C (part 1)

CABLE. (Cable, Fr.; Ankertau, Germ.) A strong rope or chain, connecting the ship with the anchor for the purpose of mooring it to the ground. The sheet anchor cable is the strongest, and is used at sea; the stream cable is more slender, being used chiefly in rivers. A cable’s length is 120 fathoms. The greatest improvement in mooring vessels has been the introduction of the chain cable, which, when duly let out, affords in the weight of its long catenary curve, an elastic tension and play to the ship under the pressure of wind. The dead strain upon the anchor is thus greatly reduced, and the sudden pull by which the flukes or arms are readily snapped is in a great measure obviated. The best iron cables are chains made of links, bound and braced by rods across their middle. Experience has taught that the ends of these links wear out much sooner than the sides. To remedy this evil, Mr. Hawkes, iron manufacturer, obtained a patent in July, 1828, for constructing these anchor chains with links considerably stouter at the ends than in the middle. With this view, he forms the short rods of iron, of which the links are to be made, with swells or protuberances about one third of their length from each of their ends, so that when these are welded together, the slenderer parts are at the sides, and the thicker at the ends of the elliptic links. Such rods as the above are formed at once by rolling, swagging, or any other means. When the link is welded, it may be strengthened, by a brace or stretcher fixed across the middle.

The first avowed proposal to substitute iron cables for cordage in the sea service, was made by Mr. Slater, surgeon of the navy, who obtained a patent for the plan in 1808, though he does not seem to have had the means of carrying it into effect; a very general misfortune with ingenious projectors. It was Captain Brown of the West India merchant service who, in 1811, first employed chain cables in the vessel Penelope, of 400 tons burden, of which he was captain. He made a voyage in this ship from England to Martinique and Guadaloupe and home again, in the course of four months, having anchored many times in every variety of ground without any accident. He multiplied his trials, and acquired certain proofs that iron might be substituted for hemp in making cables, not only for mooring vessels, but for the standing rigging. Since this period chain cables have been universally introduced into all the ships of the royal navy, but the twisted links employed at first by Brown, have been replaced by straight ones, stayed in the middle with a cross rod, the contrivance of Mr. Brunton, which was secured by patent in this country and in France; but the latter patent was suffered to fall from not being acted upon within the two years specified by law.

The first thing to be considered in the manufacture of iron cables is, to procure a material of the best quality, and, in using it, always to keep in view the direction of the strain, in order to oppose the maximum strength of the iron to it. The best form of the links may be deduced from the following investigation.

Let A B fig. 215. be a circular link or ring, of one inch rod iron, the outer circumference of the ring being 15 inches, and the inner 9. If equal opposite forces be applied to the two points of the link C D, pulling C towards E, and D towards F, the result will be, when the forces are sufficiently intense, that the circular form of the link will be changed into another form with two round ends and two parallel sides, as seen in fig. 216. The ratio of the exterior to the interior periphery which was originally as 15 to 9, or 5 to 3, is no longer the same in fig. 216. Hence there will be a derangement in the relative position of the component particles, and consequently their cohesion will be progressively impaired, and eventually destroyed. In fig. 215. the segment M N of the outside periphery being equal to 3 inches, the corresponding inside segment will be ⁄5 of it, or 1⁄5 inches. If this portion of the link, in consequence of the stretching force, comes to be extended into a straight line, as shown in fig. 216., the corresponding segments, interior and exterior, must both be reduced to an equal length. The matter contained in the 3 inches of the outside periphery must therefore be either compressed, that is, condensed into 1⁄5 inch, or the inside periphery, which is only 1⁄5 inch already, must be extended to 3 inches; that is to say, the exterior condensation and the interior expansion must take place in a reciprocal proportion. But, in every case, it is impossible to effect this contraction of one side of the rod, and extension of the other, without disrupture of the link.

Let us imagine the outside periphery divided into an infinity of points, upon each of which equal opposite forces act to straighten the curvature: they must undoubtedly occasion the rupture of the corresponding part of the internal periphery. This is not the sole injury which must result; others will occur, as we shall perceive in considering what passes in the portion of the link which surrounds C D, fig. 216., whose length is 4⁄2 inches outside, and 2⁄10 inside. The segments M P and N O, fig. 215., are actually reduced to semi-circumferences, which are inside no more than half an inch, and outside as before. There is thus contraction in the interior, with a quicker curvature or one of shorter radius in the exterior. The derangement of the particles takes place here, in an order inverse to that of the preceding case, but it no less tends to diminish the strength of that portion of the link; whence we may certainly conclude that the circular form of cable links is an extremely faulty one.

Leaving matters as we have supposed in fig. 215., but suppose that G is a rod introduced into the mail, hindering its two opposite points A B from approximating. This circumstance makes a remarkable change in the results. The link pulled as above described, must assume the quadrilateral form shown in fig. 217. It offers more resistance to deformation than before; but as it may still suffer change of shape, it will lose strength in so doing, and cannot therefore be recommended for the construction of cables which are to be exposed to very severe strains.

Supposing still the link to be circular, if the ends of the stay comprehended a larger portion of the internal periphery, so as to leave merely the space necessary for the plan of the next link, there can be no doubt of its opposing more effectively the change of form, and thus rendering the chain stronger. But, notwithstanding, the circular portions which remain between the points of application of the strain and the stay, would tend always to be straightened, and of consequence to be destroyed. Besides, though we could construct circular links of sufficient strength to bear all strains, we ought still to reject them, because they would consume more materials than links of a more suitable form, as we shall presently see.

The effect of two opposite forces applied to the links of a chain, is, as we have seen, to reduce to a straight line or a straight plane every curved part which is not stayed; whence it is obvious that twisted links, such as Brown first employed, even with a stay in their middle, must of necessity be straightened out, because there is no resistance in the direction opposed to the twist. A cable formed of twisted links, for a vessel of 400 tons stretches 30 feet, when put to the trial strain, and draws back only 10 feet. This elongation of 20 feet proceeds evidently from the straightening of the twist in each link, which can take place only by impairing the strength of the cable.

From the preceding remarks, it appears that the strongest links are such as present, in their original form, straight portions between the points of tension; whence it is clear that links with parallel sides and round ends, would be preferable to all others, did not a good cable require to be able to resist a lateral force, as well as one in the direction of its length.

Let us suppose that by some accident the link fig. 216. should have its two extremities pulled towards Y and Z, whilst an obstacle X, placed right opposite to its middle, resisted the effort. The side of the link which touches X, would be bent inwards; but if as in fig. 218., there is a stay A G B, the two sides would be bent at the same time; the link would notwithstanding assume a faulty shape.

In thus rejecting all the vicious forms, we are naturally directed to that which deserves the preference. It is shown in fig. 219. This link has a cast-iron stay with large ends, it presents in all directions a great resistance to every change of form; for let it be pulled in the direction a b, against an obstacle c, it is evident that the portions d e and d f, which are supported by the parts g e and g f, cannot get deformed or be broken without the whole link giving way. As the matter composing g e and g f cannot be shortened, or that which composes d e and d f be lengthened, these four sides will remain necessarily in their relative positions, by virtue of the large-ended stay h, whose profile is shown in fig. 220.

We have examined the strength of a link in every direction, except that perpendicular to its plane. Fig. 221. represents the assemblage of three links in the above predicament; but we ought to observe, that the obstacle C, placed between the links A B, must be necessarily very small, and could not therefore resist the pressure or impact of the two lateral links.

Process of manufacturing iron cables.—The implements and operations are arranged in the following order:—

1. A reverberatory furnace (see Iron), in which a number of rods or round bars of the best possible wrought-iron, and of proper dimensions, are heated to bright ignition.

2. The cutting by a machine of these bars, in equal lengths, but with opposite bevels, to allow of the requisite crossing and splicing of the ends in the act of welding.

3. The bending of each of these pieces by a machine, so as to form the links; the last two operations are done rapidly while the iron is red-hot.

4. The welding of the links at small forge fires, fitted with tools for this express purpose, and the immediate introduction of the stay, by means of a compound lever press.

5. Proving the strength of the cables by an hydraulic press, worked by two men turning a winch furnished with a fly wheel.

The furnace is like those used in the sheet-iron works, but somewhat larger, and needs no particular description here.

Figs. 222. and 223. are a plan and elevation of the shears with which the rods are cut into equal pieces, for forming each a link. It is moved at Mr. Brunton’s factory by a small steam engine, but, for the sake of simplicity, it is here represented worked by four or more labourers, as it may be in any establishment. These must be relieved however frequently by others, for I believe each shears’ machine is calculated to require nearly one horse in steam power. It is portable and must be placed in the neighbourhood of both the furnace and bending machine.

A and B are the two cast-iron limbs of the shears. The first is fixed and the second is movable by means of a crank shaft C, driven by a heavy fly-wheel weighing 7 or 8 cwt.

The cutting jaws G are mounted with pieces of steel which are made fast by bolts, and may be changed at pleasure.

E, the bar of iron to be cut. It is subjected, immediately upon being taken out of the fire, to the shears, under a determinate uniform angle, care being taken not to let it turn round upon its axis, lest the planes of the successive incisions should become unequal.

F is a stop which serves to determine, for the same kind of chain, the equality of length in the link pieces.

Figs. 224, , 226. plan and elevations of the machine for bending the links into an elliptic form. It is represented at the moment when a link is getting bent upon it.

A is an elliptic mandrel of cast-iron; it is fixed upon the top of a wooden pillar B, solidly supported in the ground. C is the jaw of the vice, pressed by a square-headed screw against the mandrel A.

D part of the mandrel comprehended between X and Y, formed as an inclined plane, so as to preserve an interval equal to the diameter of the rod between the two surfaces that are to be welded together.

E rectangular slots (shears) passing through the centre of the nut of the mandrel, in which each of the pins F may be freely slidden.

G horizontal lever of wrought-iron six feet long. It carries at H a pulley or friction-roller of steel, whose position may be altered according to the diameter of the links. It is obvious that as many mandrels are required as there are sizes and shapes of links.

The piece of iron intended to form a link being cut, is carried, while red-hot, to the bending machine, where it is seized with the jaw of the vice C, by one of its ends, the slant of the cut being turned upwards; this piece of iron has now the horizontal direction m n; on pushing the lever G in the line of the arrow, the roller H will force m n to be applied successively in the elliptic groove of the mandrel; thus finally the two faces that are to be welded together will be placed right opposite each other.

The length of the small diameter of the ellipse ought to exceed by a little the length of the stay-piece, to allow of this being readily introduced. The difference between the points F, E is equal to the difference of the radii vectores of the ellipse. Hence it will be always easy to find the eccentricity of the ellipse.

Fig. 227. is a lever press for squeezing the links upon their stays, after the links are welded. This machine consists of a strong cast-iron piece A, in the form of a square, of which one of the branches is laid horizontally, and fixed to a solid bed by means of bolts; the other branch, composed of two cheeks, leaving between them a space of two inches, stands upright. These two cheeks are united at top, and on the back of their plane by a cross piece B. C, a rectangular staple, placed to the right and left of the cheeks through which is passed the mandrel D, which represents and keeps the place of the following link. E, is a press lever, 6 feet long. F, clamp and counterclamp, between which the link is pressed at the moment when the stay is properly placed. There are other clamps, as well as staples C, for changing with each changed dimension of links.

The links bent, as we have seen, are carried to the forge hearth to be welded, and to receive their stay; two operations performed at one heating. Whenever the welding is finished, while the iron is still red-hot, the link is placed upright between the clamps F; then a workman introduces into the staple the mandrel D, and now applies the stay with a pair of tongs or pincers, while another workman strikes down the lever E forcibly upon it. This mechanical compression first of all joins perfectly the sides of the link against the concave ends of the stay, and afterwards the retraction of the iron on cooling increases still more this compression.

If each link be made with the same care, the cable must be sound throughout. It is not delivered for use however till it be proved by the hydraulic press, at a draw-bench made on purpose. The press is an horizontal one, having the axis of its ram in the middle line of the draw-bench, which is about 60 feet long, and is secured to the body of the press by strong bolts.

The portion of chain under trial, being attached at the one end to the end of the ram of the press, and at the other to a cross-bar at the extremity of the draw-bench, two men put the press in action, by turning the winch which works by a triple crank three forcing pumps alternately; the action being equalized by means of a heavy fly-wheel. As long as the resistance does not exceed the force of two men, the whole three pumps are kept in play. After a while one pump is thrown out of geer and next another, only one being worked towards the conclusion. The velocity of the ram being retarded first one third and next two thirds, gives the men a proportional increase of mechanical power.

The strength of two average men thus applied being computed, enables us to know at every instant the resistance opposed by the chain to the pressure of the ram. The strain usually applied to the stronger cables is about 500 tons.

The side beams of the draw-bench are of cast-iron, 6 inches in diameter; the different pieces composing it are adjusted to each other end-wise by turned joints. Props also of cast-iron support the beams two feet asunder, and at the height of 30 inches above the ground. The space between them is filled with an oak plank on which the trial chain is laid.

Strength of iron-cables compared to hemp cables:—

Iron Cables.
Diameter of Iron Rod. Hemp Cables.
Circumference of Rope. Resistance.

Inches. Inches. Tons.

0 ⁄8 9 12

1 10 18

1 ⁄8 11 26

1 ⁄4 12 32

1 ⁄16 13 35

1 ⁄8 14 to 15 38

1 ⁄2 16 44

1 ⁄8 17 52

1 ⁄4 18 60

1 ⁄8 20 70

2 22 to 24 80

It would be imprudent to put hemp cables to severer strains than those indicated in the preceding table, drawn up from Brunton’s experiments; but the iron cables of the above sizes will support a double strain without breaking. They ought never in common cases however to be exposed to a greater stress. A cable destined for ships of a certain tonnage, should not be employed in those of greater burden. Thus treated it may be always trusted to do its duty, and will last longer than the ship to which it belongs. A considerable part of this decided superiority which iron cables have over hemp ones, is undoubtedly due to the admirable form contrived by Brunton. Repeated experiments have proved that his cables possess double the strength of the iron rods with which they are made—a fact which demonstrates that no stronger form can be devised or is in fact possible.

One of the most valuable qualities of iron cables is their resisting lateral as well as longitudinal strains as explained under figs. 219. and 221.

Vessels furnished with such cables have been saved by them from the most imminent peril. The Henry, sent out with army stores during the peninsular war, was caught on the northern coast of Spain in a furious storm. She run for shelter into the Bay of Biscay among the rocks, where she was exposed for three days to the hurricane. She possessed fortunately one of Brunton’s 70 fathom chain cables, which held good all the time, but it was found afterwards to have had the links of its lower portion polished bright by attrition against the rocky bottom. A hemp cable would have been speedily torn to pieces in such a predicament.

In the contracts of the Admiralty for chain cables for the British navy, it is stipulated that “the iron shall have been manufactured in the best manner from pig iron, smelted from iron-stone only, and selected of the best quality for the purpose, and shall not have received in any process whatever subsequent to the smelting, the admixture of either the cinder or oxides produced in the manufacture of iron; and shall also have been puddled in the best manner upon iron bottoms, and at least three times sufficiently drawn out at three distinct welding heats, and at least twice properly fagotted.”

The following is a table of the breaking proof of chain cables, and of the iron for the purpose of making them, also of the proofs required by her majesty’s navy for chains.

Size of Bolt. Proof of Bolt. Proof of Chain. Navy
Proof of Chain.

Inches. Tons. Cwt. Tons. Cwt. Tons.

⁄2 5 7 8 11 4 ⁄2

⁄8 8 7 13 4 5 ⁄2

⁄4 12 1 19 5 10 ⁄8

⁄8 16 4 26 5 13 ⁄4

1 21 8 34 5 18

1 ⁄8 27 2 48 15 22 ⁄4

1 ⁄4 33 10 53 11 28 ⁄2

1 ⁄8 40 10 65 0 34

1 ⁄2 48 4 77 0 40 ⁄2

1 ⁄8 56 11 90 10 47 ⁄2

1 ⁄4 65 12 105 0 55 ⁄8

1 ⁄8 75 6 120 10 63 ⁄4

2 85 14 137 0 72

2 ⁄8 96 15 155 0 81 ⁄4

In Brunton’s cable the matter in the link is thrown very much into one plane; the link being of an oval form, and provided with a stay. As there are emergencies in which the cable must be severed, this is accomplished in those of iron by means of a bolt and sheckle (shackle), at every fathom or two fathoms; so that by striking out this bolt or pin, this cable is parted with more ease than a hempen one can be cut.

CACAO, BUTTER OF. See Cocoa, and Oils, Unctuous.

