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EXCEPT when used for
underclothing or linings, cotton cloth is generally ornamented with colours.
The art of dyeing and painting cotton and linen fabrics was known to some of
the Eastern nations from a very early date. The Egyptians practised dyeing
in blue, purple, and scarlet, at least 1500 years before the Christian era;
and Herodotus mentions that a tribe who lived on the borders of the Caspian
were in the habit of painting with vegetable dye figures of animals on their
garments, the impression being so strong that it could not be washed out. In
Pliny's time a great advance had been made by the Egyptians in the art of
dyeing and staining. Pliny thus describes the process, which bears some
resemblance to the modern mode of dyeing by mordants:—"Garments are painted
in Egypt in a wonderful manner, the white cloths being first smeared, not
with colours, but with drugs which absorb colour. These applications do not
appear upon the cloths; but when the cloths are immersed in a cauldron of
hot dyeing liquor, they are taken out the moment after, painted. It is
wonderful that, although the dyeing liquor is only of one colour, the
garment is dyed by it of several colours, according to the different
properties of the drugs which have been applied to different parts. Nor can
this dye be washed out. Thus the vat, which would doubtless have confused
all the colours if the cloth had been immersed in a painted state, produces
a diversity of colours out of one, and at the same time fixes them
immovably." It is here stated that the cloth was painted or smeared with the
chemical substances, which shows that the production of patterns by means of
engraved blocks was not then known to the Egyptians.
The art of calico-printing—or
rather painting—was not introduced into Europe until the seventeenth
century. It had been brought from India, and was at first practised
according to the rude method adopted by the inhabitants of that country. In
Anderson's "History of Commerce," it is stated that calico-printing was
begun in London in 1676; but a considerable time elapsed before the trade
came prominently into notice. Towards the close of the seventeenth century a
demand had sprung up in Britain for the cheap and gaudy prints of India,
Persia, and China; and the result was that the woollen and silk manufactures
began to suffer. An outcry was raised against the importation of printed
calicoes, and at length the attention of Parliament was called to the
matter. In 1700 an Act was passed prohibiting the importation and use of
Eastern prints, under a penalty of L.200. Meantime the home calico-printing
trade went on extending, and as it was not looked upon as interfering with
the consumption of woollen and silk goods, it was allowed to be carried on
without legislative interference. By the year 1712, however, it had become
so important that Parliament recognised its existence by imposing an Excise
duty of 3d. on every square yard of calico printed, stained, painted, or
dyed; and as it appeared to bear the impost easily enough, the duty was
doubled in 1714. Printed linens were subjected to half the rate levied on
cotton. Notwithstanding the duty, printed fabrics were extensively used by
the public, and again the cry was raised that the woollen and silk
manufactures were in danger. In 1720 an Act of Parliament was passed which
prohibited the using or wearing of printed or dyed calicoes, whether printed
at home or abroad, and even of any printed goods of which cotton formed a
part, excepting only calicoes dyed all blue. This law put an end to the
printing of calicoes, and the printers were limited to the printing of
linens. After the Act had been in force for sixteen years, the portion of it
which forbade the use or wear of printed goods of a mixed kind containing
cotton was repealed; and thenceforth cloth composed of linen warp and cotton
weft was made and printed. It was estimated in 1750 that 50,000 pieces of
this mixed fabric were printed annually. The cloth-printing trade was
confined almost exclusively to the neighbourhood of London until the year
1738, when it was introduced into Scotland. Twenty-six years later it was
begun in Lancashire, and after that time the London trade gradually
declined, as the printers there could not maintain competition with those in
the districts where the cloth was manufactured. In 1774 the law which
prohibited the printing of English made calicoes was repealed, and, by the
aid of a series of wonderful inventions and improvements, the art of
calico-printing flourished and increased, though the Excise duty was not
removed until 1831.
As showing the progress of
the trade, it may be mentioned that in 1796 the quantity of British calicoes
and muslins which paid the print-duty was 28,621,797 yards; in 1829, it was
128,340,004 yards; and in 1857, the quantity of dyed and printed calicoes
exported was 808,308,602 yards, the declared real value of which was
L.13,921,428, while it was estimated that in the same year 135,000,000 yards
were retained for home consumption. The quantity exported remained about the
above figures till the time of the American war, when there was a falling
off. In 1866 the trade had recovered to 897,825,547 yards of coloured
calicoes, the declared value of which was L.22,095,216. The year 1867 showed
a decrease of about 17,000,000 yards. There are no figures to indicate the
quantity of cotton cloth printed and dyed in Scotland; but the fact that
upwards of 12,000 persons are employed in the print and dye works shows the
importance of this branch of industry.
