INSTINCT. THE tail, or hinder part of the hermit-crab, has no crust or shell upon it, as the body and the claws have; and therefore this animal has to seek a suitable dwelling place, some empty univalve shell, into which it insinuates its tail, and from which its head and arms project. With this power of selecting a house, it removes when it has outgrown the shell in which it has dwelt, and is seen trying the empty shells upon the shore, and contending with others of its own species. Surveying such instances, we cannot resist the conviction of the fine adaptation of the sensibilities and instincts of animals to their forms and substances. ANIMAL ADAPTATION. THE larvæ of insects have no exterior members for walking or flying; but to enable them to creep, they must have points of resistance, or their muscles would be useless. Their skins suffice, and they are hardened by a deposit within them, for this purpose. But if this skin were not further provided, it would be rigid and unyielding, and be no substitute for bone. These hardened integuments are, therefore, divided into rings; to these the muscles are attached; and as the cellular membrane between the rings is pliant, the animals can creep and turn in every direction. As goodly a volume has been written on the muscles of a caterpillar, as has ever been dedicated to those of the human frame. A very minute anatomical description has been made of the caterpillar which feeds upon the willow; and we here see that the annular construction of the hard integument determines the plan of the whole anatomy, the arrangement of the muscles, and the distribution of the nerves. Each ring has its three sets of muscles; direct and oblique, traversing and interweaving, but yet distinct and symmetrical; and all as capable of being minutely described as those of the human body. Lyonnet, in the work referred to, reckons four thousand and sixty-one muscles in this caterpillar. We allow ourselves to be misled in supposing that animals, either of minute size or low in the scale of arrangement, exhibit any neglect or imperfection. Even if they were more simple in structure, the admiration should be greater, since they have all the functions in full operation which are necessary to life.-SIR C. BELL. THE USEFUL ARTS AND MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN. HISTORICAL NOTICE OF CALICO PRINTING. THE ancients seem to have been well acquainted with the art of producing a coloured pattern on cloth. Homer, who wrote about nine hundred years before the Christian era, notices the variegated linen cloths of Sidon as magnificient productions. In India the art has been practised for ages, and it derives its English name of Calico Printing from Calicut, a town in the province of Malabar, where it was formerly carried on extensively. Herodotus, who wrote more than four hundred years before the Christian era, says, that "the inhabitants of Caucasus adorned their garments with figures of animals, by means of an infusion of the leaves of a tree, and the colours thus obtained were said to be very durable." Pliny describes the art of calico printing, as practised by the ancient Egyptians. He says: "An extraordinary method of staining cloths is practised in Egypt. They there take white cloths, and apply to them, not colours, but certain drugs which have the power of absorbing or drinking in colour; and in the cloth, so operated on, there is not the smallest appearance of any dye, or tincture. These cloths are then put into a cauldron of some colouring matter, scalding hot, and after having remained a time are withdrawn, all stained and painted in various colours. This is indeed a wonderful process, seeing that there is, in the said cauldron, only one kind of colouring material. Yet, from it, the cloth acquires this and that colour, and the boiling liquor itself also changes, according to the quality and nature of the dye-absorbing drugs which were at first laid on the white cloth. And these stains or colours, moreover, are so firmly fixed as to be incapable of being removed by washing. If the scalding liquor were comprised of various tinctures and colours, it would doubtless have compounded them all in one on the cloth; but here one liquor gives a variety of colours according to the drugs previously applied. The colours of the cloths thus prepared are always more firm and durable than if the cloths were not dipped into the boiling cauldron." Mr. Parnell remarks on the above passage, that in as few words the principle of the common operations of calico printing could hardly be more accurately described. The large cotton chintz counterpanes, called Pallampoors, which have been made in the East Indies from a very early period, are also prepared by the application of dye-absorbing drugs; certain parts of the cloth being guarded from the action of the dye by a coating of wax. The primitive methods of India are, however, being superseded by the printing machinery of Great Britain. When Cortez conquered Mexico, he found the inhabitants had garments with black, red, yellow, green, and blue figures. The North American Indians have also long known how to apply patterns in different colours to cloth. During several centuries the art of calico printing was practised in Asia Minor and the Levant, but it was scarcely known in Europe till the close of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Augsburg became celebrated for its printed cottons and linens. From that city the manufactures of Alsace and Switzerland, during a long period, obtained their colour mixers, dyers, &c. Calico printing was first introduced into England about the year 1676, by a Frenchman, who established works on the banks of the Thames near Richmond. Soon afterwards more extensive works were formed at Bromley Hall in Essex. About the year 1700, the infant art received an unexpected stimulus. In consequence of the complaints made by the silk and woollen weavers, an Act of Parliament was passed, prohibiting the importation of chintzes from India; whereupon several print-works were established in Surrey, to supply the London shops with these goods, which was done by printing the white Indian calicoes, the import of which was still allowed under a duty. In 1712, a duty of threepence per square yard was imposed on this printed calico, and in 1714 the duty was raised to sixpence; but, as the importation of white calico was still considerable, the complaints of the silk and woollen weavers became louder, and they actually succeeded in inducing the legislature, in 1720, to pass an Act prohibiting the wearing of all printed calico whatever, under a penalty of 51. for each offence on the wearer, and of 201. on the seller of a piece of calico.* The operations of the printer were consequently confined to the printing of linen until the year 1730, when the law was so far modified that calico was allowed to be printed, provided the warp was of linen yarn and the weft only of cotton; and even then it was subject to a duty of sixpence per square yard. With such obstructions the progress of the art was of course slow. In the middle of the last century only fifty thousand pieces of the mixed cloth were printed in the whole of Great Britain, whereas at the present time it is not unusual for a single manufactory to turn out, in one year, between three and four hundred thousand pieces. About the year 1774, when the inventions made or perfected by Arkwright had introduced a new era into the history of the cotton manufacture *ANDERSON'S History of Commerce. By an Act of the same year (7 George I.), intended to encourage the silk manufacture, the wearing of buttons or botton-holes made of cloth, or other stuff, was absolutely prohibited. I.