CADMIUM, is a metal discovered about the beginning of the year 1818. It occurs chiefly in Silesia in several ores of zinc; and may be readily recognized by means of the blowpipe; for at the first impression of the reducing or smoky part of the flame, the ores containing cadmium stain the charcoal all round them with a reddish yellow circle of oxide of cadmium. The Silesian native oxide of zinc contains from 1⁄2 to 11 per cent. of cadmium.

The cadmium may be extracted by dissolving the ore in sulphuric acid, leaving the solution acidulous, and diluting it with water, then transmitting through it a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen, till the yellow precipitate ceases to fall. This powder which is sulphuret of cadmium, is to be dissolved in concentrated muriatic acid, the excess of which is to be expelled by evaporation; and the muriatic salt being dissolved in water, carbonate of ammonia is to be added in excess, whereby the cadmium separates as a carbonate, while the small portion of adhering copper or zinc is retained in solution by the ammonia. Herapath has shown that, in distilling zinc per descensum (see Zinc), the first portions of gaseous metal which are disengaged burn with a brown flame and deposit the brown oxide of cadmium.

Cadmium has the colour and lustre of tin; and is susceptible of a fine polish. Its fracture is fibrous; it crystallizes readily in regular octahedrons, and when it suddenly solidifies, its surface gets covered with fine mossy vegetations. It is soft, easily bent, filed, and cut, soils like lead any surface rubbed with it. It is harder and more tenacious than tin, and emits a creaking sound when bent, like that metal. It is very ductile, and may be drawn out into fine wire, and hammered into thin leaves without cracking at the edges. Its specific gravity, after being merely melted, is 8·604; and 8·6944 after it has been hammered. It is very fusible, melting at a heat much under redness; indeed at a temperature little exceeding that of boiling mercury, it boils and distils over in drops. Its vapours have no smell. It is but slightly altered by exposure to air. When heated in the atmosphere, it readily takes fire, and burns with a brownish yellow smoke which is destitute of smell. In strong acids it dissolves with disengagement of hydrogen, and forms colourless solutions. Chromate of potash causes no precipitate in them, unless zinc or lead be present.

There is only one oxide of cadmium, the brown above-mentioned. Its specific gravity is 8·183. It is neither fusible nor volatile at a very high temperature. When in the state of a hydrate it is white. The oxide of cadmium consists of 87·45 parts of metal, and 12·55 oxygen in 100 parts. Berzelius states its atomic weight to be 55·833 to hydrogen 1·000. Its sulphuret has a fine orange yellow colour, and would form a beautiful pigment, could the metal be found in sufficient quantity for the purposes of art. The sulphate is applied to the eyes by surgeons for removing specks of the cornea.

CAFEINE. A chemical principle discovered in coffee, remarkable for containing much azote. See Coffee.

CAJEPUT OIL is obtained from the leaves of the tree called Melaleuca Leucadendron by Linnæus, which grows upon the mountains of Amboyna, and in other of the Molucca islands. It is procured by distillation of the dried leaves along with water, is prepared in great quantities in the island of Banda, and sent to Holland in copper flasks. Hence as it comes to us, it has a green colour. It is very limpid, lighter than water, of a strong smell resembling camphor, and pungent taste like cardamoms. When rectified the copper remains in the retort, and the oil comes over colourless. It is used in medicine as a stimulant. See Oils Ethereous.

CALAMANCO. A sort of woollen stuff of a shining appearance, chequered in the warp, so that the checks are seen only upon one side.

CALAMINE. A native carbonate of zinc. See Zinc.

CALCAREOUS EARTH. (Terre calcaire, Fr.; Kalkerde, Germ.) Commonly denotes lime, in any form; but, properly speaking, it is pure lime.

CALCAREOUS SPAR. Crystallized native carbonate of lime.

CALCEDONY. A hard mineral of the siliceous family, often cut into seals. Under it may be grouped common calcedony, heliotrope, chrysoprase, plasma, onyx, sardonyx, and sard.

CALCHANTUM. The ancient name of native copperas or sulphate of iron.

CALCINATION, is the chemical process of subjecting metallic bodies to heat with access of air, whereby they are converted into a pulverulent matter, somewhat like lime in appearance, called calx in Latin. The term calcination, however, is now used when any substance whatever is exposed to a roasting heat.

CALCIUM. The metallic basis of lime. See Lime.

CALC-SINTER. The incrustations of carbonate of lime upon the ground, or the pendulous conical pieces called stalactites, attached to the roofs of caverns, are so called.

CALC-TUFF. A semi-hard irregular deposit of carbonate of lime, formed from the waters of calcareous springs.

CALCULUS. The stony-looking morbid concretion, occasionally formed in the bladder of urine, gall-bladder, cystic duct, kidneys, and other parts of living animals. Its examination belongs to medical chemistry.

CALENDER, (Calandre, Fr.; Kalander, Germ.) a word derived from the Greek kalindros (cylinder), is the name of a machine, consisting of two or more cylinders, revolving so nearly in contact with each other that cloth passed through between them is smoothed, and even glazed, by their powerful pressure. It is employed either to finish goods for the market, or to prepare cotton and linen webs for the calico-printer, by rendering their surfaces level, compact, and uniform. This condensation and polish, or satinage, as the French call it, differ in degree according to the object in view, and may be arranged into three distinct series. 1. For goods which are to receive the first impression by the block, a very strong pressure is required; for, upon the uniformity of the polish, the neatness and regularity of the printing, and the correspondence of its members, depend. In many establishments the calico is passed twice through the calender before being sent to the tables. 2. The pieces already dyed up at the madder bath, or otherwise, and which remain to be filled in with other colours, or grounded-in, as it is technically styled, must receive a much less considerable gloss. This is a principle every where admitted and acted upon, because the outline of the figured design being deranged by the washing, and sometimes in consequence of the peculiar texture of the cloth, the printer, in order to apply his grounding blocks properly, and to fit them to the contours of the figures already impressed, is obliged to stretch the piece sometimes in the direction of the warp, and sometimes of the weft, which would be impossible if they had been hard glazed by the calender. 3. The degree of glazing given to finished goods depends upon the taste of purchasers, and the nature of the article; but it is, in general, much less than for the first course of block-printing.

The most complete calender probably in existence is that used by some of the eminent calico-printers of Alsace, as contrived by M. Charles Dollfus, and constructed by MM. Witz, Blech, and Co. 1. It passes two pieces at once, and thus does double the work of any ordinary machine. 2. It supersedes the necessity of having a workman to fold up the goods, as they emerge from the calender, with the aid of a self-acting folder. 3. It receives, at pleasure, the finished pieces upon a roller, instead of laying them in folds; and, by a very simple arrangement, it hinders the hands of the workmen from being caught by the rollers.

Calenders, in consequence of the irregular demand for foreign orders and shipments, are worked very irregularly, being sometimes overloaded with duty, and at others altogether unemployed. A machine which can, when required, turn out a double quantity of goods must, therefore, be a desirable possession. For the first course of the printers, where high calendering is necessary, the goods are usually passed twice through between two paper cylinders, to give that equality of surface which could not be obtained by one passage, however strong the pressure; and therefore the simplification of this calender will prove no economy. Besides, in order to increase the pressure to the requisite degree, the cylinders would need to be made bulging at their middle part, and with such cylinders common smoothing could not be given; for the pieces would be glazed in the central line, and rough towards the edges. For pieces already printed in part, and requiring only to be grounded-in for other colours, the system of double effect has fewer objections, as a single passage through the excellent calender described under Bleaching, page 134., is found to answer very well.

The most remarkable feature of M. Dollfus’s machine is its being managed by a single workman. Six or eight pieces are coiled upon the feed-roller, and they are neither pasted nor stitched together, but the ends are merely overlapped half a yard or so. The workman is careful not to enter the second piece till one third or one half of the first one has passed through on the other side, to prevent his being engrossed with two ends at a time. He must, no doubt, go sometimes to the one side and sometimes to the other of the machine to see that no folds or creases occur, and to be ready for supplying a fresh piece as the preceding one has gone through. The mechanism of the folder in the Alsace machine is truly ingenious: it performs extremely well, really saves the attendance of an extra workman, and is worthy the attention of manufacturers intent upon economising hand labour. The lapping-roller works by friction, and does its duty fully better than similar machines guided by the hand.

The numerous accidents which have happened to the hands of workmen engaged in calenders should direct the attention towards its effective contrivance for preventing such misfortunes. These various improvements in the Alsace machine may be easily adapted to the ordinary calenders of almost every construction.

The folder is a kind of cage, in the shape of an inverted pyramid, shut on the four sides, and open at top and bottom: the top orifice is about five inches, the bottom one an inch and a half: the front and the back, which are about four feet broad, are made of tin-plate or smooth pasteboard, and the two sides are made of strong sheet-iron; the whole being bolted together by small bars of iron. Upon the sheet-iron of the sides, iron uprights are fixed, perforated with holes, through which the whole cage is supported freely by means of studs that enter into them. One of the uprights is longer than the other, and bears a slot with a small knob, which, by means of the iron piece, joins the guide to the crank of the cylinder, and thereby communicates to the cage a seesaw movement: at the bottom extremity of the great upright, there is a piece of iron in the shape of an anchor, which may be raised, or lowered, or made fast, by screws.

At the ends of this anchor are friction-rollers, which may be drawn out or pushed back and fixed by screws: these rollers lift alternately two levers made of wood, and fixed to a wooden shaft.

The paws are also made of wood: they serve to lay down alternately the plies of the cloth which passes upon the cage, and is folded zigzag upon the floor, or upon a board set below the cage: a motion imparted by the seesaw motion of the cage itself. See Stretching Machine.

To protect the fingers of the workmen, above the small plate of the spreading-board or bar, there is another bar, which forms with the former an angle of about 75°: they come sufficiently near together for the opening at the summit of the angle to allow the cloth to pass through, but not the fingers. See Bulletin de la Société Industrielle de Mulhausen, No. 18.

I shall now describe, more minutely, the structure of the powerful but less complicated calender mechanisms employed in the British manufactories.

A front elevation of a four-rollered calender (five rollers are often introduced) for glazing goods is given in fig. 228. d l are two pasteboard or paper cylinders, each 20 inches in diameter, whose structure will be presently described: f is a cast-iron cylinder turned perfectly smooth (its fellow is often placed between e and d): it is eight inches in diameter outside, four inches inside, with two inches thickness of metal. e is another pasteboard cylinder, fourteen inches in diameter: the strong cast-iron frame contains the bushes in which the journals of the rollers turn. o p, is one of the pair of levers for communicating a graduated pressure according to the quality of the goods. Fig. 229, 230. are end views of the same machine to show the working geer. The wheel s, on the end of the upper iron cylinder, is ten inches in diameter; that on the end of the fellow iron cylinder below (when it is present) is thirteen inches; both are connected by the larger carrier wheel t. The lower wheel u is one third larger than the upper wheel, and therefore receives from the carrier wheel t, a proportionally slower motion, which it imparts to the central pasteboard roller e, lying upon it, causing it to move one third more slowly than the upper pasteboard roller. Thus a sort of sliding motion is produced, which, by rubbing their surfaces, glazes the goods.

The iron rollers are made hollow for the purpose of admitting either a hot roller of iron, or steam when hot calendering is required. The other cylinders used formerly to be made of wood, but it was liable to many defects. The advantage of the paper roller consists in its being devoid of any tendency to split, crack, or warp, especially when exposed to a considerable heat from the contact and pressure of the hot iron rollers. The paper, moreover, takes a vastly finer polish, and, being of an elastic nature, presses into every pore of the cloth, and smooths its surface more effectually than any wooden cylinder, however truly turned, could possibly do.

The paper cylinder is constructed as follows:—The axis of the cylinder is a strong square bar of the best wrought iron, cut to the proper length. Upon this bar a strong round plate of cast iron is first put, somewhat less in diameter than the cylinder when finished. A quantity of thick stout pasteboard is then procured, and cut into round pieces an inch larger in diameter than the iron plate. In the centre of the plates, and of every piece of the pasteboard, a square hole must be cut to receive the axis; and, the circle being divided into six equal parts, a hole must also be cut at each of the divisions, an inch or two within the rim. These pieces of pasteboard being successively put upon the axis, a long bolt of malleable iron, with a head at one end, and screwed at the other, is also introduced through each of the holes near the rim; and this is continued until a sufficient number of pasteboards are thus placed to form a cylinder of the length required, proper allowance being made for the compression which the pasteboard is afterwards to undergo. Another round plate is then applied, and, nuts being put upon the screws, the whole are screwed tight, and a cylinder formed. This cylinder is now to be placed in a stove, exposed to a strong heat, and must be kept there for at least several days; and, as the pasteboard shrinks by exposure to the heat, the screws must be frequently tightened until the whole mass has been compressed as much as possible. When the cylinder is thus brought to a sufficient degree of density it is removed from the stove; and, when allowed to cool, the pasteboard forms a substance almost inconceivably dense and hard. Nothing now remains but to turn the cylinder; and this is an operation of no slight labour and patience. The motion in turning must be slow, not exceeding about forty revolutions in a minute; the substance being now so hard and tough that tools of a very small size must be used to cut, or rather scrape it, until it is true. Three men are generally employed for the turning, even when the motion of the cylinder is effected by mechanical power, two being necessary to sharpen tools, for the third who turns, as quickly as he blunts them.

Let us suppose it to be a five-rollered machine: when a person stands in front of the calender, the cloth coming from behind above the uppermost cylinder 1, passes between 1 and 2: proceeding behind 2, it again comes to the front between 2 and 3: between 3 and 4 it is once more carried behind, and, lastly, brought in front between 4 and 5, where it is received, and smoothly folded on a clean board, or in a box, by a person placed there for the purpose. In folding the cloth at this time, care must be taken that it may be loosely done, so that no mark may appear until it be again folded in the precise length and form into which the piece is to be made up. The folding may be done either by two persons or by one, with the aid of two sharp polished spikes placed at a proper distance, to ascertain the length of the fold, and to make the whole equal. When folded into lengths, it is again folded across upon a smooth clean table, according to the shape intended, which varies with the different kinds of goods, or the particular market for which the goods are designed.

When the pieces have received the proper fold, the last operation previous to packing them is the pressing. This is commonly performed by placing a certain number of pieces, divided by thin smooth boards of wood, in a common screw press, similar to those used by printers for taking out the impression left by the types in the printing-press. Besides the wooden boards, a piece of glazed pasteboard is placed above and below every piece of cloth, that the outer folds may be as smooth and glossy as possible. The operation of the common screw press being found tedious and laborious, the hydraulic press is now in all well mounted establishments had recourse to. See Hydraulic Press.

No improvements that have taken place in calendering can exceed the power and facility of the water press: one of these presses may be worked by two men, who can with great ease produce a pressure of 400 tons; but, in considerable establishments, the presses are worked by power. See Bandanna.

The appearance and finish of the goods, in consequence of such an immense weight acting on them, are materially improved.

The press is also used for the purpose of packing; whereby the bale is rendered much more compact than formerly. It is commonly roped, &c., while in this compressed state; the dimensions, are therefore, greatly diminished from what they would otherwise be by any other method. For instance, the same quantity of goods packed in a bale are from one third to one half less bulky than if they were packed in a box with the utmost force of the hands.

For lawns and muslins of a light texture, the operation of smoothing requires a different process in some respects than close heavy fabrics. They only require to be slightly smoothed to remove any marks which they may have received at the bleaching; and, as their beauty depends rather on their transparency than their closeness, the more the cylindrical form of the yarn is preserved the better. They are therefore put through a small machine, consisting of three rollers or cylinders; and, as the power required to move this is small, the person who attends it generally drives it by a small winch; or the same effect may be produced by passing the muslins between only two or three rollers of the above calender, lightly loaded.

In the thick fabrics of cloth, including those kinds which are used for many parts of household furniture, as also those for female dress, the operation of glazing is used both to add to the original beauty of the cloth, and to render it more impervious to dust or smoke. The glazing operation is performed entirely by the friction of any smooth substance upon the cloth; and, to render the gloss brighter, a small quantity of bleached wax is previously rubbed over the surface. The operation of glazing by the common plan is very laborious, but the apparatus is of the most simple kind. A table is mounted with a thick stout cover of level and well-smoothed wood, forming an inclined plane; that side where the operator stands at work being the lowest. The table is generally placed near a wall, both for convenience in suspending the glazing apparatus, and for the sake of light. A long piece of wood is suspended in a groove formed between two longitudinal beams, placed parallel to the wall, and fixed to it. The groove resembles exactly the aperture between the shears of a common turning lathe. The lever, of which the groove may be supposed to be the centre or fulcrum, is faced at the bottom with a semi-cylindrical piece of finely polished flint, which gives the friction to the cloth stretched upon the table below. Above the flint are two cross handles, of which the operator lays hold, and moves them backward and forward with his hands, keeping the flint pressing slightly upon the cloth. When he has glazed a portion equal to the breadth of the flint, he moves his lever between the shears sidewise, and glazes a fresh part: thus he proceeds from one side or selvage of the cloth to the other: and when all which is upon the table is sufficiently glazed, he draws it over, and exposes a new portion to the same operation. To preserve the cloth at a proper tension, it may be wound smoothly upon a roller or beam, which being set so as to revolve upon its own axis behind the table, another roller to receive the cloth may be placed before, both being secured by a catch, acting in a ratchet wheel. Of late years, however, a great part of the labour employed in glazing cloth has been saved, as the common four or five bowl calender has been altered to fit this purpose by direct pressure.