In both the chemical and
mechanical departments of calico-printing and Turkey-red dyeing, many
important inventions and improvements have been effected in Scotland, one of
the most valuable being the invention, in 1785, of cylinder-printing by Mr
Bell, of Glasgow, which worked a revolution in the trade. There are five
general styles in calico-printing, namely-1. The fast-colour or chintz
style, in which the mordants are applied to the white cloth, and the colours
of the design are afterwards developed in the dye-bath. 2. Where the whole
surface receives a uniform tint from one colouring matter, and figures of
other colours are afterwards brought up by chemical discharges and
reactions. 3. Where the white surface is impressed with figures in a resist
paste, and is afterwards subjected to a general dye. 4. Steam-colours, in
which a mixture of the mordants and dye-extracts is applied to the cloth,
and the chemical combination is effected by the agency of steam. 5.
Spirit-colours, consisting of mixtures of dye-extracts with nitro-muriate of
tin. The latter are brilliant but fugitive.
The following account of the
Cordale Printfield and Dalquhurn Dyeworks—two extensive establishments
situated on the banks of the Leven near the village of Renton,
Dumbartonshire, and belonging to Messrs William Stirling & Sons,
Glasgow—will convey an idea of the processes of calico-printing and
Turkey-red dyeing:—
As already explained, there are various styles of calico-printing, and
sometimes two or more of these are carried on in one printfield; but at
Cordale (which is one of the most extensive works of the kind in the
country) Turkey-red printing only is practised. The cloth, after being dyed
red at the Dalquhurn works, is taken to Cordale and figured with other
colours by certain chemical processes. In order, then, to trace the
successive operations, it is necessary that the Dalquhurn Dyeworks should be
first described. In the beginning of last century an extensive bleach-field
was formed at Dalquhurn, which in 1791 was acquired by Messrs Stirling, and
used for bleaching the cloth printed at Cordale. In 1828 the firm extended
the premises, began to dye Turkey-red, and founded their present celebrity
in that branch of trade. The grounds pertaining to the works extend to about
seventy acres, of which ten are covered by buildings.
The cloth and yarn dyed and
printed by Messrs Stirling & Sons are made chiefly in Glasgow and
Manchester. The cloth is sent in as it comes from the looms, and the first
process to which it is subjected is a partial bleaching. From 2000 to 3000
pieces, averaging about twenty-five yards in length, are formed into a
continuous web by being sewed together by a steam sewing-machine. This web
is led on to a washing-machine of peculiar construction, which removes the
simpler impurities. The washing-machine consists of a trough surmounted by a
framework. In the bottom of the trough is a roller extending from end to
end, and there is a similar roller in the framework above. A web of cloth is
fed in at each end of the rollers, and after winding spirally round the
upper and lower rollers the ends are brought out in the centre. When the
machine is set in motion the cloth, which before it enters is compressed
into the form of a rope, is drawn round by the rollers; and from the time it
enters the machine until it comes out, every part of it has been a dozen
times immersed in the trough, and as often wrung nearly dry by compression
between the upper leading roller and one which bears against it. Each
washing-machine disposes of about 800 pieces, or 24,000 yards, in an hour,
consuming in that time about 24,000 gallons of water. As the cloth comes
from the washing-machine it is deposited in a large iron boiler, technically
called a "kier." When the boiler is full the cover is fixed on, and
high-pressure steam is admitted. Water impregnated with a certain proportion
of caustic soda is then injected in a boiling state, and by a system of
pipes and taps is drawn downward through the cloth. This operation is
continued for about eight hours, when the cover is removed, and the end of
the web attached to the washing-machine, which draws the cloth out of the
kier, and washes it. From the washing-machine the cloth passes to the
souring cistern, where it is steeped in a weak solution of --sulphuric acid,
and afterwards washed in pure water. The cloth is then dried, when it is
ready for the first stages of the dyeing process. Before the cloth reaches
the dye-bath it is subjected to no fewer than twenty-six operations after
those which have been described. It is passed through a variety of dung and
oil liquors, exposed on the grass, dried in stoves, and so on, several of
these operations being repeated three or four times, and the whole extending
over several days.
