A Dictionary of Arts (supplement): Calico Printing.

(A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice)
Recent improvements in
Arts, Manufactures, and Mines:
Being A supplement to his Dictionary
by Andrew Ure, M. D.,
F.R.S. N.G.S. M.A.S. LOND.; M. ACAD. N.S. PHILAD.; S. PH. SOC.N. GERM. HANOV.; MUHL. ETC., ETC.

Illustrated with one hundred and ninety engravings.

New York: D. Appleton & Company, 200 Broadway.  Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
CALICO PRINTING (4-color machine). Of this beautiful and effective mechanism an accurate section is exhibited at p. 220 of the Dictionary. The outside working gear is shown in fig. 16, where 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. B, is the large iron pressure cylinder, which rests with its gudgeons in bearing 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 is plainly sown 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 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 cylinders, 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 obliquity downward, 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 upward toward the centre of B. The pressure of these two print cylinders, C and F, is produced by two screws, c and d, which work in brass nuts made fast to the frame, and very visible in the figure. The framework in which these bearings and screws are places 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 F partakes of the nature of a spring, a circumstance essential to their working smoothly, notwithstanding 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 the 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 smaller 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 longer 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 desired degree of force, by screwing up the nut g, and hanging on the requisite weights.

The manner in which the cylinder E 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 o. By turning, therefore, the screw m, the weight L, laid upon the end of the longer arm of the lever K (of which there is one on each side of the machine), may be made to act or not at pleasure upon the bearings of the cylinder E. The operation of this exquisite machine is minutely described in the Dictionary, pp. 220, 221.

A patent was obtained in August, 1839, by Mr. J. C. Miller of Manchester, for certain improvements in printing calicoes, consisting of a modified mechanism, by which the same effect can be produced as by block printing.

Figs. 17, 18, 19, are several views of this machine, calculated to print two pieces, or two different patterns (on the same block) of calico, side by side, or four pieces, the carriage printing both ways, the intended device consisting of four colours to be printed from blocks.



Fig. 17 represents a side elevation, fig. 18 a front view, and fig. 19 a transverse section, taken nearly through the middle of the machine.

The side or main framing is shown at a, a, supporting the colour boxes b, b, b, with their doctors; the furnishing tables or beds, c, c, c (substitutes for sieves in ordinary block printing); the printing table, d, d,; and the feeding drying and colouring rollers, f, f, g, g, h, h.



The machine is also provided with a carriage, i, i, for the printing blocks, j, j, j. This carriage, i, i, travels in and out at suitable intervals upon rails, k, k, attached to the main framing.

The operation of the machine is effected by passing a driving strap, l, round the driving pulley m, fixed at the extremity of the main driving shaft, n, n. At the other end of this shaft, the bevil pinion, o, is keyed, gearing at suitable intervals with the bevil wheel p, which is mounted upon the end of the cross shaft q; at about the middle of this shaft, the mitre wheels r, r, driving the upright shaft s, s, and mitre wheels t, t, above, actuate, by means of the spur pinions u, u, the feeding rollers f, f, and thus draw the pieces of goods into the machine.

Simultaneously with the progress of the cloth, the mitre wheels v, v, at the other end of the cross shaft q, drive the furnishing rollers w, w, w, by means of the spur gearing x, x, x. The furnishing rollers, revolving in their respective colour-boxes, spread or apply the colours upon the travelling endless blankets, y, y, y, which pass round the top roller and the furnishing tables or beds, c, c, c, in order to supply the colours is the surfaces of the printing blocks, j, j, j. Either beds or the backs of the printing blocks may be made slightly elastic, to insure the perfect taking up of the colours.

Supposing the carriage, i, i, to be run out upon its railways, at the farthest point from the beds c, c, it is drawn inward toward the furnishing beds c, c, by means of the spur-wheel x, upon the driving-shaft n, taking into a small pinion, l (shown by dots in fig. 17), upon the shaft, 2. On the end of this shaft is also keyed the magic pinion, 3, gearing in the mangle wheel, 4, which is keyed upon the end of the shaft, 5. this shaft drives the spur-wheel, 6, in gear with the pinion, 7, made fast to the shaft, s (see fig. 19).

Upon either end of the shaft, 5, is a rack pinion, 9, taking into the horizontal rack 10, made fast to the carriage-frame, i, i; and  and thus the blocks, j, j, are presented to the furnishing blankets y, y, y, and take a supply of colour ready for printing. The travelling-carriage and blocks now retire, by the agency of the mangle-wheel and pinion, 3 and 4, the pinion being fixed upon the end of the shaft, 2, and the wheel upon the other shaft in a line with the shaft, 2. At this time another operation of the machine takes place.



Upon the reverse end of the shaft, 5, is a pinion, 11, gearing with the spur-wheel, 12; and by means of the spur gearing, 6 and 13, and counter-shaft, 14, the pinion, 15, drives the spur-wheel, 16, which corresponds to the wheel, 12, on the other side of the machine. To one of these spur-wheels are attached by bolts two quadrant levers, 17, 17; and as these wheels revolve by means of the gearing just described, the levers, 17, 17, draw down the chains, 18, 18, actuate the levers, 19 and 20, and thus elevate  the whole series of printing blocks in the parallel grooves, 21, 21; at the same time pressing or closing them into one mass or block by expanding the springs 22, 22; and at the nest of the carriage caused at a proper interval by the agency of the mangle-wheel, the blocks are made to impress the patterns upon the surface of the goods at once, in four or more different colours, and in one, two, or more widths of cloth at one operation.

The cloths is now drawn forward for the space of the exact width of one of the blocks, or sketch of the design, by means of the spur-wheels and pinions, 23, 23, and passed around heated cylinders, g, g, if necessary, and between the delivering rollers out of the machine. These operations are to be repeated by the continuous rotation oft he main driving-shaft, until the printing is completed; the colours making a single advance upon the pattern at every presentation of the blocks, until the whole number of blocks has been presented to the same space or portion of the goods successively.

The steam pipes, 24, are to be in connection with the printing table and drying cylinders, in order to supply a degree of heat during the operation, which may be regulated at pleasure.

To give suitable intervals of rest and motion to the various parts of the driving-gear, an ordinary clutched box, 25 (shown in fig. 19), and regulated by suitable stops fixed to the travelling carriage, is used for throwing the wheel, p, in and out of gear with the pinion, o; this is to prevent clots of colour from being dragged upon the blocks or cloth. - Newton's Journal, xxi. C. S. p. 242.