As a matter of accommodation, the different processes of packing, cording of boxes, sheeting of trunks, and, in general, all the arrangements preparatory to shipments, and also the intimations and surveys necessary for obtaining drawbacks, debentures, or bounties, according to the excise laws, are generally conducted at the calender houses where goods are finished. These operations sufficiently account for the general meaning attached to the word.

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 dearer, 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 first 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 cauldron of the boiling dye-liquor, they are found to become painted. Yet, as there is only one colour in the cauldron, 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 cauldron, which would of itself merely confuse the colours of cloths previously dyed, is thus made to impart several pigments from a single dye-stuff, 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 pallampoors, 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 action 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 primeval art. There is among other samples an ancient pallampoor, five French yards long, and two and a half broad, said to be the labour of Hindoo 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 labour 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 1696, 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 India House in revenge for some large importations then made of the chintzes of Malabar. They next induced the government, by incessant clamours, to exclude altogether the beautiful robes of Calicut 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 enactment, 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 operation 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 weft 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 neighbourhood of London; whereas a single manufacturer, Mr. Coates of Manchester, now-a-days will turn off nearly twenty times that 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 homogeneous 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 employed, 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 Rouen deputies declared to the government, “that the intended measure would throw its inhabitants into despair, and make a desert of the surrounding country;” those of Lyons said, “the news had spread terror through all its work-shops:” Tours “foresaw a commotion 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 came forward to bathe the throne with their tears upon that inauspicious 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 the English. In the district of the Lower Seine, round that town, there are 500 cotton factories of different kinds, which give employment to 118 thousand 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 3⁄2d. 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, due to the modern discoveries and inventions in chemistry and mechanics, the trade had become so vast as to yield in 1830 a revenue of 2,280,000l. levied upon 8,596,000 of 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 350,000l. 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 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 merchandize, ruinous to them and 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 colours in a well-mounted laboratory. In that belonging to M. Daniel Kœchlin, of Mulhausen, there are upwards of 3000 labelled phials, filled with chemical reagents, and specimens subservient to dyeing. The great disadvantage under which the French printers labour 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 shall 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 33⁄2 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 Kœchlin, deputy of the Upper Rhine, says, that one of his foremen, who worked for a year in a print-field 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 our neighbours. 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 labours under the burden of considerable taxes upon madder and gallipoli oil, which have counteracted the prosperity of our Turkey red styles of work, and caused them to nourish at Elberfeld, and some other places on the continent, whither a good deal of the English yarns are sent to be dyed, then brought back, and manufactured into ginghams, 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 printer’s 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 lengths 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 printing-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, placed 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 automaton 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 bas-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 taps 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 buoyancy. 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 colour, 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 of cloth 28 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 colour; so that if there are 3 colours, or 3 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 deal 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 B, 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 E, which carries the white calico to be printed. The hanging rollers E are laid across joists 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 drying 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 colour, 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 colour, 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 length 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 expert hands. I have seen its operation, in many factories in France and Belgium, 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 2⁄2 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 axis 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 colour-giving 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 name 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. 233. 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 gun-metal, 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 colour 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 printing, 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 cylinder A, and has no traverse motion.

What was stated with regard to the bearers of the colour trough D, namely, that they are connected, and moved up and down together with the bearings of the cylinder A, may also be 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, an 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 to 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 judgment 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 oxidizement 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 volutory 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. By 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 be properly rolled over the copper surface again.

At other times, the hard roller die is placed in the upper bed of a 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 amidst 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 movable 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 arcs of the circle. The disc die being now brought down to bear upon the copper cylinder, this is turned round through an arc 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 a one-cylinder machine. But when 2, 3, or 4 cylinders are to be engraved with the same pattern for a two, three, or four-coloured 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-coloured 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-coloured 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 honour to this country. The economy of labour introduced by these machines is truly marvellous; one of them, under the guidance of a man to regulate the rollers, and the service of a boy, to supply the colour troughs, being capable of printing as many pieces as nearly 200 men and boys could do with blocks. The perfection of the engraving is most honourable 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-colour 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 is 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 obliquity 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 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 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 F, 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 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 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 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 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 E.

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 stated, 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 trough q, and the colour roller M. This trough, 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 s, 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 z, pressing upon an arm which projects downwards, and is attached to the axle of that doctor.

The bearings of the second printing cylinder D, consist 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 brasses 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 D, 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 b′, fixed at the bearings of the cylinder, and whose ends are suspended by screws g′; whereby the colour roller N, may be pressed with greater or less force to the cylinder D. h′ and i′ are the two doctors of this cylinder; the former being the colour, 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 these 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 each 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 E, 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 E.

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 z′, 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 in supplying the engraved lines of the cylinder with colour. 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 the 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 eccentrics, one of which serves to give a vibratory traverse movement to the colour doctors s′, 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 S, 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 then 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-colour 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-coloured 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 colour; 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 hygrometers, 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 evaporates 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 meagre 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 flue, through which humid vapours are in constant circulation.

In padding, where the whole surface of the calico is imbued with mordant, the drying apartment or 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 dye-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, phials, 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 nut-galls, of old fustic, of archil or cutbear, of cochineal, of cochineal with ammonia, of catechu.

The following mordants should also be kept ready prepared:—

1. Aluminous mordant.
1. Take 50 gallons of boiling water.
1. Take 100 lbs. of alum.
1. Take 10 lbs. of soda crystals.
1. Take 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 11⁄2° Baumé. It serves for reds and pinks, and enters into the composition of puce and lilac.

2. Aluminous mordant.
2. Take 50 gallons of water.
2. Take 100 lbs. of alum.
2. Take 10 lbs. of soda crystals.
2. Take 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.
3. Take 50 gallons of water.
3. Take 100 lbs. of alum.
3. Take 6 lbs. of soda crystals.
3. Take 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.
5. Take 12⁄2 gallons of water.
5. Take 100 lbs. of alum.
5. Take 150 lbs. of liquid pyrolignite of lime at 11⁄2° Baumé.

This mordant is made with heat like the first; after cooling, some alum crystallizes, and it marks only 12⁄2° B.

A mordant is made by solution of alum in potash, commonly called—

6. Aluminate of potash. The caustic lye 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 lye 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 lye. 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 pyrolignous 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 should 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 afterwards subjected first to a cold dye, as the indigo vat, and then to a hot dye-bath, with the effect of producing white or coloured spots upon a blue ground.

4. The discharge or rongeant 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-coloured 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 decolouring or 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 are 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-colour 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, 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 care 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 pyrolignous 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 chintz, they must be branned 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 expeditious, 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 chintz 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. 1·04, 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 tingeing decoction.

8. Violet mordants.—These consist either of a very weak solution of acetate of iron, of spec. 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 through 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. 1·288. 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 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 lye 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 3⁄2 gallons of caustic soda lye of spec. grav. 1·15.
Take 3⁄2 lbs. of ground indigo.
Take 5 lbs. of precipitated protoxide of tin (as above).

Boil the mixed ingredients for ten minutes, take them from the fire, and add, first, 3 lbs. 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 greyish 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 1⁄2 pounds of solution of muriate of tin, to 2 quarts of soda lye of 1·15, thickened with 2⁄2 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 2⁄4 ounces of a liquid Prussian blue colour, 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.

Colours from metallic oxides 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;
Take 150 pounds of sulphate of iron; dissolve along with
Take 10 pounds of alum; which partly saturate by the gradual addition of
Take 5 pounds of crystals of soda; and in this mixture dissolve
Take 50 pounds of pyrolignous acetate of lead. Allow the whole to settle, and draw off the clear supernatant liquid.

For furniture prints this bath should have 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 lye 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 lye.

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 lye, 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 lye of spec. grav. 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 lye 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, rince, 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 cloth 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 libs. of sulphate of copper.
This solution is to be thickened with
2 libs. of gum senegal, 1 lib. of British gum, and 4 libs. of pipe-clay; adding afterwards, 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 lib. of sulphate of copper; and thicken this solution with
2 libs. of gum senegal, 1 lib. of British gum, and 4 libs. of pipe-clay.

3. White reserve for the cylinder machine.

Take 1⁄2 gallons of water; in which dissolve

2⁄2 libs. of binacetate of copper,
10 libs. of sulphate of copper; and add to the solution
6 libs. of acetate of lead; then thicken with
10 libs. of gum; adding afterwards 10 libs. 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 226, 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 libs. 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 libs. of nitrate of lead,
1 lib. of binacetate of copper; to the solution, add
⁄2 lib. of subacetate of lead; and thicken the mixed solution with
3 libs. of gum.
6 libs. 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 an 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 become 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 peroxide of iron, made by adding 1 lib. acetate of lead to 3 libs. of nitrate of iron, spec. grav. 1·56.
⁄8 ounce of gallipoli oil.

This topical black forms a fast colour, and resists the fine blue vat, weak potash lye, bichromate of potash, boiling milk of lime, dunging 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 libs. alum, 10 libs.

soda crystals, and 100 libs. 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,

3⁄4 libs. of binarseniate of potash, and
12 ounces of corrosive sublimate; thicken with
3 libs. of gum, and 6 libs. 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. 223).

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 in it,

44 ounces of binarseniate 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 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, carmelite, 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 lye, to raise the buff iron colour.

IV. The Discharge style; first, of simple discharges.

1. Discharge for 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 pulverised gum; as soon as the gum is dissolved, the mixture must be put through a searce.

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 of tartar adding, to facilitate the solution,
1 pound of warm sulphuric acid of spec. grav. 1·7674; after 24 hours mix
4 libs. of pipe or China clay, and three libs. 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 of 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:—

Course. Quantity
by measure of
No. 1. Quantity
by measure of
water or mucilage.

No. 1 1 0

2 11 1

3 10 2

4 8 4

5 6 6

6 4 8

7 2 10

8 2 12

9 2 14

10 2 16

11 2 18

12 2 20

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. 4. with starch.
Second blue, No. 9. with gum.

Impression of three 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.

No. 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:—

Dip in the 1st vat. During 10 minutes. Drain during 5 minutes.

2 — —

1 — —

2 — —

3 — —

2 — —

1 — —

2 — —

1 — —

2 — —

3 — —

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 oxide 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 oxide is formed upon its whole surface, which oxide 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-oxidizement recurs; causing a progressively increasing fixation of indigo within the fibres of the cotton. A deposit of sulphate of lime and oxide 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 favour 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 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 decolouring 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 colour. Among the topical colours for this style are the following:—

1. Black.—Take one gallon of iron liquor of spec. grav. 1·086.
1. Black.—One pound of starch; boil together, and while the paste is hot, dissolve in it
1. Black.—One pound of tartaric acid in powder; and when cold, add
1. Black.—Two pounds of Prussian blue, prepared with muriatic acid, see p. 226.
1. Black.—Two ounces of lamp black, with four ounces of oil.
2. White discharge.—Take one gallon of water; in which dissolve
2. White discharge.—One pound and a half of oxalic acid,
2. White discharge.—Three pounds of tartaric acid; add
2. White discharge.—One gallon of lime juice of spec. grav. 1·22; and thicken with
2. White discharge.—Twelve pounds of pipe clay, and six pounds of gum.
3. Chrome-green discharge.—
3. Chrome-green disTake one gallon of water, thicken with 18 ounces of starch; boil
3. Chrome-green disand dissolve in the hot paste
3. Chrome-green disTwo pounds and a half of powdered nitrate of lead,
3. Chrome-green disOne pound and a half of tartaric acid,
3. Chrome-green disTwo pounds of Prussian blue, as above.
4. Blue discharge.—Take one gallon of water, thicken with
4. Blue discharge.18 ounces of gum; while the boiled paste is hot, dissolve in it
4. Blue discharge.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.
7. Take one gallon of lime juice of sp. grav. 1·086; dissolve in it
7. Five pounds of tartaric acid; thicken with
7. Eight pounds of pipe-clay, four pounds of gum; then dissolve in the mixture
7. Three pounds of muriate of tin in crystals; and add, finally,
7. Twenty-four ounces of sulphuric acid.
8. Yellow discharge for Turkey red.—
8. Yellow Take one gallon of lime juice of spec. grav. 1·086; in which dissolve
8. Yellow Four pounds of tartaric acid,
8. Yellow Four pounds of nitrate of lead; thicken the solution with
8. Yellow 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 decolouring 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 decolouring strength is 65° by Gay Lussac’s indigo chlorometer. It ought to be made turbid by stirring before putting 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, then 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 Kœchlin, 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 odour.

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, an 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 colour, which can hardly be obtained in any other way, except by the chintz 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, placed about a quarter of an inch asunder. 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 a pipe, mounted with a stop-cock for regulating the admission of steam from the main steam-boiler 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 enters into one side of that box, and is provided, of course, with a stop-cock. The condensed 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, stitched 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 uncoiled, to prevent the chance of any aqueous condensation. I was much surprised, at first, 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 colours are all topical, though, for many of them, the pieces are previously padded with mordants of various kinds. Some manufacturers run the goods before printing them through 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.

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 colour; 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-colour cylinder machine; dried and steamed. Though greens 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.

VIII. Spirit or 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 colour, 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-colour cylinder machine. See Rinsing Machine.

Chocolate, is given by extract of Brazil-wood, extract of logwood, nitromuriate 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 up 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 colour.

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 colour.

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 or 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 lime-water, 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 oxide 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 white discharge; a fast colour.—The cloth is padded with acetate of alumina, and dried in the hot flue; it is then passed through a two-colour machine, the one cylinder of which prints-on lime-juice discharge, thickened with gum senegal; the other a 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-colour 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, are printed-on by the two-colour 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 oxide 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 designs 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-colour machine. The goods are next to be dried, and padded through a cold caustic lye 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 2⁄2 libs. 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 lye, 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 colour.

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 224.

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 2 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 libs. 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 1·056 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 lye 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 oxide 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 lanthorn; 2. By the cask; 3. By the chest; or 4. By the chamber.

1. By the lanthorn.—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 lanthorn 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 4⁄2 feet high, 6 feet long, and 4 feet wide. The distance of the point A from the line E B 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 pully 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 steam-tight with lists of cloth. Through the centre of the table, the two-inch steam pipe M passes; it is surmounted with an hemispherical rose pierced with numerous holes for the equal distribution of the steam. Right above it, a disc N 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 wood 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 pierced 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 studded 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 4 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, bearing 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 L, 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 e 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 seen 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 slightly tied with packthread. When these flat bobbins are arranged in the 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 9 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 slots, and are secured by strong iron bars and pressure screws. The cross rods, E F G H, are provided with hooks for hanging up the pieces. There is a safety-valve in the top of this large chamber. The dimensions of the frame are 10 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 7 high. 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 an 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 colour, like merinos 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 colour; the more of which are present, the shorter should be the steaming period. A dry vapour 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, neutralised 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, neutralised nitrate of iron; see supra.

3. Deep poppy or ponceau colour.—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 colour.—Quercitron and cochineal thickened with starch; to the paste add oxalic acid, and perchloride of tin.

7. Annotto orange.—Dissolve the annotto in soda lye, 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., 1 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 crystallised 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.;
3. Violet. 2 ounces of cream of tartar; 2 ounces of nitre; 2 ounces of copperas;
3. Violet. 1 ounce of alum: dissolve, and mix the solution with
3. Violet. 1 gallon of gum water, containing 6 libs. of gum.

4. Puce. Half a gallon of red mordant; half a gallon of iron liquor of 1·07;
4. Puce. 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 libs. 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 colour. 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 is 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-colour printed cottons.

Black.—Take a gallon of decoction, made with 4 libs. of logwood, with which
Black.—14 ounces of starch are to be combined: mix in
Black.—2 ounces of powdered nut-galls: boil, and pour the colour into a pipkin containing
Black.—2 ounces of tartaric acid; 2 ounces of oxalic, both in powder, and
Black.—2 ounces of olive oil. Stir the colour till it is cold, and add
Black.—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 colours 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 libs. 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 colour.