-BLOCK PRINTING BY HAND. The simplest and earliest method of imprinting figures upon calico is by means of a wooden block, upon the face of which the design is cut in relief, as in an ordinary wood-cut. CALICO-PRINTING BLOCK. The block is of sycamore, holly, or pear-tree wood, or more commonly of deal, faced with one of these woods a law was passed, allowing printed goods the kindness of Mr. Joseph Lees, jun., made entirely of cotton to be used; of Manchester (from whose printsubject, however, to a duty of three-works much of the following informapence per square yard, which was tion, as well as the sketches for the raised, in 1806, to threepence half- illustrations, were obtained); and also penny. During many years attempts Mr. Parnell's valuable work," Applied were made to get this duty repealed; Chemistry in Manufactures," &c. for, although the nominal revenue produced by it was very large, yet after deducting drawbacks on exports, and the expenses of collection, a very small sum remained. Thus, in the year 1830, a revenue of 2,280,000l. was levied upon 8,596,000 pieces, of which, however, about three-fourths were exported with a drawback of 1,579,000l. Deducting the expenses of collection, the sum of 350,000l. only found its way into the Exchequer. In the year 1831, the duty was wholly repealed, to the great advantage both of manufacturer and consumer. The art itself has been wonderfully improved by many of the most refined applications of chemical and mechanical science. Printed goods, which fifty years ago were sold for two shillings and threepence the yard, may now be bought for eightpence; indeed, the materials for a very pretty gown may be purchased for two shillings. This cheapness of production has so much increased the demand for printed cotton goods, that it was calculated a few years ago that not less than 230,000 persons were employed in and dependent upon the print trade for subsistence, receiving in wages the annual sum of 2,400,000l. VARIOUS MODES OF CALICO THE union of mechanical and chemical There are various methods of printing, which will be described in the order of their simplicity, in doing which the writer has to acknowledge The block varies in size from nine to twelve inches long, and from four to seven inches broad, and it is furnished on the back with a strong handle of box-wood. When the design is complicated, and a very distinct impression is required, the figure is sometimes formed by the insertion of narrow slips of flattened copper wire, the interstices being filled with felt. The printing block, which is worked by hand, is charged with colour by pressing it gently upon a piece of superfine woollen cloth, called the sieve, stretched tightly over a wooden drum, which floats in a tub full of size or thick varnish, to give it elasticity, so that every part of the raised device may acquire a sufficient coating of colour. The sieve is kept uniformly covered with the colouring matter by a boy or girl, called the tearer, who takes up, with a brush, a small quantity of the colour contained in a small pot, and distributes it uniformly over the surface; for, if this were not done, the block would take up the colour unequally. * The calico is prepared for printing by singeing, bleaching, and calendering. Several pieces are then stitched end to end, and lapped round a roller, or arranged in folds, as shown in the cut. The printing shop is a long well-lighted apartment, the air of which is kept warm, for the purpose of drying the cloth as it is printed: for which purpose it is passed over hanging rollers, * Probably a corruption from the French tireur. so as to expose a large surface to the air. The printing table, which is about six feet long, is made of some well-seasoned hard wood, such as mahogany, or of marble, or flag-stone: the object being to present a perfectly flat hard surface. This table is covered with a blanket, upon which the calico is extended, and the block, being charged with colour, is applied to its surface, a blow being given with a wooden mallet to transfer the impression fully to the cloth. It is necessary, of course, to join the different parts of the design with precision; and, in doing so, the printer is guided by small pins at the corners of the block. Thus, by repeated applications of the block to the woollen cloth and to the calico alternately, the whole length of calico is printed. By this method, a single block prints only a single colour; so that if the design contain three or more colours, three or more blocks will be required, all of equal size, the raised parts in each corresponding with the depressed parts in all the others: in order, therefore, to print a piece of cloth twenty-eight yards long and thirty inches broad, with three blocks, each measuring nine inches by five, no less than 672 applications of each, or 2,016 applications of the three blocks, are necessary. Thus it will be seen that printing by hand is a tedious operation, requiring more diligence than skill. When the design, however, consists of straight parallel stripes of different colours, they may be applied by one block at a single impression. For this purpose the colours are contained in as many small tin troughs as there are colours to be printed. These troughs are arranged in a line, and a small portion of each colour is transferred from them to the woollen cloth by a kind of wire brush. The colour is distributed evenly in stripes over the surface of the sieve by a wooden roller covered with woollen cloth. For the rainbow style, as a peculiar pattern is called, the colours are blended into one another at their edges by a brush or rubber. An important improvement has been made in the construction of hand blocks, by the application of a stereotype plate as the printing surface. A small mould is produced from a model of the pattern, and the stereotype copies are then made by pouring mixed metal into it. A number of the stereotype plates are then formed into a printing block, by being arranged in a stout piece of wood. (To be continued.) HOME FRIEND; A WEEKLY MISCELLANY OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION. PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY, BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, No. 13.] [PRICE 1d. It is impossible to visit Dover, without seeing, either from afar or near, the venerable fortress which stands on one of its heights. Reared on an almost perpendicular precipice, upwards of 320 feet from the sea, that old Castle with the sun shining on its broken towers and massive walls, on its dark green ivy, and richly verdant slopes is, irrespectively of its historic associations, a deeply interesting and highly picturesque object. And when we ascend the steep hill to survey the ruins more closely, Nature and Art VOL. I. |