The art of dyeing Turkey-red
was introduced into England in the end of last century by M. Borelle, a
Frenchman, who established himself in Manchester, and received a reward from
Government for the disclosure of the secret. A year or two afterwards,
another Frenchman—M. Papillon—went to Glasgow, and, in company with Mr
George Macintosh, began to practise the art. The method followed by M.
Papillon was more successful than that adopted by M. Borelle at Manchester,
and Glasgow became famous for dyeing Turkey-red. Up till 1810, however, the
colour could be imparted only to thread and yarn. In that year, M. Kcechlin,
of Alulhausen, in Alsace, discovered a mode of giving the colour to cloth;
and a year afterwards invented one of the most beautiful and interesting
processes in calico-printing, namely, the mode of discharging the colour
from the dyed cloth according to any pattern desired, and inserting designs
in other colours. This is the system practised at Messrs Stirling's dye and
print works.
The art of the dyer and
calico-printer is based on the proper understanding and use of "mordants."
The term "mordant" is applied to certain substances with which the cloth to
be dyed must be impregnated, otherwise the colouring matters would not
adhere to the cloth, but would be removed by washing. Thus the red colour
given to cotton by madder would not be fixed unless the cloth were
previously steeped in a solution of salt of alumina. The cloth has the
property of decomposing the salt, and of combining with and retaining a
portion of alumina. The red colouring principle of the madder has an
affinity for the alumina and combines with it. The consequence is, that the
alumina, being firmly retained by the cloth, and the colouring matter by the
alumina, the dye becomes "fast"—that is, it cannot be removed by water, even
when soap is added, though water alone is sufficient to remove the red
colouring matter from the cloth if the alum mordant has not been previously
applied. After the cloth has been subjected to the thirty preparatory
operations referred to above, it is steeped for a night in the alum mordant.
It is then washed and wrung, but not dried. Through all the operations up to
this point the cloth is retained in the long webs into which it was formed
for the first washing, and in that shape is passed through tubes from one
part of the premises to the other. The various departments are distinct from
each other in order to ensure perfect work in each; and in its progress the
cloth travels many miles through tubes, over pulleys, and round cylinders;
and inexperienced persons are apt to wonder that after so many washings,
boilings, and squeezings there is any strength left in it. Preparatory to
being placed in the dye-bath, the cloth is separated into lengths of two or
three pieces, several of these subdivisions going into each bath. The baths
are fitted with automatic reels, or open revolving frames, round which the
cloth is loosely wound, so that it hangs in loops down into the dye.
Constant motion is necessary in order to ensure equality of colour, and the
cloth is kept revolving round the reels so long as it remains in the bath.
The cloth is put in when the dye stuff is cold, and the heat is brought up
slowly by means of steam-pipes. In two or three hours the liquid is made to
boil, and the ebullition is kept up for about fifteen minutes, when the
cloth is withdrawn and washed and cleared several times with soap and soda
in copper boilers.
Madder, when used with an
iron mordant, produces a purple colour, with alum it produces red, and with
alum and iron in certain proportions, it produces chocolate or black. In the
production of Turkey-red the madder is mixed with bullock's blood, of which
about 130,000 gallons are used annually at the Dalquhurn Works. Yarn is dyed
by a hand process, and the operatives engaged in that department have a most
unhealthy and disagreeable occupation. They have to stand over the cisterns
of scalding, steaming liquor, and keep the yarn in constant motion by
shifting and turning about the rods on which it is hung. Self•acting
machines for superseding hand 'labour are being tried. The yarn is subjected
to preliminary processes similar to those which the cloth undergoes; but as
it cannot be formed into a continuous line, special appliances are required
for dealing with it. Machines for washing, liquoring, and wringing the yarn
have been devised and constructed at the works.
The establishment contains a
fine collection of machines, and the organisation of the place throughout
exhibits a variety of labour-saving arrangements and appliances which will
not fail to arrest the attention and excite the admiration of visitors.