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 may 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 2⁄2 libs. of rosin; 1 lib. 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 dry, 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, A C, B D, 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, containing 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 duration of the passage through the acid should be 1 minute at most.

Mixture of orange colour, and clearing away of 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 libs. 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 one 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 libs. 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 lye 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 an 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 coloured, 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 lisière). 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 afterwards wash with water. Every madder stain will be effaced by this means.

Rust stains are removable by a mixture of oxalic and muriatic acids.

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 oxide 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 (tiré, 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. 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 or diaphragm, c c, of oiled cloth, or other suitable elastic material, is distended, and made fast at its edges by being bent 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 colour-trough 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 winch fixed on its axle. On this said axle there is also a toothed wheel, taking into 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, and 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 or 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-trough K, may be discharged when required by a cock in the bottom of each. See Paper Hangings, for the Fondu style.

CALOMEL. (Chlorure de Mercure, Fr.; Versüsstes Quecksilber, Germ.) The mild protochloride of mercury. The manufacture of this substance upon the great scale may be performed in two ways. The cheapest and most direct consists in mixing 1⁄8 part of pure quicksilver with 1 part of pure nitric acid, of sp. grav. from 1·2 to 1·25; and in digesting the mixture till no more metal can be dissolved, or till the liquid has assumed a yellow colour. At the same time, a solution of 1 part of common salt is made in 32 parts of distilled water, to which a little muriatic acid is added; and, when heated to nearly the boiling point, it is mixed with the mercurial solution. The two salts exchange bases, and a protochloride of mercury precipitates in a white powder, which, after being digested for some time in the acidulous supernatant liquor, is to be washed with the greatest care in boiling water. The circumstances which may injure the process are the following:—1. When less mercury is employed than the acid can dissolve, there is formed a deuto-nitrate of mercury, which forms some corrosive sublimate with the common salt, and causes a proportional defalcation of calomel. 2. If the liquors are perfectly neutral at the moment of mixing them, some subnitrate of mercury is thrown down, which cannot be removed by washing, and which gives a noxious contamination to the bland calomel. The acid prescribed in the above formula obviates this danger.

The second manner of manufacturing calomel is to grind very carefully 4 parts of corrosive sublimate (bi-chloride of mercury) with 3 parts of quicksilver, adding a little water or spirits to repress the noxious dust during the trituration. The mass is then introduced into a glass globe, and sublimed at a temperature gradually raised. The quicksilver combines with the deutochloride, and converts it into the protochloride, or calomel. The following formula, upon the same principle, was recommended to the chemical manufacturer in Brande’s Journal, for July, 1818:—

“Prepare an oxysulphate of mercury, by boiling 25 pounds of mercury with 35 pounds of sulphuric acid to dryness. Triturate 31 pounds of this dry salt with 20 pounds 4 ounces of mercury, until the globules disappear, and then add 17 pounds of common salt. The whole is to be thoroughly mixed, and sublimed in earthen vessels. Between 46 and 48 pounds of pure calomel are thus produced: it is to be washed and levigated in the usual way.” The above is the process used at Apothecaries’ Hall, London. The oxysulphate is made in an iron pot; and the sublimation is performed in earthen vessels. The crystalline crust or cake of calomel should be separated from the accompanying gray powder, which is nearest the glass, and consists of mercury mixed with corrosive sublimate.

An ingenious modification of the latter process, for which a patent, now expired, was obtained by Mr. Jewell, consists in conducting the sublimed vapours over an extensive surface of water contained in a covered cistern. The calomel thus obtained is a superior article, in an impalpable powder, propitious to its medical efficacy.

The presence of corrosive sublimate in calomel is easily detected by digesting alcohol upon it, and testing the decanted alcohol with a drop of caustic potash, when the characteristic brick-coloured precipitate will fall, if any of the poisonous salt be present. To detect subnitrate of mercury in calomel, digest dilute nitric acid on it, and test the acid with potash, when a precipitate will fall in case of that contamination. As it is a medicine so extensively administered to children at a very tender age, its purity ought to be scrupulously watched.

118 parts of calomel contain 100 of quicksilver.

CALORIC. The chemical name of the power or matter of heat.

CALORIFÈRE OF WATER. (Calorifère d’eau, Fr.; Wasser-Heitzung, Germ.) In the Dictionnaire Technologique, vol. iv., published in 1823, we find the following description of this apparatus, of late years so much employed in Great Britain for heating conservatories, &c. by hot water circulating in pipes:—

“This mode of heating is analogous to that by stove pipes: it is effected by the circulation of water, which, like air, is a bad conductor, but may serve as a carrier of caloric by its mobility. We may readily form an idea of the apparatus which has been employed for this purpose. We adapt to the upper part of either a close kettle, or of an ordinary cylindric boiler A, fig. 252, a tube B, which rises to a certain height, then descends, making several sinuosities with a gentle slope till it reaches the level of the bottom of the boiler, to whose lowest part, as that which is least heated, it is fitted at C. At the highest point of the tube F we adapt a vertical pipe, destined to serve as an outlet to the steam which may be formed if the temperature be too much raised: it serves also for the escape of the air expelled from the water by the heat; and it permits the boiler to be replenished from time to time as the water is dissipated by evaporation; lastly, it is a tube of safety.

“The apparatus being thus arranged, and all the tubes as well as the boiler filled with water, if we kindle fire in the grate D, the first portions of water heated, having become specifically lighter, will tend to rise: they will actually mount into the upper part of the boiler, and, of course, enter the tube B F: at the same time an equivalent quantity of water will re-enter the boiler by the other extremity C of the tube. We perceive that these simultaneous movements will determine a circulation in the whole mass of the liquid, which will continue as long as heat is generated in the fire-place; and if we suppose that the tubes, throughout their different windings, are applied against the walls of a chamber, or a stove-room, the air will get warmed by contact with the hot surfaces; and we may accelerate the warming by multiplying these contacts in the mode indicated.

“This calorifère cannot be employed so usefully as those with heated air, when it is wished to heat large apartments. In fact, the passage of heat through metallic plates is in the ratio of the difference of temperature and quantity of the heating surfaces. In the present case, the temperature of the water, without pressure, in the tubes, must be always under 100° C. (212° F.), even in those points where it is most heated, and less still in all the other points, while the temperature of the flues in air stoves, heated directly by the products of combustion, may be greatly higher. In these stoves, also, the pipes may without inconvenience have a large diameter, and present, consequently, a large heating surface; whereas, with the water calorifère, the pressure exercised by the liquid upon the sides of the tubes being in the ratio of the surfaces, we are obliged, in order to avoid too great pressure, to employ a multitude of small tubes, which is expensive. Lastly, if the hot-water circulation is to be carried high, as may be often necessary in lofty buildings, the pressure resulting from the great elevation would call for proportional thickness in the tubes and the boiler: for these reasons, and others which we shall state in treating of heating by steam, it appears that water cannot be advantageously substituted for air or steam in the applications above stated; yet this mode of heating presents very decided advantages where it is useful to raise the temperature a small number of degrees in a uniform manner.” See Incubation, artificial.

“M. Bonnemain applied, with much success, these ingenious processes of heating by the circulation of water, to maintain a very equal temperature in hot-houses (serres-chaudes), in stoves adapted to artificial incubation, and in preserving or quickening vegetation within hot-houses, or outside of their walls, during seasons unpropitious to horticulture.

“Since the capacity of water for heat is very great, if the mass of it in a circulation-apparatus be very considerable, and the circulation be accelerated by proper arrangements, as by cooling the descending tube exterior to the stove-room, we may easily obtain by such means a moderately high and uniform temperature, provided the heat generated in the fire-place be tolerably regular. We may easily secure this essential point by the aid of the fire-regulator, an instrument invented by M. Bonnemain, and which is described under the article Incubation, because there its use seems to be indispensable.”

From the above quotation, and, more especially, from the evidence adduced in the article Incubation, we see how little claim the Marquis de Chabannes, or any of his followers, can have to invention in their arrangements for heating apartments by the calorific motions of the particles of water, enclosed in pipes of any kind.

CAMBRIC. (Batiste, Fr.; Kammertuch, Germ.) A sort of very fine and rather thin linen fabric, first made at Cambray. An excellent imitation of this fabric is made in Lancashire, woven from fine cotton yarn hard twisted. Linen cambric of a good quality is also now manufactured in the United Kingdom from power-spun flax.

CAMLET OR CAMBLET. A light stuff, much used for female apparel. It is made of long wool hard spun, sometimes mixed in the loom with cotton or linen yarn.

CAMPHOR, or CAMPHIRE. This immediate product of vegetation was known to the Arabs under the names of kamphur and kaphur, whence the Greek and Latin name camphora. It is found in a great many plants, and is secreted, in purity, by several laurels: it occurs combined with the essential oils of many of the labiatæ; but it is extracted, for manufacturing purposes only, from the Laurus camphora, which abounds in China and Japan, as well as from a tree which grows in Sumatra and Borneo, called, in the country, Kapour barros, from the name of the place where it is most common. The camphor exists, ready formed, in these vegetables, between the wood and the bark; but it does not exude spontaneously. On cleaving the tree Laurus sumatrensis, masses of pure camphor are found in the pith.

The wood of the laurus is cut into small pieces, and put, with plenty of water, into large iron boilers, which are covered with an earthen capital or dome, lined within with rice straw. As the water boils, the camphor rises with the steam, and attaches itself as a sublimate to the stalks, under the form of granulations of a grey colour. In this state it is picked off the straw, and packed up for exportation to Europe.

Formerly Venice held the monopoly of refining camphor, but now France, England, Holland, and Germany refine it for their own markets. All the purifying processes proceed on the principle that camphor is volatile at the temperature of 400° F. The substance is mixed, as intimately as possible, with 2 per cent. of quicklime, and the mixture is introduced into a large bottle made of thin uniform glass, sunk in a sand bath. The fire is slowly raised till the whole vessel becomes heated, and then its upper part is gradually laid bare in proportion as the sublimation goes on. Much attention and experience are required to make this operation succeed. If the temperature be raised too slowly, the neck of the bottle might be filled with camphor before the heat had acquired the proper subliming pitch; and, if too quickly, the whole contents might be exploded. If the operation be carried on languidly, and the heat of the upper part of the bottle be somewhat under the melting point of camphor, that is to say, a little under 350° F., the condensed camphor would be snowy, and not sufficiently compact and transparent to be saleable. Occasionally, sudden alternations of temperature cause little jets to be thrown up out of the liquid camphor at the bottom upon the cake formed above, which soil it, and render its re-sublimation necessary.

If, to the mixture of 100 parts of crude camphor and 2 of quicklime, 2 parts of bone-black, in fine powder, be added, the small quantity of colouring matter in the camphor will be retained at the bottom, and whiter cakes will be produced. A spiral slip of platina foil immersed in the liquid may tend to equalise its ebullition.

By exposing some volatile oils to spontaneous evaporation, at the heat of about 70° F., Proust obtained a residuum of camphor; from oil of lavender, 25 per cent. of its weight; from oil of sage, 12⁄2; from oil of marjoram, 10.

Refined camphor is a white translucid solid, possessing a peculiar taste and smell. It may be obtained, from the slow cooling of its alcoholic solution, in octahedral crystals. It may be scratched by the nail, is very flexible, and can be reduced into powder merely by mixing it with a few drops of alcohol. Its specific gravity varies from 0·985 to 0·996. Mixed and distilled with six times its weight of clay, it is decomposed, and yields a golden yellow aromatic oil, which has a flavour analogous to that of a mixture of thyme and rosemary; along with a small quantity of acidulous water tinged with that oil, charcoal remains in the retort. In the air, camphor takes fire on contact of an ignited body, and burns all away with a bright fuliginous flame.

Camphor is little soluble in water; one part being capable of communicating smell and taste to 1000 of the fluid. 100 parts of alcohol, spec. grav. 0·806, dissolve 120 parts of camphor, at ordinary temperatures. It is separated, in a pulverulent state, by water. Ether and oils, both expressed and volatile, also dissolve it.

When distilled with eight parts of aquafortis, camphor is converted into camphoric acid. Camphor absorbs 144 times its volume of muriatic acid gas, and is transformed into a colourless transparent liquid, which becomes solid in the air, because the acid attracts humidity, which precipitates the camphor. One part of strong acetic acid dissolves two parts of camphor. By my analysis, camphor consists of 77·38 carbon, 11·14 hydrogen, and 11·48 oxygen. Berzelius’s numbers are certainly erroneous.

CAMWOOD. An article imported from Sierra Leone, which seems to possess similar dyeing powers with Brazil or Nicaragua wood.

CANDLE. (Chandelle, Fr.; Kerze, Licht, Germ.) I shall first briefly describe the ordinary manufacture of candles. They are either dipped or moulded. But the first part of the process is the sorting of the tallow. Mutton suet with a proportion of ox-tallow is selected for mould candles, because it gives them gloss and consistence. Coarser tallow is reserved for the dipped candles. After being sorted, it is cut into small pieces, preparatory to being melted or rendered; and the sooner this is done after the fat is taken from the carcase the better, because the fibrous and fleshy matters mixed with it promote its putrefaction. Tallow is too commonly melted by a naked fire applied to the bottom of the vessel, whereas it should be done either in a cold set pan, where the flame plays only round the sides a little way above the bottom, or in a steam-cased pan. After being fused a considerable time, the membranous matters collect at the surface, constituting the cracklings used sometimes for feeding dogs, after the fat has been squeezed out of it by a press. The liquid tallow is strained through a sieve into another copper, where it is treated with water at a boiling temperature in order to wash it. After a while, when the foul water has settled to the bottom, the purified tallow is lifted out, by means of tinned iron buckets, into tubs of a moderate size, where it concretes, and is ready for use.

It is a remarkable circumstance, that the wicks for the best candles are still cotton rovings imported from Turkey, notwithstanding the vast extension and perfection of cotton-spinning in this country. Four or more of these Turkey skeins, according to the intended thickness of the wick, are wound off at once into bottoms or clues, and afterwards cut by a simple machine into lengths corresponding to those of the candles to be made. Mr. Colebank obtained a patent, in June, 1822, for a machine for cutting, twisting, and spreading wicks, which, though convenient, does not seem to have come into general use. The operations are performed upon a series of threads at once. The apparatus is placed in a box, in front of which the operator sits. A reel extends across the box, at the hinder part, upon which the cotton threads have been previously wound: from this reel they are drawn off in proper lengths, doubled, and cut by an ingenious mechanism. By dipping the wicks into the melted tallow, rubbing them between the palms of the hands, and allowing the tallow which adheres to harden, they may be arranged with facility upon the broaches for the purpose of dipping. The dipping room is furnished with a boiler for melting the tallow, the dipping mould, or cistern, and a large wheel for supporting the broaches. From the ceiling of the workshop a long balance-shaped beam is suspended, to one end of which a wooden frame is attached for holding the broaches with the wicks arranged at proper distances. The opposite arm is loaded with a weight to counterbalance the wooden frame, and to enable the workman to ascertain the proper size of the candles. The end of the lever which supports the frame is placed immediately above the dipping cistern; and the whole machine is so balanced that, by a gentle pressure of the hand, the wicks are let down into the melted tallow as often as may be required.

The following convenient apparatus for dipping candles has been long in use at Edinburgh. In the centre of the dipping-room a strong upright post A A, fig. 253., is erected, with turning iron pivots at its two ends. Near its middle, six mortises are cut at small distances from one another, into each of which is inserted a long bar of wood B B, which moves vertically upon an iron pin, also passing through the middle of the shaft. The whole presents the appearance of a large horizontal wheel with twelve arms. A complete view of two of them only is given in the figure. From the extremity of each arm is suspended a frame, or port, as the workmen call it, containing 6 rods, on each of which are hung 18 wicks, making the whole number of wicks upon the wheel 1296. The machine, though apparently heavy, turns round by the smallest effort of the workman; and each port, as it comes in succession over the dipping-mould, is gently pressed downwards, by which means the wicks are regularly immersed in melted tallow. As the arms of the lever are all of the same length, and as each is loaded with nearly the same weight, it is obvious that they will all naturally assume a horizontal position. In order, however, to prevent any oscillation of the machine in turning round, the levers are kept in a horizontal position by means of small chains a a, one end of which is fixed to the top of the upright shaft, and the other terminates in a small square piece of wood b, which exactly fills the notch c in the lever. As one end of the levers must be depressed at each dip, the square piece of wood is thrown out of the notch by the workman pressing down the handle D, which communicates with the small lever e, inserted into a groove in the bar B. In order that the square piece of wood, fixed in one extremity of the chain, may recover its position upon the workman’s raising the port, a small cord is attached to it, which passes over a pulley inserted in a groove near c, and communicates with another pulley and weight, which draws it forward to the notch. In this way the operation of dipping may be conducted by a single workman with perfect ease and regularity, and even dispatch. No time is lost, and no unnecessary labour expended, in removing the ports after each dip; and, besides, the process of cooling is much accelerated by the candles being kept in constant motion through the air. The number of revolutions which the wheel must make, in order to complete one operation, must obviously depend upon the state of the weather and the size of the candles; but it is said that, in moderately cold weather, not more than two hours are necessary for a single person to finish one wheel of candles of a common size. Upon the supposition, therefore, that six wheels are completed in one day, no less a number than 7776 candles will be manufactured in that space of time by one workman.

