial conical cap by felting. A filter ought to be set apart for each different dye-stuff.
When the goods after dyeing are washed, by being held by the selvage, dipped, and shaken in a stream of water, the process is called giving a list by the French (donner une listère). The piece is transferred alternately from one hand to another.
Stains. When we observe stains produced by mordants upon spots where no colour is to come, we must, before dunging the goods, apply a little of the lime-juice, or tartaro-oxalic acid discharge paste, to the place. If, on the contrary, the stains are not perceived till after the maddering, we must then apply to it first a strong solution of chloride of lime with a pencil, next a solution of oxalic acid mixed with a little muriatic with another pencil, and immediately afterward wash with water. Every madder stain will be effaced by this means.
Rust stains are removable by a mixture of oxalic and muriatic acid.
Indigo stains by the combined action of chloride of lime and muriatic acid.
Topical yellow stains, or yellow dyes, by the same combination.
Metallic greens and Scheele's green by the acid alone.
Chrome green, and Prussian blue. The blue may be taken out by a caustic alkali; after which the goods must be washed: the residuary rust stain may be removed by the mixture of oxalic and muriatic acids. The above methods refer to cotton and linen. The stains on silk and woollen stuffs should be removed before fixing the colours by the soap boil; which may generally be done by scratching with the finger, with the aid of a little water.
For a direct calico green, see oxyde of CHROME.
Mr. Hudson, of Gale, near Rochdale, obtained a patent, in December, 1834, for a mechanism which furnishes a continual and regular supply of colour to the sieve or tear (tire, Fr.), into which the printer has to dip his block, for the purpose of receiving the colour about to be transferred to the fabric in the operations of printing calicoes or paper hangings. The contrivance consists in a travelling endless web, moved by power, which, by passing progressively from the colour vat over the diaphragm, brings forward continuously an equable supply of the coloured paste for the workman's block.
Fig. 251 [puuttuu] represents the construction of this ingenious apparatus, shown partly in section. a a is a vessel of iron, supported upon wooden standards b b, over the upper surface of which vessel a sheet of diaphragm, c c, of oiled cloth, or other suitable elastic material, is distended and made fast at its edges by being beat over a flange, and packed or cemented to render the joints water-tight. A vertical pipe d is intended to conduct water to the interior of the vessel a, and, by a small elevation of the column, to create such upward pressure as shall give to the diaphragm a slight bulge like the swimming tub.
An endless web, e e e, passing over the surface of the diaphragm, is distended over three rollers, f g h, the lower of which, f, is in contact with the colour-roller i in the colourtrough K. On the axle of the roller i a pulley wheel is fixed, which allows the roller to be turned by a band from any first mover; or the roller may receive rotatory motion by a which fixed on its axle. On this said axle there is also a toothed wheel, taking into a another toothed wheel on the axle of the roller f; hence, the rotation of the colour-roller i in the one direction will cause the roller f to revolve in the opposite, and to carry forward the endless web e e e, over the elastic diaphragm, the web taking with it a stratum of colour received from the roller i, evenly distributed over its surface, wand ready for the printer to dip his block into.
The axles of the rollers f and g turn in stationary bearings; but the axle of h is mounted in sliding nuts, which may be moved by turning the screws m, for the purpose of tightening the endless web. The axle of the colour-roller i turns in mortises, and may be raised by screws n in order to bring its surface into contact with the endless web. To prevent too great a quantity of colour being taken up, the endless web passes through a long slit, or parallel aperture, in a frame o, which acts as a scraper of doctor, and is adjustable by a screw p, to regulate the quantity of colour carried up. The contents of the vessel a, and of the colour-through k, may be discharged when required by a cock in the bottom of each. See PAPER HANGINGS, for the Fondu style.
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