There are from 900 to 1000 persons employed in the works, about two-thirds
being women, of whom a considerable proportion are Irish. A more
healthy-looking class of women than those employed in bleaching is not to be
found, though the labour in the winter time is somewhat trying.
The machinery is driven by 26
steam-engines, the aggregate force of which is about 180 horse power
nominal. Steam for these is generated in- 14 boilers, and the quantity of
coal consumed in. the works is from 25,000 to 30,000 tons a-year. About
600,000 pieces, or 18,450,000 yards of cloth, and from about 600,000 Z. to
800,000 lb. of yarn are dyed annually, and, when extensions at present in
progress are completed, that quantity will be much increased. The wages paid
annually by the firm amount to about L.40,000. L.50,000 worth of madder and
L.20,000 worth of olive oil are used every year. It would be impossible to
have such an establishment in a locality where there was not an abundance of
pure water; for the quantity consumed at Dalquhum would be sufficient to
supply every man, woman, and child in the city of Edinburgh with ten gallons
a-day.
All the yarn and more than
one-half of the cloth dyed at Dalquhurn are exported in a plain red state.
The remainder of the cloth is taken to the Cordale Printworks to be printed.
As already stated, the style of printing practised is that whereby cloth,
after being dyed of a uniform tint, has designs in other colours worked into
it by a system of chemical discharges and reactions. If a paste composed of
certain proportions of oxalic acid, tartaric acid, lime juice, pipeclay, and
gum (the two latter being used merely to give consistency to the mixture),
be applied to a piece of Turkey-red cloth, and the cloth be afterwards
dipped in a solution of chloride of lime, it will be found that all the
parts covered by the paste have become white. The discharge paste of itself
produces no effect on the colour, and may be removed by washing in pure
water, and the chloride of lime in like manner may be applied without
affecting the dye; but when both are brought to act together, the colour at
once gives way. Again, if it be desired to erase the red ground according to
any particular pattern, and insert, say yellow, in the cleared spaces, all
that is necessary is to mix in the discharge paste a mordant that will seize
yellow dye; and after the discharging is completed, immerse the cloth in the
yellow bath. Thus, a design printed on red cloth with a paste composed of
lime juice, tartaric acid, nitrate of lead, pipeclay, and gum, comes out
white after immersion in the chloride of lime solution; and on being plunged
immediately afterwards into a bath of bi-chromate of potash, comes out
yellow, the red meantime remaining unaffected, except where the paste was
applied. A knowledge of these facts is necessary to enable one to understand
what to the uninitiated are most mysterious and wonderful operations.
The tedious process of
painting designs on calico by hand was superseded by the use of blocks about
the time the art was introduced into Europe. In block-printing a section of
the design is cut upon a piece of sycamore, and, after being coated with
paste or colouring matter, is laid upon the cloth and struck smartly. As the
blocks most commonly used are only ten inches long by five broad, a great
number of applications are necessary in order to print a single piece of
cloth. The block has been superseded by the cylinder, except in special
cases—such as at the establishment under notice, where, owing to the
peculiar nature of the work, blocks are still used to some extent. The
blocks are made on the premises by a staff of designers and engravers. , As
most of the goods are for the Indian market, the colours are somewhat "
loud" and the designs peculiar. The dress-pieces made for people of the
Hindoo religion have a broad border of peacocks round the skirt, the upper
part bearing a spotted or diaper pattern. The ground-work of all is
Turkey-red, but the birds and other designs are produced in blue, yellow,
and ,green. The Mahometans consider it sinful to try to imitate nature too
closely; and though peacocks figure in the designs prepared for ladies of
that faith, they are drawn in the rudest fashion and worked out in mosaic.
None of the designs of these Indian garments would find admirers in this
country; and as the artists are bound down by certain conventional rules,
they have no scope for the creation of original patterns. In cloth for
turbans there is the same limitation in variety. The dress pieces are short,
being only from 1} to 8 yards in length; and owing to that and other
technical causes, it would be unprofitable to print them on a cylinder
machine, so they are done by the block method. As has been already
explained, what is printed on the cloth is not the complete colour, but a
substance to discharge the red and absorb another colour. This substance is
applied in the form of paste, which has no resemblance to the ultimate
colour.