I shall next describe the process of moulding, which, if possible, is even less complicated in its details than that of dipping. The moulds are made of some metallic substance, usually pewter, and consist of two parts. The shaft or great body of the mould is a hollow cylinder, finely polished in the inside, and open at both extremities. The top of the mould is a small metallic cup, having a moulding within-side, and a hole to admit the wick. The two parts are soldered together, and when united, as will readily be imagined, have the shape of a moulded candle. A third piece, called the foot, is sometimes added; it is a kind of small funnel, through which the liquid tallow runs into the mould, and, being screwed to the opposite extremity of the shaft, is removable at pleasure. This additional piece may certainly be useful in very mild weather; since, by removing it, the candles may be drawn more easily from the moulds; but, in general, it may be dispensed with.

Eight or twelve of these moulds, according to their size, are fixed in a frame, which bears a great resemblance to a wooden stool, the upper surface of which forms a kind of trough. The top of the moulds points downwards, and the other extremity, which is open, is inserted into the bottom trough or top of the stool, and made quite level with its upper surface. In order to introduce the wicks into the mould, the workman lays the frame upon its side on an adjoining table, and holding in his left hand a quantity of wicks, previously cut to the proper length, he introduces into the mould a long wire with a hooked point. As soon as the hook of the wire appears through the hole in the top of the mould, he attaches to it the looped end of the wick, and, immediately drawing back the wire, carries the wick along with it. In this manner each mould in succession is furnished with a wick. Another workman now follows, and passes a small wire through the loop of each wick. This wire is obviously intended to keep the wick stretched, and to prevent it from falling back into the mould upon the frame being placed in the proper position for filling. The frame is then handed to the person that fills the moulds, who previously arranges the small wires in such a manner that each wick may be exactly in the middle of the mould.

The moulds are filled by running tallow into each of them, or into the trough, from a cistern furnished with a cock, and which is regularly supplied with tallow of the proper temperature from an adjoining boiler. When the workman observes that the moulds are nearly half filled he turns the cock, and, laying hold of that portion of the wick which hangs out of the mould, pulls it tight, and thus prevents any curling of the wick, which might injure the candles: he then opens the cock, and completes the process of filling. The frame is now set aside to cool; and when the tallow has acquired a proper consistence, which the workman easily discovers by a snapping noise emitted by the candles upon pressing his thumb against the bottom of the moulds, he first withdraws the small wires which kept the wicks tense, and then, scraping off the loose tallow from the top of the frame with a small wooden spade, he introduces a bodkin into the loop of the wick, and thus draws each candle in succession from its mould. The candles are now laid upon a table for the inspection of the exciseman, and afterwards removed to the storehouse. Previous to storing them up, some candle-makers bleach their candles, by exposing them to the air and dews for several days. This additional labour can be necessary only when the dealer is obliged to have early sales; for if the candles are kept for some months, as they ought to be, before they are brought to market, they become sufficiently whitened by age.

Wax candles.—Next to tallow, the substance most employed in the manufacture of candles is wax. Wax candles are made either by the hand or with a ladle. In the former case, the wax, being kept soft in hot water, is applied bit by bit to the wick, which is hung from a hook in the wall; in the latter, the wicks are hung round an iron circle, placed immediately over a large copper-tinned basin full of melted wax, which is poured upon their tops, one after another, by means of a large ladle. When the candles have by either process acquired the proper size, they are taken from the hooks, and rolled upon a table, usually of walnut-tree, with a long square instrument of box, smooth at the bottom.

A few years ago I made a set of experiments upon the relative intensities of light, and duration of different candles, the results of which are contained in the following table.

Number in
a pound. Duration
of a
candle. Weight
in
grains. Consump-
tion per
hour
in grains. Propor-
tion of
light. Economy
of light. Candles
equal one
Argand.

h. m.

10 mould 5 9 682 132 12 ⁄4 68 5 ·7

10 dipped 4 36 672 150 13 65 ⁄2 5 ·25

8 mould 6 31 856 132 10 ⁄2 59 ⁄2 6 ·6

6 ditto 7 2 ⁄2 1160 163 14 ⁄3 66 5 ·0

4 ditto 9 3 ·6 1707 186 20 ⁄4 80 3 ·5

Argand oil flame — — 512 69 ·4 100

A Scotch mutchkin, or ⁄8 of a gallon of good seal oil, weighs 6010 gr., or 13⁄10 oz., avoirdupois, and lasts in a bright Argand lamp 11 hours 44 minutes. The weight of oil it consumes per hour is equal to 4 times the weight of tallow in candles 8 to the pound, and ⁄7 the weight of tallow in candles 6 to the pound. But, its light being equal to that of 5 of the latter candles, it appears from the above table that 2 pounds weight of oil, value 9d. in an Argand, are equivalent in illuminating power to 3 pounds of tallow candles, which cost about two shillings. The larger the flame in the above candles the greater the economy of light.

In June, 1825, M. Gay Lussac obtained a patent in England for making candles from margaric and stearic acids, improperly called stearine, by converting tallow into the above fat acids by the following process:—Tallow consists, by Chevreul’s researches, of stearine, a solid fat, and elaine, a liquid fat; the former being in much the larger proportion. When tallow is treated with an alkaline body, such as potash, soda, or lime, it is saponified; that is, its stearine and elaine become respectively stearic and elaic acids, and, as such, form compounds with these bases. When by the action of an acid, such as the sulphuric or muriatic, these combinations are decomposed, the fats reappear in the altered form of stearic and elaic acids; the former body being harder than tallow, and of a texture, somewhat like spermaceti, the latter body being fluid, like oil. “The decomposition of the soap should be made,” says the patentee, “in a large quantity of water, kept well stirred during the operation, and warmed by steam introduced in any convenient way. When the mixture has been allowed to stand, the acid of the tallow or fat will rise to the surface, and the water being drawn off will carry the alkaline or saline matters with it; but, if the acids of the tallow should retain any portion of the salts, fresh water may be thrown upon it, and the whole well agitated, until the acids have become perfectly free from the alkaline matters; and, when allowed to cool, the acids will be formed into a solid mass. This mass is now to be submitted to considerable pressure in such an apparatus as is employed in expressing oil from seeds; when the liquid acid will run off in the form of a substance resembling oil, leaving a solid matter, similar, in every respect, to spermaceti, which is fit for making candles.”

The wick to be used in the manufacture of these improved candles, and which forms one of the features of this invention, is to be made of cotton yarn, twisted rather hard, and laid in the same manner as wire is sometimes coiled round the bass strings of musical instruments. For this purpose, straight rods or wires are to be procured, of suitable lengths and diameters, according to the intended size of the candles about to be made; and these wires, having been covered with cotton coiled round them, as described, are to be inserted in the candle moulds as the common wicks are; and when the candle is made, and perfectly hard, the wire is to be withdrawn, leaving a hollow cylindrical aperture entirely through the middle of the candle. See Stearine.

CANE-MILL. See Mill and Sugar.

CANNON. For the composition of these implements of destruction, see Bronze.

CANVASS (Canevas, Fr.; Segeltuch, Germ.) It has been found that sails of ships made with the selvages and seams of the canvass running down parallel to their edges, are very apt to bag, and become torn in the middle, from the strain to which they are subjected by the pressure of the wind. To obviate this inconvenience, a mode of making sails, with the seams and selvages running diagonally, was proposed by Admiral Brooking, and a patent granted to him for the same on 4th of September, 1828. The invention of Messrs. Ramsay and Orr, which we are about to describe, has a similar object, viz., that of giving additional strength to sails by a peculiar manner of weaving the canvass of which they are made.

The improvement proposed under their patent of March, 1830, consists in weaving the canvass with diagonal threads; that is, placing the weft yarn, or shoot, in weaving, at an oblique angle to the warp yarns, instead of making the decussation of the warp, or weft threads, or yarns, at right angles to each other, as in the ordinary mode of weaving.

To accomplish this object the loom must be peculiarly constructed; that is, its warp and work beams must stand at an oblique angle with the sides of the loom, and the batten and slay must be hung in a peculiar manner, in order to beat up the weft, or shoot, in lines ranging diagonally with the warp. No drawing is shown of the method by which this arrangement of the loom is to be made, but it is presumed that any weaver would know how to accomplish it: the invention consisting solely in producing sail cloth with the threads, or yarns, of the weft ranging diagonally at any desired angle with the direction of the warp thread.

CAOUTCHOUC, GUM-ELASTIC, OR INDIAN-RUBBER, (Federharz, Germ.) occurs as a milky juice in several plants, such as the siphonia cahuca, called also hevea guianensis, cautschuc, jatropha elastica, castilleja elastica, cecropia pellata, ficus religiosa and indica, urceolaria elastica, &c. It is, however, extracted chiefly from the first plant, which grows in South America and Java. The tree has incisions made into it through the bark in many places, and it discharges the milky juice, which is spread upon clay moulds, and dried in the sun, or with the smoke of a fire, which blackens it.

The juice itself has been of late years imported. It is of a pale yellow colour, and has the consistence of cream. It becomes covered in the bottles containing it with a pellicle of concrete caoutchouc. Its spec. grav. is 1·012. When it is dried it loses 55 per cent. of its weight: the residuary 45 is elastic gum. When the juice is heated it immediately coagulates, in virtue of its albumen, and the elastic gum rises to the surface. It mixes with water in any proportion; and, when thus diluted, it coagulates with heat and alcohol as before.

The specific gravity of caoutchouc is 0·925, and it is not permanently increased by any degree of pressure. By cold or long quiescence it becomes hard and stiff. When the milky juice has become once coherent, no means hitherto known can restore it to the emulsive state. By long boiling in water it softens, swells, and becomes more readily soluble in its peculiar menstrua; but when exposed to the air it speedily resumes its pristine consistence and volume. It is quite insoluble in alcohol; but in ether, deprived of alcohol by washing with water, it readily dissolves, and affords a colourless solution. When the ether is evaporated, the caoutchouc becomes again solid, but is somewhat clammy for a while. When treated with hot naphtha, distilled from native petroleum, or from coal tar, it swells to 30 times its former bulk; and if then triturated with a pestle, and pressed through a sieve, it affords a homogeneous varnish, which being applied by a flat edge of metal or wood to cloth, prepares it for forming the patent water-proof cloth of Mackintosh. Two surfaces of cloth, to which several coats of the above varnish have been applied, are, when partially dried, brought evenly in contact, and then passed between rollers, in order to condense and smooth them together. This double cloth is afterwards suspended in a stove-room to dry, and to discharge the disagreeable odour of the naphtha.

Caoutchouc dissolves in the fixed oils, such as linseed oil, but the varnish has not the property of becoming concrete upon exposure to air.

It has been lately asserted that caoutchouc is soluble in the oils of lavender and sassafras.

It melts at 248° F., and stands afterwards a much higher heat without undergoing any further change. When the melted caoutchouc is exposed to the air, it becomes hard on the surface in the course of a year. When kindled it burns with a bright flame and a great deal of smoke.

Neither chlorine, sulphurous acid gas, muriatic acid gas, ammonia, nor fluosilicic acid gas, affect it, whence it forms very valuable flexible tubes for pneumatic chemistry. Cold sulphuric acid does not readily decompose it, nor does nitric acid, unless it be somewhat strong. The strongest caustic potash lye does not dissolve it even at a boiling heat.

Caoutchouc, according to my experiments, which have been confirmed by those of Mr. Faraday, contains no oxygen, as almost all other solid vegetable products do, but is a mere compound of carbon and hydrogen, in the proportion, by my results, of 90 carbon to 10 hydrogen, being three atoms of the former to two of the latter. Mr. Faraday obtained only 87·2 carbon, from which I would infer that some of the carbon, which in this substance is difficult to acidify by peroxide of copper, had escaped its action. It is obvious that too little carbonic acid gas may be obtained, but certainly not more than corresponds to the carbon in the body. No carbon can be created in the process of ultimate analysis by pure peroxide of copper such as I employed; and I repeated the ignition after attrition of the mixture used in the experiment. Melted caoutchouc forms a very excellent chemical lute, as it adheres very readily to glass vessels, and withstands the corrosive action of acid vapours. This substance is much used for effacing the traces of plumbago pencils, whence it derived the name of Indian-rubber. It has been lately employed very extensively for making elastic bands or braces. The caoutchouc bottles are skilfully cut into long spiral slips, which are stretched, and kept extended till nearly deprived of their elasticity, and till they form a thread of moderate fineness. This thread is put into a braid machine, and covered with a sheath of cotton, silk, linen, or worsted. The clothed caoutchouc is then laid as warp in a loom, and woven into an elegant riband. When woven, it is exposed, upon a table to the action of a hot smoothing iron, which restoring to the caoutchouc all its primitive elasticity, the riband retracts considerably in length, and the braiding corrugates equally upon the caoutchouc cores. Such bands possess a remarkable elasticity, combined with any desired degree of softness. Sometimes cloth is made of these braided strands of caoutchouc used both as warp and as weft, which is therefore elastic in all directions. When a light fabric is required, the strands of caoutchouc, either naked or braided, are alternated with common warp yarns. For this mixed fabric a patent has been obtained. The original manufacturer of these elastic webs is a major in the Austrian service, who has erected a great factory for them at St. Denys, near Paris. See Elastic Bands.

Mr. William Henry Barnard, in the course of some experiments upon the impregnation of ropes with caoutchouc, at the factory of Messrs. Enderby at Greenwich, discovered that when this substance was exposed to a heat of about 600° F. it resolved itself into a vapour, which, by proper refrigeratory methods, was condensable into a liquid possessing very remarkable properties, to which the name caoutchoucine has been given. For this invention “of a solvent not hitherto used in the arts” Mr. Barnard obtained a patent, in August, 1833. His process for preparing it is described in his specification as follows:—I take a mass of the said caoutchouc, or Indian rubber, as imported, and having cut it into small lumps, containing about two cubic inches each (which I prefer), I throw these lumps into a cast-iron still (which I find adapted for the purpose, and a diagram of which is annexed to, and forms part of, this my specification), with a worm attached; fig. 254., A is the still, B the cover ground to a metallic fit, to admit of a thermometer to take the temperature; C the fire-place, D the ash-pit, E the worm-tub and worm, F the brick-work of the still, G a roller and carriage, in conjunction with a crane, or other means, to raise the cover to take out the residue, and to charge the same; H the chain.

I then apply heat to the still in the usual manner, which heat is increased until the thermometer ranges at 600 degrees of Fahrenheit, or thereabouts. And, as the thermometer ranges progressively upwards to 600 degrees of Fahrenheit, a dark-coloured oil or liquid is distilled over, which I claim as my said invention, such liquid being a solvent of caoutchouc, and other resinous and oleaginous substances. When the thermometer reaches 600 degrees, or thereabouts, nothing is left in the still but dirt and charcoal.

I have found the operation of distillation to be facilitated by the addition of a portion of this oil, either previous or subsequent to rectification, as hereinafter mentioned, in the proportion of one third of oil to two thirds of caoutchouc.

I afterwards subject the dark-coloured liquid thus distilled to the ordinary process of rectification, and thereby obtain fluids varying in specific gravity, of which the lightest hitherto has not been under 670, taking distilled water at 1000, which fluids I also claim as my said invention.

At each rectification the colour of the liquid becomes more bright and transparent, until at the specific gravity of 680, or thereabouts, it is colourless and highly volatile.

In the process of rectification (for the purpose of obtaining a larger product of the oil colourless) I put about one third of water into the still. In each and every state the liquid is a solvent of caoutchouc, and several resinous and oleaginous substances, and also of other substances (such as copal), in combination with very strong alcohol.

Having experienced much difficulty in removing the dirt which adheres to the bottom of the still, I throw into the still, lead and tin in a state of alloy (commonly called solder), to the depth of about half an inch, and, as this becomes fused, the dirt which lies on the surface of it is more easily removed.

Objections have been made to the smell of this liquid:—I have found such smell removed by mixing and shaking up the liquid with nitro-muriatic acid, or chlorine, in the proportion of a quarter of a pint of the acid (of the usual commercial strength) to a gallon of the liquid.

The discovery of the chemical solvent, which forms the subject of the patent above described, has excited considerable interest in the philosophic world, not only from its probable usefulness as a new article of commerce, but also from two very extraordinary characteristics which it is found to possess, viz., that, in a liquid state, it has less specific gravity than any other liquid known to chemists, being considerably lighter than sulphuric ether, and, in a state of vapour, is heavier than the most ponderous of the gases.

Its elementary constituents are,

Carbon 6·812 8 proportions.

Hydrogen 1·000 7 ditto.

This new material (when mixed with alcohol) is a solvent of all the resins and particularly of copal, which it dissolves, without artificial heat, at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere; a property possessed by no other solvent known; and hence it is peculiarly useful for making varnishes in general. It also mixes readily with oils, and will be found to be a valuable and cheap menstruum for liquefying oil-paints; and without in the slightest degree affecting the most delicate colours, will, from its ready evaporation, cause the paint to dry almost instantly.

Cocoa-nut oil, at the common temperature of the atmosphere, always assumes a concrete form; but a portion of this caoutchoucine mixed with it will cause the oil to become fluid, and to retain sufficient fluidity to burn in a common lamp with extraordinary brilliancy.

Caoutchoucine is extremely volatile; and yet its vapour is so exceedingly heavy, that it may be poured, without the liquor, from one vessel into another like water.

CAPERS. The caper is a small prickly shrub, cultivated in Spain, Italy, and the southern provinces of France. The flowers are large roses of a pretty appearance, but the flower buds alone are the objects of this cultivation.

They are plucked before they open, and thrown into strong vinegar slightly salted, where they are pickled. The crop of each day is added to the same vinegar tub, so that in the course of the six months during which the caper shrub flowers, the vessel gets filled, and is sold to persons who sort the capers, (the smallest being most valued) by means of copper sieves. This metal is attacked by the acid, wherefrom the fruit acquires a green colour, much admired by ignorant connoisseurs.

The capers, as found in the French market, are distinguished into five sorts; the non-pareille, the capucine, the capote, the second, and the third; this being the decreasing order of their quality, which depends upon the strength of the vinegar used in pickling them, as also the size and colour of the buds.

The caper shrub grows in the driest situations, even upon walls, and does not disdain any soil; but it loves a hot and sheltered exposure. It is multiplied by grafts made in autumn, as also by slips of the roots taken off in spring.

CAPSTAN. (Cabestan, Fr.; Spille, Germ.) A machine whereon the cable is wound successively in weighing the anchor of a vessel. It is a species of wheel and axle; the axle being vertical, and pierced with holes near its top for the insertion of the ends of horizontal levers, called handspikes, which represent the wheel. These are turned by the force of men moving in a circle. The power applied to the lever is to the resistance to be overcome, (the weight of the anchor, for example,) when the forces are in equilibrio, as the radius of the cylinder round which the cable is coiled is to the circumference described by the power.

It is manifest that the radius of the axle must be augmented in this computation by half the diameter of the cable, which is supposed to lie always one coil thick upon it. The force of a man, thus applied, has been commonly estimated as equal to the traction of 27 pounds hanging over a pulley.

Friction being so variable a quantity in capstans, renders the exact calculation of its mechanical effect somewhat uncertain.

A stout man, stationed near the bottom of the axle, holds fast the loose part of the cable, which has already made two or three turns; and, being aided by its friction upon the wood, he both prevents it from slipping backwards, and uncoils each turn as it is progressively made.

Mr. Hindmarsh, master mariner of Newcastle, obtained a patent, in February, 1827, for a contrivance to enable a capstan or windlass to be occasionally worked with increased mechanical advantage. With this view, he placed toothed wheel-work, partly in the drum-head of the capstan, and partly in the upper part of the barrel, upon which the cable is coiled and uncoiled in successive portions.

The drum-head, and also the barrel, turn loosely upon a central spindle, independent of each other, and are connected together either by the toothed geer, or by bolts. On raising or withdrawing the connecting pinion from the toothed wheels, and then locking the drum-head and barrel together, the capstan works with a power equal only to that exerted by the men at the capstan-bars, as an ordinary capstan; but on lowering the pinion into geer with the wheel-work, and withdrawing the bolts which locked the drum-head to the barrel, the power exerted by the men becomes increased in proportion to the diameter and numbers of teeth in the wheels and pinions.

Fig. 255. is the external appearance of this capstan. Fig. 256. a horizontal view of the toothed geer at the top of the barrel. The barrel, with the whelps a a, turns loosely upon a verticle spindle fixed into the deck of the vessel. The drum-head b also turns loosely upon the same spindle. The circular frame c c, in fig. 256., in which the axes of the toothed wheels d d d are mounted, is fixed to the central spindle. The rim e e e, with internal teeth, is made fast to the top of the barrel; and the pinion f, which slides upon the spindle, is connected to the drum-head.

When it is intended to work the capstan with ordinary power, the pinion f is raised up into the recess of the drum-head, by means of a screw g, fig. 255., which throws it out of geer with the toothed wheels, and it is then locked up by a pin z: the bolts h h are now introduced, for the purpose of fastening the drum-head and barrel together, when it becomes an ordinary capstan.

But when it is required that the same number of men shall exert a greater power, the bolts h are withdrawn, and the pinion f lowered into geer, with the toothed wheels. The rotation of the drum-head, then carrying the pinion round, causes it to drive the toothed wheels d d d; and these working into the toothed rim e e, attached to the barrel, cause the barrel to revolve with an increased power.

Thus, under particular circumstances, a smaller number of men at the capstan or windlass (which is to be constructed upon the same principle) will be enabled to haul in the cable and anchor, or warp off the vessel, which is an important object to be effected.

In 1819, Captain Phillips obtained a patent for certain improvements in capstans, a part of which invention is precisely the same as this in principle, though slightly varied in its adaptation.

James Brown, ship-rigger, in his capstan, patented in 1833, instead of applying the moving power by handspikes, having fixed two rims of teeth round the top of the capstan, acts upon them by a rotatory worm, or pinions turned by a winch.

Fig. 257. is an elevation of this capstan, and fig. 258. is a horizontal top view. a is an upright shaft, fixed firmly to the deck, serving as an axle round which the body of the capstan revolves. A frame c, fixed to the top of a stationary shaft a, above the body of the capstan, carries the driving apparatus.

The upper part of the body of the capstan has a ring of oblique teeth d formed round its edge; and above this, on the top of the capstan, is a ring of bevel teeth e. A horizontal shaft f, mounted in the top frame c, has a worm or endless screw, which takes into the teeth of the ring d; and a short axle g, having its bearings in the central shaft a, and in the frame c, carries a bevel pinion, which takes into the bevel teeth of the ring c.

The bearings of the shaft f, in the top frame, are in long slots, with angular returns, something like the fastening of a bayonet, which is for the purpose of enabling the shaft to be readily lifted in and out of geer with the teeth of the ring d: the outer bearing of the axle g of the bevel pinion is also supported in the frame c, in a similar way, in order to put it in and out of geer with the teeth of the bevel ring e. A mode of shifting these is essential; because the two toothed rings, and their driving worm and pinion, give different speeds, and, of course, cannot be both in operation at the same time.

The worm of the shaft f, being placed in geer with the teeth of the ring d, on applying rotatory power thereto, by means of winches attached to the ends of the shaft, the barrel or body of the capstan will be made to revolve with a slow motion, but with great power; and thus two men at the winches will do the same work as many men with capstan bars in the ordinary way.

If a quicker movement than that of the endless screw is desired, then the driving power may be applied by a winch to the axle g of the bevel pinion, that pinion being put into geer with the bevel ring e, and the endless screw withdrawn. It should, however, be here remarked, that the patentee proposes to employ two short axles g, placed opposite to each other, with bevel pinions acting in the bevel-toothed ring, though only one is shown in the figure to avoid confusion. He also contemplates a modification of the same contrivance, in which four short axles g, placed at right angles, with pinions taking into a bevel ring, may be employed, and made effective in giving rotatory motion to the barrel of a capstan by means of winches applied to the outer ends of the axle, and turned by the labour of four men.

CARAT or CARACT is a weight used by goldsmiths and jewellers. See Assay and Diamond.

CARBON, (Carbone, Fr.; Kohlenstoff, Germ.) in a perfectly pure state, constitutes diamond. Carbonaceous substances are usually more or less compound, containing hydrogen, or sometimes oxygen, and azote, along with earthy and metallic matters. Carbon, tolerably pure, abounds in the mineral kingdom; and, in a combined state, it forms a main constituent of vegetable and animal bodies. Anthracite is a mineral charcoal, differing from common pit-coal in containing no bitumen, and, therefore, burning without flame or smoke. Coke is the carbonaceous mass which remains after pit-coal has been exposed to ignition for some time out of contact of air; its volatile parts having been dissipated by the heat. It is a spongy substance, of an iron-black colour, a somewhat metallic lustre, and does not easily burn unless several pieces are kindled together. With a good draught, however, it produces a most intense heat. Wood charcoal is obtained by the calcination of wood in close vessels, as described under the article Acetic Acid, or in piles of various shapes, covered with loam, to screen it from the free action of the atmosphere, which would otherwise consume it entirely. See Charcoal. Such carbon is a solid, without smell or taste, and bears the strongest heats of our furnaces without suffering any change, provided air be excluded: it is a bad conductor of heat, but conducts electricity very well. When burned, it unites with oxygen, and forms carbonic acid, the fixed air of Dr. Black, the choke-damp of the miner. When this carbonic acid is made to traverse red hot charcoal it dissolves a portion of it, and becomes carbonic oxide, which contains only one half of its volume of oxygen; whereas carbonic acid consists of one volume of oxygen combined with one volume of the vapour of carbon, the two being condensed into one volume. If the specific gravity of oxygen, = 1·1025, be deducted from that of carbonic acid, = 1·5245, the difference, = 0·422, will be the specific gravity of the vapour of carbon; as well as the proportion present in that weight of the acid.

Charcoal obtained by the action of a rapid fire in close vessels is not so solid and so good a fuel as that which is made in the ancient way by the slow calcination of pyramidal piles covered with earth. One of the most economical ovens for making wood charcoal is that invented by M. Foucauld, which he calls a shroud, or abri. To construct one of these, 30 feet in diameter at the base, 10 feet at its summit, and from 8 to 9 feet high, he forms, with wood 2 inches square, a frame 12 feet long, 3 feet broad at one end, and one foot at the other. The figure will explain the construction. The uprights, A B and C D, of this frame are furnished with three wooden handles a a a, and a′ a′ a′, by means of which they can be joined together, by passing through two contiguous handles a wooden fork, the frame being previously provided with props, as shewn in fig. 259, and covered with loam mixed with grass. A flat cover of 10 feet diameter, made of planks well joined, and secured by four cross bars, is mounted with two trap doors, M N, fig. 261., for giving egress to the smoke at the commencement of the operation; a triangular hole P, cut out in the cover, receives the end of a conduit Q R S, (figs. 262. and 261.) of wood formed of three deals, destined to convey the gases and condensed liquids into the casks F G H. Lastly, a door T, which may be opened and shut at pleasure, permits the operator to inspect the state of the fire. The charcoal calcined by this abri, has been found to be of superior quality.

When it is wished to change the place where the abri is erected, and to transport it to a store of new-felled timber, the frame is taken down, after beating off the clay which covers it, the joints are then cut by a saw, as well as the ends of the forks which fixed the frames to one another. This process is economical in use, simple and cheap in construction; since all the pieces of the apparatus are easily moved about, and may be readily mounted in the forests. For obtaining a compact charcoal, for the use of artisans, this mixed process of Foucauld is said to be preferable to either the close iron cylinder or the pile.

For making gunpowder-charcoal the lighter woods, such as the willow, dogwood, and alder answer best; and in their carbonization care should be taken to let the vapours freely escape, especially towards the end of the operation, for when they are re-absorbed, they greatly impair the combustibility of the charcoal.

By the common process of the forests, about 18 per cent. of the weight of the wood is obtained; by the process of Foucauld about 24 per cent. are obtained, with 20 of crude pyrolignous acid of 10 degrees Baumé. By the process described under Acetic Acid, 27 of charcoal, and 18 of acid at 6 degrees, are procured from 100 parts of wood, besides the tar. These quantities were the results of careful experimenting, and are greater than can be reckoned upon in ordinary hands.

Charcoal for chemical purposes may be extemporaneously prepared by calcining pieces of wood covered with sand in a crucible, till no more volatile matter exhales.

The charcoal of some woods contains silica, and is therefore useful for polishing metals. Being a bad conductor of heat, charcoal is employed sometimes in powder to encase small furnaces and steam-pipes. It is not affected by water; and hence, the extremities of stakes driven into moist ground are not liable to decomposition. In like manner casks when charred inside preserve water much better than common casks, because they furnish no soluble matter for fermentation or for food to animalcules.

Lowitz discovered that wood charcoal removes offensive smells from animal and vegetable substances, and counteracts their putrefaction. He found the odour of succinic and benzoic acids, of bugs, of empyreumatic oils, of infusions of valerian, essence of wormwood, spirits distilled from bad grain, and sulphureous substances were all absorbable by freshly calcined charcoal properly applied. A very ingenious filter has been constructed for purifying water, by passing it through strata of charcoal of different fineness.

When charcoal is burned, one third of the heat is discharged by radiation, and two thirds by conduction.

The following table of the quantity of charcoal yielded by different woods was published by Mr. Mushet, as the result of experiments carefully made upon the small scale. He says, the woods before being charred were thoroughly dried, and pieces of each kind were selected as nearly alike in every respect as possible. One hundred parts of each sort were taken, and they produced as under:—

Lignum Vitæ afforded 26·0 of charcoal of a greyish colour, resembling coke.

Mahogany 25·4 tinged with brown, spongy and porous.

Laburnam 24·5 velvet black, compact, very hard.

Chesnut 23·2 glossy black, compact, firm.

Oak 22·6 black, close, very firm.

Walnut 20·6 dull black, close, firm.

Holly 19·9 dull black, loose and bulky.

Beech 19·9 dull black, spongy, firm.

Sycamore 19·7 fine black, bulky, moderately firm.

Elm 19·5 fine black, moderately firm.

Norway Pine 19·2 shining black, bulky, very soft.

Sallow 18·4 velvet black, bulky, loose and soft.

Ash 17·9 shining black, spongy, firm.

Birch 17·4 velvet black, bulky, firm.

Scottish Pine 16·4 tinged with brown, moderately firm.

Messrs. Allen and Pepys, from 100 parts of the following woods, obtained the quantities of charcoal as under:—

Beech 15·00

Mahogany 15·75

Lignum Vitæ 17·25

Oak 17·40

Fir 18·17

Box 20·25

It is observable that the quantities obtained by Messrs. Allen and Pepys are in general less than those given by Mr. Mushet, which may be owing to Mr. Mushet not having applied sufficient heat, or operated long enough, to dissipate the aqueous matter of the gaseous products.

To those persons who buy charcoal by weight, it is important to purchase it as soon after it is made as possible, as it quickly absorbs a considerable portion of water from the atmosphere. Different woods, however, differ in this respect. Messrs. Allen and Pepys found that by a week’s exposure to the air, the charcoal of

Lignum Vitæ gained 9·6 per cent.

Fir 13·0 ditto.

Box 14·0 ditto.

Beech 16·3 ditto.

Oak 16·5 ditto.

Mahogany 18·0 ditto.

The following is a tabular view of the volumes of the different gases which were absorbed in the course of 24 hours, by one volume of charcoal, in the experiments of M. Theodore de Saussure, which were conducted in a way likely to produce correct results. Each portion of charcoal was heated afresh to a red heat, and allowed to cool under mercury. When taken from the mercury, it was instantly plunged into the vessel of gas.

Ammoniacal gas 90

Muriatic acid gas 85

Sulphurous acid 65

Sulphuretted hydrogen 55

Nitrous oxide 40

Carbonic acid gas 35

Bicarburetted hydrogen 35 ·00

Carbonic oxide 9 ·42

Oxygen gas 9 ·25

Nitrogen 7 ·50

Carburetted hydrogen 5 ·00

Hydrogen gas 1 ·75

Neumann, who made many experiments on charcoal, informs us that for the reduction of the metallic oxides, the charcoal of the heavier woods, as that of the oak and the beech, is preferable, and that, for common fuel, such charcoal gives the greatest heat, and requires the most plentiful supply of air to keep it burning; while those of the lighter woods preserve a glowing heat with a much less draught of air; and that for purposes where it is desirable to have a steady and a still fire, charcoal should be employed which has been made from wood previously divested of its bark, since it is the cortical part which crackles and flies off in sparks during combustion, while the coal of the wood itself seldom does.