The cloth having been
calendered and wound round a roller, is taken to the printers, who work in
pairs, one standing at each end of a table. At one end of the table the
cloth passes up from beneath, and as each space the size of the table is
printed, it is drawn down at the other end and brought into contact with a
drying cylinder. The blocks used in this case are of a large size, some of
them being nine inches in width, and long enough to extend across the web.
The paste is managed by a boy, called a "tearer," who spreads an even
coating over a woollen cloth stretched in a frame, and resting on an elastic
bed. The printer presses his block on the woollen cloth, and takes up a
quantity of paste sufficient for one impression, the "tearer" giving the
cloth a fresh coat after each dip. Guided by a series of brass points, the
printer lays his block evenly on the calico, and strikes it with a hammer.
In the case of small-block printing, each man has a table for himself, and
his work is much lighter than that of those who use the large blocks.
Sometimes the pastes for three or four different colours are put on at one
time, the printers changing the blocks and pastes at each impression. When
two colours only are used, the men take one each, and it is astonishing how
much cloth they will turn out in a day. The cylinder printing-machines,
however, possess great advantages over the hand process; but they can be
used ,only when the cloth is of one design from end to end, which the Indian
dress pieces are not. For machine-printing the design is engraved on a
copper cylinder, five or six inches in diameter; and machines are sometimes
made to print at one operation designs containing eight, ten, and even more
colours. In Turkey-red printing, however, only three or four colours are-put
on, and when that is the case, a machine will turn out about fifteen yards
in a minute. After the cloth has been printed and dried, it is taken to
another part of the premises, and treated with chloride of lime, &c., as
already described. A few further operations—such as washing, drying, and
calendering—make the cloth ready for market.
Messrs Stirling devote a part
of their establishment to the production of bandana handkerchiefs. The
natives of India used to make silk handkerchiefs, which bore white spots on
a uniformly dyed ground. They produced the white spots by tying up the parts
with thread, and then subjecting the cloth to the dye. In this branch of
dyeing, British manufacturers could not, until a comparatively recent
period, compete with the Indians, and the latter held the market for
bandanas, until M. Kcechlin made his grand discovery. Messrs Monteith & Co.
of the Barrowfield Dyeworks, near Glasgow, adopted the principle of M.
Kcechlin soon after it was discovered, and succeeded in making bandanas far
surpassing in excellence the best productions of India. Other firms
followed, and Glasgow has since had almost a monopoly of the trade. The
process of making bandanas may be briefly described. A dozen pieces or so of
dyed cloth are laid evenly one over the other, wound upon a roller, and
taken to the press-room—a large apartment occupied by a range of hydraulic
presses. The roller is fixed in a framework behind one of the presses, and
the end of the cloth brought forward between the upper and lower plates.
Suppose, for instance, the pattern is to consist of a series of circular
spots of red on a white ground. In order to produce this two plates of lead
have to be prepared. The surface of the plates is cut away, leaving a series
of lozenge-like eminences. The lozenges of the upper plate must fall exactly
upon those of the lower. A number of channels are cut on the back of the
plates, which communicate by holes with the sunk part of the engraved side.
The cloth is spread over the lower plate, and the latter is pressed against
the upper plate with a force of hundreds of tons. The result is that the
cloth is tightly compressed between the raised parts of the plates. A stream
of bleaching liquid is then allowed to run along the channels in the plates,
and is forced into contact with the cloth except at the points where it is
compressed. The liquid discharges and carries off the red dye, and, on
opening the press in a few minutes after the liquid has been let in, it is
found that a handkerchief with red spots on a white ground has been
produced. The process is capable of being applied to an endless variety of
patterns. Thus the ground might be made yellow, green, or any other colour,
as easily as white. Six presses, worked by as many men, are capable of
producing upwards of 4000 handkerchiefs in a day of ten hours. In some cases
blank spaces are produced, into which flowers, &c., are printed by another
process from an engraved copper plate, and some very pretty work is produced
in that way.
The Cordale Printworks cover
five acres of ground, and give employment to about 500 persons—men, women,
and children—so that in their two establishments Messrs Stirling employ
nearly 1500 workpeople. Machine-printers earn from 30s. to 50s. a-week;
small- block printers, 25s. to 30s.; large-block printers, 30s. to 40s.;
boys, 4s. to 7s. The machinery at Cordale is driven by two waterwheels and
an engine of 50 horse power. |