For making crayons of charcoal, the willow is the best wood that can be employed, as the softness is uniform in all its parts. Its durability may be seen in several of our old churchyards, where the letters made with lamp-black are still perfect, though the white lead with which the body of the stones was painted is entirely destroyed.

This property of carbon is shewn, however, in a more striking manner by the writings that were found in the ruins of Herculaneum, which have retained their original blackness for two thousand years. The ancients wrote with ink made from ground charcoal.

If it be required to purify any carbonaceous matter, to render it fitter for delicate pigments, this may be done by first calcining it in a close vessel, and then lixiviating it in water slightly acidulated by nitric acid.

The incorruptibility of charcoal was well known to the ancients, and they availed themselves of this property upon all important occasions.

About sixty years ago a quantity of oak stakes were found in the bed of the Thames, in the very spot where Tacitus says that the Britons fixed a vast number of such stakes, to prevent the passage of Julius Cæsar and his army. These stakes were charred to a considerable depth, had retained their form completely, and were firm at the heart.

Most of the houses in Venice stand upon piles of wood, which have all been previously charred for their preservation. In this country, estates were formerly marked out by charred stakes driven to a considerable depth into the ground. See Bone-black, Charcoal, and Graphite.

CARBONATED WATER, is water either pure, or holding various saline matters in solution, impregnated with carbonic acid gas. For general sale in this country, the water usually contains a little soda, which being charged with the gas, is called Soda water; see this article for a description of an excellent machine for the manufacture of this fashionable beverage.

CARBONATES. Saline compounds in definite proportions, of carbonic acid, with alkalis, earths, and the ordinary metallic oxides.

The carbonates principally used in the arts and manufactures are those of ammonia, copper, iron, lead, lime, magnesia, potash, soda. Native carbonate of copper is the beautiful green mineral called Malachite.

Carbonates are easily analyzed by estimating either by weight or measure the quantity of carbonic acid which they evolve under the decomposing action of somewhat dilute sulphuric, nitric, or muriatic acid; for as they are all compounds of acid, and base in equivalent proportions, the quantity of acid will indicate the quantity of base. Thus, as pure limestone consists of 56 of lime and 44 of acid, in 100 parts, if upon examining a sample of limestone we find it to give out only 22 per cent. of carbonic acid gas, during its slow solution in muriatic acid, we are sure that there are only 28 parts of lime present. I have described, in the Annals of Philosophy, for October, 1817, a simple form of apparatus for analyzing the carbonates with equal readiness and precision. The simple rule by measure to which I was led, may be thus stated: From the bulk of evolved gas, expressed in cubic inches and tenths, deduct ⁄20, the remainder will express the proportion of real limestone present in the grains employed. Pure magnesian limestone yields very nearly a cubic inch of the gas for every grain in weight.

CARBONATE OF AMMONIA. A salt called in modern chemistry sesquicarbonate, to denote its being composed of one and a half equivalent primes of carbonic acid, and one of ammonia. It consists by my analysis of 55·89 carbonic acid, 28·86 ammonia, and 15·25 water, in 100 parts. It is generally prepared by mixing from 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 parts of well-washed dry chalk, with 1 of sal-ammoniac, introducing the mixture into an earthen or cast-iron retort, or subliming pot, and exposing it to a heat gradually raised to redness. By double decomposition, the ammonia is volatilized in combination with the carbonic acid of the chalk, and the vapours are received in a condensing receiver made either of glass, stone ware, or lead. The chlorine of the sal-ammoniac remains in the retort, associated with the basis of the chalk in the state of chloride of calcium. Some ammonia gas escapes during the process.

The saline mass thus sublimed is purified by a second sublimation in glass, or salt-glazed earthen vessels. The salt may be obtained, by the above method carefully conducted, in rhomboidal octahedrons, but it is generally made for the market in a compact semi-crystalline white cake. It has a pungent ammoniacal smell, a hot, pungent, alkaline taste, a strong alkaline reaction, and dissolves in two parts of cold water. It must be kept in well-closed vessels, as by exposure to the air a portion of its ammonia exhales, and it passes into the state of the scentless bi-carbonate. It is employed much in medicine, chemical analysis, and by the pastry-cooks to give sponginess to their cakes in consequence of its volatilization from their dough in the oven. See Sal-Ammoniac.

For the other carbonates used in the arts, see their respective bases; copper, lead, lime, &c.

CARBONIC ACID (Acide carbonique, Fr.; Kohlensäure, Germ.), consists of 1 prime equivalent of carbon = 6·125 + 2 of oxygen = 16·026, whose joint sum = 22·151, represents the atomic weight or combining ratio of this acid, in the neutral or protocarbonate salts. Its composition by volume is stated under Carbon. Its natural form is a gas, whose specific gravity is 1·5245, compared to atmospheric air 1·000; and being so dense, it may be poured out of one vessel into another. Hence it was called at first aërial acid. From its existing copiously, in a solid state, in limestones and the mild alkalies, it was styled fixed air by its proper discoverer, Dr. Black. About one volume of it exists in 1000 volumes of common atmospheric air, which may be made manifest by the crust of carbonate it occasions upon the surface of lime water. Carbonic acid gas is found accumulated in many caverns of volcanic districts, and particularly in the grotto dei cani at Pausilippo, near Puzzuoli; being disengaged in such circumstances by the action of subterranean fire, and, possibly, of certain acids, upon the limestone strata. It often issues from fountains in copious currents, as at Franzensbrunn, near Eger, in Polterbrunnen; near Trier; and Byrreshorn. This acid gas occurs also frequently in mines and wells, being called choke damp, from its suffocating quality. Its presence may, at all times, be detected, by letting down a lighted candle, suspended from a string, into the places suspected of containing this mephitic air. It exists, in considerable quantities, in the water of every pump well, and gives it a fresh and pleasant taste. Water, exposed some time to the air, loses these aerial particles, and becomes vapid. Many springs are highly impregnated with carbonic acid gas, and form a sparkling beverage; such as the Selterswasser, from Selters upon the Lahn, in the grand duchy of Nassau; of which no less than two millions and a half of bottles are sold every year. A prodigious quantity of a similar water is also artificially prepared in Great Britain, and many other countries, under the name of aërated or soda water.

Carbonic acid occurs in nature, combined with many salifiable bases; as in the carbonates of soda, baryta, strontia, magnesia; the oxides of iron, manganese, zinc, copper, lead, &c. From these substances it may be separated, generally speaking, by strong ignition, or, more readily, by the superior affinity of muriatic, sulphuric, or nitric acid, for the earth or metallic oxide. It is formed whenever vegetable or animal substances are burned with free access of air, from the union of their carbonaceous principle with atmospheric oxygen. It is also formed in all cases of the spontaneous decomposition of organic substances, particularly in the process of fermentation; and constitutes the pungent, noxious, heavy gas thrown off, in vast volumes, from beer vats. See Distillation and Fermentation. Carbonic acid is also generated in the breathing of animals; from 4 to 5 per cent., in volume, of the inhaled oxygen being converted, at each expiration, into this gas, which contaminates the air of crowded apartments, and renders ventilation essential to health, and even to life: witness the horrible catastrophe of the Black-hole at Calcutta.

Carbonic acid gas is destitute of colour, has a sourish, suffocating smell, an acidulous pungent taste, imparts to moist, but not dry, litmus paper, a transient reddish tint, and weighs per 100 cubic inches, 46⁄2 grains; and per cubic foot, 803⁄2 grains; a little more than 3⁄4 oz. avoirdupoid. A cubic foot of air weighs about two thirds of that quantity, or 527 grains. It may be condensed into the liquid state by a pressure of 40 atmospheres, and this liquid may be then solidified by its own sudden spontaneous evaporation. If air contain more than 15 per cent. in bulk of this gas, it becomes unfit for respiration and combustion, animal life and candles being speedily extinguished by it.

Before a person ventures into a deep well, or vault containing fermenting materials, he should introduce a lighted candle into the space, and observe how it burns. Carbonic acid, being so much denser than common air, may be drawn out of cellars or fermenting tubs, by a pump furnished with a leather hose, which reaches to the bottom. Quicklime, mixed with water, may be used also to purify the air of a sunk apartment by its affinity for, or power of, absorbing this aërial acid. See Mineral Waters and Soda Water.

CARBONIC OXIDE. See the article Carbon.

CARBUNCLE. A gem highly prized by the ancients; most probably a variety of the noble garnet of modern mineralogists.

CARBURET OF SULPHUR, called also sulphuret of carbon, and alcohol of sulphur, is a limpid volatile liquid, possessing a penetrating fetid smell, and an acrid burning taste. Its specific gravity is 1·265; and its boiling point is about 112° Fahr. It evaporates so readily, and absorbs so much heat in the vaporous state, that if a tube containing quicksilver, surrounded with lint dipped in this liquid, be suspended in the receiver of an air-pump, on making the vacuum, the quicksilver will be congealed. It consists of 15·8 carbon and 84·2 sulphur, in 100 parts; being two equivalent primes of the latter to one of the former.

CARBURETTED HYDROGEN. A compound of carbon and hydrogen, of which there are several species—such as oil-gas, coal-gas, olefiant gas, oil of lemons, otto of roses, oil of turpentine, petroleum, naphta, naphthaline, oil of wine, caoutchoucine and caoutchouc.

CARDS, PLAYING. (Cartes à jouer, Fr.; Karten, Germ.) Mr. de la Rue obtained, in February, 1832, a patent for certain improvements in the manufacture of playing cards, which he distributed under three heads: first, printing the pips, and also the picture or court-cards, in oil colours by means of types or blocks; secondly, effecting the same in oil colours by means of lithography; and thirdly, gilding or silvering borders, and other parts of the characters, by the printing process, either by types, blocks, or lithography.

In the ordinary mode of manufacturing playing cards, their devices are partly produced by copperplate printing, and they are filled up with water colours by the means called stencilling.

The patentee does not propose any material alteration in the devices or forms upon the cards, but only to produce them with oil colours; and, to effect this, he follows precisely the same mode as that practised by calico printers.

A set of blocks or types properly devised, are produced for printing the different pips of hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, or they are drawn, as other subjects, in the usual way upon stone. The ink or colour, whether black or red, is to be prepared from the best French lamp-black, or the best Chinese vermillion ground in oil, and laid on the types and blocks, or on the stone, in the same way as printers’ ink, and the impressions taken-on to thick drawing paper by means of a suitable press in the ordinary manner of printing.

The picture or court-cards are to be produced by a series of impressions in different colours, fitting into each other exactly in the same way as in printing paper hangings, or silks and calicoes, observing that all the colours are to be prepared with oil.

For this purpose a series of blocks or types are to be provided for each subject, and which, when put together, will form the whole device. These blocks are to be used separately, that is, all the yellow parts of the picture, for instance, are to be printed at one impression, then all the red parts, next all the flesh colour, then the blue portions, and so on, finishing with the black outlines, which complete the picture.

If the same is to be done by lithography, there must be as many stones as there are to be colours, each to print its portion only; and the impression, or part of the picture given by one stone, must be exactly fitted into by the impression given from the next stone, and so on until the whole subject is complete.

A superior kind of card is proposed to be made, with gold or silver devices in parts of the pictures, or gold or silver borders round the pips. This is to be effected by printing the lines which are to appear as gold or silver, with gilders’ size, in place of ink or colour; and immediately after the impression has been given, the face of the card is to be powdered over with gold dust, silver, or bronze, by means of a soft cotton or wool dabber, by which the gold, silver, or bronze will be made to adhere to the picture, and the superfluous portions of the metal will wipe off by a very slight rubbing. When the prints are perfectly dry, the face of the card may be polished by means of a soft brush.

If it should be desirable to make these improved cards to resemble ivory, that may be done by preparing the face of the paper in the first instance with a composition of size and fine French white, and a drying oil, mixed together to about the consistence of cream; this is to be washed over the paper, and dried before printing, and when the cards are finished, they will exactly resemble ivory.

The only thing remaining to be described, is the means by which the successive impressions of the types, blocks, or stones forming the parts of the pictures, are to be brought exactly to join each other, so as to form a perfect whole design when complete; this is by printers called registering, and is to be effected much in the usual way, by points in the tympan of the press, or by marks upon the stones.

The parts of the subject having been all accurately cut or drawn to fit, small holes are to be made with a fine awl through a quire or more of the paper at once, by placing upon the paper a gauge-plate, having marks or guide-holes, and by observing these, the same sheet laid on several times, and always made to correspond with the points or marks, the several parts of the picture must inevitably register, and produce a perfect subject.

CARD CUTTING. Mr. Dickinson’s patent machine for cutting cards, consists of a pair of rollers with circular revolving cutters, the edges of which are intended to act against each other as circular shears, and the pasteboards in passing between these rollers are cut by the circular shears into cards of the desired dimensions. These rollers are mounted in suitable standards, with proper adjustments, and are made to revolve by a band and pulley connected to the axle of a crank, or by any other convenient means.

Fig. 263. is a front view of this machine; a a and b b are the two rollers, the upper one turning upon an extended axle, bearing in the standards, the lower one upon pivots. These rollers are formed by a series of circular blocks, between a series of circular steel cutters, which are slidden on to iron shafts, and held together upon their axle by nuts screwed up at their ends. The accurate adjustment of the cutters is of the first importance to their correct performance; it is therefore found necessary to introduce spiral springs within the blocks, in order to press the cutters up to their proper bearings. A section of one of the blocks is shewn at fig. 265, and an end view of the same at fig. 266, with the spiral springs inserted.

At the outer extremity of the axle of the roller a, a rigger c, is attached, whence a band passes to a pulley d, on the crank shaft e, to which a flywheel f, is affixed, for the purpose of rendering the action uniform. Rotatory motion being given to the crank shaft, the upper roller is turned, the lower roller moving at the same time by the friction against the edges of the cutters.

Fig. 264 is an end view of the rollers, showing the manner in which the pasteboards are guided and conducted between the cutters. In the front of the machine a movable frame g, is to be placed, for the purpose of receiving the pasteboards, preparatory to cutting them into cards, and a stop is screwed to this frame for the edge of the pasteboard to bear against, which stop is adjustable to suit different sizes. From the back part of this frame an arm h, extends, the extremity of which acts against the periphery of a ratchet wheel i, fixed at the end of the roller b, and hence, as the roller goes round, the frame is made to rise and fall upon its pivots, for the purpose of guiding the pasteboard up to the cutters; at the same time a rod k, hanging in arms from the sides of the standards (shewn by dots in fig. 263), falling upon the pasteboard, confines it, while the cutters take hold, and racks, corresponding with the indentations of the rollers, are placed as at l l, by means of which the cards, when cut, are pushed out of the grooves.

As various widths of cards will require to be cut by this machine, the patentee proposes to have several pairs of rollers ready adjusted to act together, when mounted in the standards, in preference to shifting the circular cutters, and introducing blocks of greater or less width.

The second part of the invention is a machine for pasting the papers, and pressing the sheets together to make pasteboard. This machine consists of several reels (we suppose rollers are intended) on which the paper is to be wound, along with a paste trough, and rotatory brushes. The several parts of this machine, and their operations in making pasteboard, are described in the specification, but the patentee having omitted the letters of reference in the drawing which he has enrolled, it becomes difficult to explain it.

As far as we are enabled to understand the machine, it appears, that damped paper is to be wound upon two rollers, and conducted from thence over two other rollers; that two fluted rollers revolving in the paste trough are to supply paste to two circular brushes, and that by those brushes the papers are to be pasted upon one side, and then pressed together, to make the pasteboard; after this, the pasteboard is to be drawn on to a table, and to remain there until sufficiently dry to be wound upon other rollers. By comparing this description with the figure, perhaps the intended operations of the machine may be discovered, it is the best explanation we are enabled to give.

CARDS, (Cardes, Fr.; Karden, Ger.) are instruments which serve to disentangle the fibres of wool, cotton, or other analogous bodies, to arrange them in an orderly lap or fleece, and thereby prepare them for being spun into uniform threads. The fineness and the levelness of the yarn, as well as the beauty of the cloth into which it enters, depend as much upon the regularity and perfection of the carding, as upon any subsequent operations of the factory. The quality of the carding depends more upon that of the cards than upon any attention or skill in the operative; since it is now nearly an automatic process, conducted by young women called card-tenters.

Cards are formed of a sheet or fillet of leather pierced with a multitude of small holes, in which are implanted small staples of wire with bent projecting ends called teeth. Thus every piece of wire is double toothed. The leather is afterwards applied to a flat or cylindrical surface of wood or metal, and the co-operation of two or more such surfaces constitutes a card. The teeth of cards are made thicker or slenderer, according as the filaments to be carded are coarser or finer, stiffer or more pliant, more valuable or cheaper. It is obviously of great importance that the teeth should be all alike, equably distributed, and equally inclined over the surface of the leather, a degree of precision which is scarcely possible with handwork. To judge of the difficulty of this manipulation we need only inspect the annexed figures. The wire must first be bent at right angles in c and d, fig. 268, then each branch must receive a second bend in a and b at a determinate obtuse angle, invariable for each system of cards. It is indispensable that the two angles c a e and d b f be mathematically equal, not only as to the twin teeth of one staple, but through the whole series; for it is easy to see that if one of the teeth be more or less sloped than its fellow, it will lay hold of more or less wool than it, and render the carding irregular. But though the perfect regularity of the teeth be important, it is not the sole condition towards making a good card. It must be always kept in view that these teeth are to be implanted by pairs in a piece of leather, and kept in it by the cross part c d. The leather must therefore be pierced with twin holes at the distance c d; and pierced in such a manner, that the slope of the holes, in reference to the plane of the leather, be invariably the same; for otherwise the length of the teeth would vary with this angle of inclination, and the card would be irregular.

A third condition essential towards producing perfect regularity, is that the leather ought to be of the same thickness throughout its whole surface, otherwise the teeth, though of the same length and fixed at the same angle, would be rendered unequal by the different thicknesses of the leather, and the operation of carding would be in consequence extremely defective. Fig. 267. shows the card-teeth acting against each other, as indicated by the arrows in two opposite directions; in fig. 269. they work one way.

Of late years very complex but complete and well-acting machines have been constructed for splitting the leather or equalizing it by shaving, for bending and cutting the wires, and implanting them in the leather, into holes pierced with perfect regularity. Card machines which fashion the teeth with great precision and rapidity, and pierce the leather, have been for a considerable time in use at Halifax, in Yorkshire, a town famous for the excellence of its card-cloth, as also at Leeds, Glasgow, and several other places. The wires and the leather thus prepared are given out by the manufacturer to women and children, who put them together.

1. The simplest machine for equalizing the leather which can be employed, is that which I saw operating in MM. Scrive’s automatic card factory at Lille, the most magnificent I believe in the world, where the leather was drawn forwards by a roller over a solid horizontal table, or bed, and passed under a nicely adjusted vertical blade, which shaved it by a scraping motion to a perfectly uniform thickness. About one half the weight of the leather is lost in this process, and in the subsequent squaring and trimming.

The machine for making cards, invented I believe by a Mr. Ellis of the United States, for which a first patent was obtained in this country by Joseph Cheeseborough Dyer, Esq. of Manchester, in 1811, and a second and third with further improvements in 1814, and 1824, is one of the most elegant automatons ever applied to productive industry. It is however necessarily so complicated with different mechanisms as to render its representation impracticable in such engravings as are compatible with the scope of this dictionary. I must therefore content myself with the following general description of its constituent parts.

The first thing to be done after having, as above, prepared the long sheets or fillets of leather, of suitable length, breadth, and thickness, for making the cards, is to stretch the leather, and hold it firmly; which is accomplished by winding the fillet of leather upon the roller or drum, like the warp roller of a loom, and then conducting it upwards between guide rollers, to a receiving or work roller at top of the machine, where the fillet is held fast by a cramp, by which means the leather is kept stretched.

Secondly, the holes are pierced in the leather to receive the wire staples or teeth of the card, by means of a sliding fork, the points of which are presented to the face of the leather; while the fork is made to advance and recede continually, by the agency of levers worked by rotatory cams upon a revolving main shaft.

The points of the fork being thus made to penetrate into the leather, the holes for receiving the staples are pierced, at regular distances, and in correct order, by shifting the leather fillet so as to bring different parts of its surface opposite to the points of the sliding fork. This is done by cams, or indented wheels and gear, which shift the guide rollers and confining drums laterally, as they revolve, and consequently move the fillet of leather at intervals a short distance, so as to present to the points of the fork or piercer at every movement, a different part of the surface of the leather.

Thirdly, the wire of which the teeth or points of the card are to be made, is supplied from a coil on the side of the machine, and is brought forward at intervals, by a pair of sliding pincers, which are slidden to and fro through the agency of levers actuated by rotatory cams upon the main shaft. The pincers having advanced a distance equal to the length of wire intended to form one staple, or two points, this length of wire is pressed upon exactly in the middle by a square piece of steel, and being there confined, a cutter is brought forward, which cuts it off from that part of the wire held in the pincers.

The length of wire thus separated and confined, is now, by a movement of the machine, bent up along the sides of the square steel holder, and shaped to three edges of the square, that is, formed as a staple; and in the same way, by the continued movements of the machine, a succession of pieces of wire are cut off, and bent into staples for making the teeth of the card as long as the mechanism is kept in action.

Fourthly, the wire staple thus formed is held with its points or ends outwards, closely contiguous to the forked piercer described above, and by another movement of the mechanism, the staple is protruded forward, its end entering into the two holes made previously in the leather by the sliding of the fork.

While the wire staple is being thus introduced into the leather, its legs or points are to be bent, that is, formed with a knee or angle, which is the fifth object to be effected. This is done by means of a small apparatus consisting of a bar or bed, which bears up against the under side of the wire staple when it has been passed half-way into the holes in the leather, and another bar above it, which being brought down behind the staple, bends it over the resisting bar to the angle required; that is, forms the knee in each leg. A pusher now acts behind the staple, and drives it home into the leather, which completes the operation.

The leather being thus conducted, and its position shifted before the piercer progressively, a succession of the above described operations of cutting the wire, forming the staple, passing it into the leather, and bending its legs to the angular form, produces a sheet of card of the kind usually employed for carding or combing wool, cotton, and other fibrous materials. It may be necessary to add, that as these wire staples are required to be set in the leathers sometimes in lines crossing the sheet, which is called ribbed, and at other times in oblique lines, called twilled, these variations are produced by the positions of the notches or steps upon the edge or periphery of the cam or indented wheel, which shifts the guide rollers that hold the fillet or sheet of leather as already described.

CARMINE, (Eng. and Fr.; Karminstoff, Ger.), is, according to Pelletier and Caventou, a triple compound of the colouring substance, and an animal matter contained in cochineal, combined with an acid added to effect the precipitation. The preparation of this article is still a mystery, because upon the one hand, its consumption being very limited, few persons are engaged in its manufacture, and upon the other, the raw material being costly, extensive experiments on it cannot be conveniently made. Success in this business is said to depend not a little upon dexterity of manipulation, and upon knowing the instant for arresting the further action of heat upon the materials.

There is sold at the shops different kinds of carmine, distinguished by numbers, and possessed of a corresponding value. This difference depends upon two causes, either upon the proportion of alumina added in the precipitation, or of a certain quantity of vermillion put in to dilute the colour. In the first case the shade is paler, in the second, it has not the same lustre. It is always easy to discover the proportion of the adulteration. By availing ourselves of the property of pure carmine to dissolve in water of ammonia, the whole foreign matter remains untouched, and we may estimate its amount by drying the residuum.

To make Ordinary Carmine.

Take 1 pound of cochineal in powder;
Take 3 drachms and a half of carbonate of potash;
Take 8 drachms of alum in powder;
Take 3 drachms and a half of fish-glue.

The cochineal must be boiled along with the potash in a copper containing five pailfuls of water (60 pints); the ebullition being allayed with cold water. After boiling a few minutes the copper must be taken from the fire, and placed on a table at such an angle as that the liquor may be conveniently transvased. The pounded alum is then thrown in, and the decoction is stirred; it changes colour immediately, and inclines to a more brilliant tint. At the end of fifteen minutes the cochineal is deposited at the bottom, and the bath becomes as clear as if it had been filtered. It contains the colouring matter, and probably a little alum in suspension. We decant it then into a copper of equal capacity, and place it over the fire, adding the fish-glue dissolved in a great deal of water, and passed through a searce. At the moment of ebullition, the carmine is perceived to rise up to the surface of the bath, and a coagulum is formed, like what takes place in clarifications with white of egg. The copper must be immediately taken from the fire, and its contents be stirred with a spatula. In the course of fifteen or twenty minutes the carmine is deposited. The supernatant liquor is decanted, and the deposit must be drained upon a filter of fine canvas or linen. If the operation has been well conducted, the carmine when dry crushes readily under the fingers. What remains after the precipitation of the carmine is still much loaded with colour, and may be employed very advantageously for carminated lakes. See Lake.

By the old German process carmine is prepared by means of alum without any other addition. As soon as the water boils the powdered cochineal is thrown into it, stirred well, and then boiled for six minutes; a little ground alum is added, and the boiling is continued for three minutes more; the vessel is removed from the fire, the liquor is filtered and left for three days in porcelain vessels, in the course of which time a red matter falls down, which must be separated and dried in the shade. This is carmine, which is sometimes previously purified by washing. The liquor after three days more lets fall an inferior kind of carmine, but the residuary colouring matter may also be separated by the muriate of tin.

The proportions for the above process are 580 parts of clear river water, 16 parts of cochineal, and 1 part of alum; there is obtained from 1⁄2 to 2 parts of carmine.

Another carmine with tartar.—To the boiling water the cochineal is added, and after some time a little cream of tartar; in eight minutes more we add a little alum, and continue the boiling for a minute or two longer. Then take it from the fire and pour it into glass or porcelain vessels, filter and let it repose quietly till the carmine falls down. We then decant and dry in the shade. The proportions are 8 pounds of water, 8 oz. of cochineal, ⁄2 oz. of cream of tartar, ⁄4 oz. of alum, and the product is an ounce of carmine.

The process of Alxon or Langlois.—Boil two pails and a half of river water (30 pints), throw into it, a little afterwards, a pound of cochineal, add a filtered solution of six drachms of carbonate of soda and a pound of water, and let the mixture boil for half an hour; remove the copper from the fire, and let it cool, inclining it to one side. Add six drachms of pulverized alum, stir with a brush to quicken the solution of the salt, and let the whole rest 20 minutes. The liquor, which has a fine scarlet colour, is to be carefully decanted into another vessel, and there is to be put into it the whites of two eggs well beat up with half a pound of water. Stir again with a brush. The copper is replaced on the fire, the alumina becomes concrete, and carries down the colouring matter with it. The copper is to be taken from the fire, and left at rest for 25 or 30 minutes to allow the carmine to fall down. When the supernatant liquor is drawn off, the deposit is placed upon filter cloth stretched upon a frame to drain. When the carmine has the consistence of cream cheese, it is taken from the filter with a silver or ivory knife and set to dry upon plates covered with paper, to screen it from dust. A pound of cochineal gives in this way an ounce and a half of carmine.

Process of Madame Cenette of Amsterdam, with salt of sorrel.—Into six pails of river water boiling hot throw two pounds of the finest cochineal in powder, continue the ebullition for two hours and then add 3 oz. of refined saltpetre, and after a few minutes 4 oz. of salt of sorrel. In ten minutes more take the copper from the fire and let it settle for four hours; then draw off the liquor with a syphon into flat plates and leave it there for three weeks. Afterwards there is formed upon the surface a pretty thick mouldiness, which is to be removed dexterously in one pellicle by a slip of whalebone. Should the film tear and fragments of it fall down, they must be removed with the utmost care. Decant the supernatant water with a syphon, the end of which may touch the bottom of the vessel, because the layer of carmine is very firm. Whatever water remains must be sucked away by a pipette. The carmine is dried in the shade, and has an extraordinary lustre.

Carmine by the salt of tin, or the Carmine of China.—Boil the cochineal in river water, adding some Roman alum, then pass through a fine cloth to remove the cochineal, and set the liquor aside. It becomes brighter on keeping. After having heated this liquor, pour into it drop by drop solution of tin till the carmine be precipitated. The proportions are one pailful of water, 20 oz. of cochineal and 60 grains of alum, with a solution of tin containing 4 oz. of the metal.

To revive or brighten carmine.—We may brighten ordinary carmine, and obtain a very fine and clear pigment, by dissolving it in water of ammonia. For this purpose we leave ammonia upon carmine in the heat of the sun, till all its colour be extracted, and the liquor has got a fine red tinge. It must be then drawn off and precipitated, by acetic acid and alcohol, next washed with alcohol, and dried. Carmine dissolved in ammonia has been long employed by painters, under the name of liquid carmine.

Carmine is the finest red colour which the painter possesses. It is principally employed in miniature painting, water colours, and to tint artificial flowers, because it is more transparent than the other colours. For Carminium, see Cochineal.

CARPET. (Tapis, Fr.; Teppich, Germ.) A thick woollen fabric of variegated colours, for covering the floors of the better sort of apartments. This luxurious manufacture took its origin in Persia and Turkey, whence the most beautiful patterns were wont to come into Europe; but they have been for some time surpassed by the workmanship of France, Great Britain, and Belgium. To form a just conception of the elegant and ingenious processes by which carpets are made, we should visit the royal establishment of the Gobelins at Paris, where we would see the celebrated carpet manufactory of the Savonnerie, which has been transported thither. A detailed set of engravings of this art is given by Roland de la Platière in the first and second volumes of the Encyclopédie Méthodique, to which I must refer my readers, as a due exposition of its machines and operations would far exceed the scope of the present volume.

The warp, says M. Roland, being the foundation of the fabric, ought to be of fine wool, equally but firmly spun, and consist of three yarns twisted into one thread. The yarns that are to form the velvety surface of the carpet, ought also to be of the best quality, but soft and downy in their texture, so that the dye may penetrate every filament. Hemp, or linen yarns, are likewise employed in this manufacture, as a woof, to bind the warp firmly together after each shoot of the velvety threads. Thus we see that good carpeting consists essentially of two distinct webs woven at the same time, and firmly decussated together by the woof threads. Hence the form of the pattern is the same upon the two sides of the cloth, only the colours are reversed, so that what was green upon one side becomes red or black upon the other, and vice versâ. The smaller the figures the more frequent the decussations of the two planes, and the firmer and more durable the fabric.

The carpet manufacture, as now generally practised, may be distributed into two systems—that of double fabrics, and that cut in imitation of velvet. Of late years the Jacquard loom has been much used in weaving carpets, the nature of which will be found fully explained under that title.

For the sake of illustration, if we suppose the double carpets to be composed of only two colours, the principle of weaving will be easily understood; for it is only necessary to raise the warp of each web alternately for the passage of the shuttle, the upper web being entirely above when the under web is being woven, or decussated, and vice versâ. In a Brussels carpet the worsted yarn raised to form the pile, and make the figure, is not cut; in the Wilton the pile is cut to give it a velvety aspect and softness. In the imperial Brussels carpet the figure is raised above the ground, and its pile is cut, but the ground is uncut; and in the royal Wilton, the pile is both raised higher than in the common Wilton, and it is cut, whereby it has a rich cushion-like appearance. The cloth of all these superior carpets consists of woollen and linen, or hemp; the latter being put upon a beam, and brought, of course, through heddles and a reed; but as its only purpose is to bind together the worsted fabric, it should not be visible upon the upper face of the carpet. The worsted yarn is wound upon small bobbins or pirns, with a weight affixed to each, for giving proper tension to the threads. Their number varies, for one web, from 1300 to 1800, according as the carpet is to be 27 or 36 inches wide; and, they are placed, in frames, behind the loom, filled with differently coloured yarn, to correspond with the figure. This worsted warp is then drawn through the harness, heddles, and reed, to be associated with the linen yarn in the compound fabric.

In Kidderminster carpeting, both warp and weft appear upon the face of the cloth, whereas, in the Brussels style, only the warp is seen, its binding weft being fine hempen or linen threads. The three-ply imperial carpet, called the Scotch, is coming very much into vogue, and is reckoned by many to be little inferior in texture, look, and wear to the Brussels. Kilmarnock has acquired merited distinction by this ingenious industry. In this fabric, as well as in the two-ply Kidderminster, the weft predominates, and displays the design; but, in the French carpets, the worsted warp of the web shows the figure. Plain Venetian carpets, as used for stairs and passages, are woven in simple looms, provided merely with the common heddles and reed. The warp should be a substance of worsted yarn, so heavy as to cover in the weft completely from the view. Figured Venetian carpets are woven in the two-ply Kidderminster looms, and are provided with a mechanism to raise the pattern upon the worsted warp. The weft is an alternate shoot of worsted and linen yarn, and must be concealed.