Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/767

Rh r.cction with calico-printing, placing as they do at the disposal of the designer an unlimited range of the most striking, brilliant, and pure colours. Aniline colours have a powerful affinity for animal substances, dyeing silk and woollen tissues readily without the intervention of any mordant. Taking advantage of this property aniline colours were, on their introduction, printed as dye colours, albumen being used as a mordant. An albuminous solution was printed and fixed on the cotton, and on its introduction, so prepared, into the dye-vat the albumen readily took up the colour, while the unmordanted portions merely imbibed an easily discharged stain. Aniline colours were also printed with albumen in the manner already described as applied to pigments and coloured lakes ; and the patents secured by Mr Waiter Crum, in 1850, for the application of gluten and lactarin in printing, had reference chiefly to the use of aniline colours. The process of fixing these colours now generally adopted is known as the arsenite of alumina process. In this process the dye is dissolved in water or acetic acid, carefully filtered through a fine cloth and mixed with acetate of alumina, a thickener, and arsenious acid dissolved in glycerine. This mixture is printed on the cloth, which is then introduced into the steaming chest. In the steaming, acetic acid is liberated and arsenite of alumina formed, which with the aniline colour is precipitated in the fibres as a brilliant insoluble lake.

This style of printing consists simply of a modification of the process for ordinary steam colours, but excluding the steaming. All the decoctions and extracts used for regular steam colours may be employed in this method, but they are mixed with such large proportions of the mordants and acids that were they submitted to the action of steam the fibre would be quite destroyed. When printed, spirit colours are therefore simply dried and aged for several hours, after which they are rinsed in water, washed, and dried. The style yields very brilliant but very loose and fugitive colours, and is now falling into disrepute.

After the prints have undergone the various operations described above, they are submitted to a series of processes, whose object is to give to the fabrics such an appearance as will please the eye of the buyer. All the finishing processes have one common end, namely, to fill up the interstices which exist in the fabrics, and thus give to the calico a more substantial and glossy appearance ; and this is effected by filling the cloth with boiled starch, farina, or sour flour, which is obtained from wheat Hour which has been allowed to ferment. To these are often added large quantities of sulphate of lime or baryta, and other similar substances, with the object of imparting to the cloth a weight and appearance of solidity which it does not really possess. The finishing processes are varied according to the nature of the print, muslins requiring a quite distinct method of treatment from ordinary calicoes, and furniture chintzes also receive a finish peculiar to glazed goods. Some of the apparatus employed in finishing will bo found figured under the heading, where also the subject is entered into in some detail. As the general features of finishing, including water - mangling, drying, damping, starching, and calendering are the same both for white cottons and prints, it is unnecessary here to detail these operations. The machines and operations in a finish ing-room may be briefly noticed as follows. The goods are opened by passing over a winch at a considerable eleva tion, and if necessary stretched in breadth on a machine which evens the texture and draws it out laterally. They arc then passed into the chloring machine, which has two rollers, one of brass and one covered with india-rubber. The lower one is made to revolve in an aqueous solution of chlorine, and as the cloth passes between the rollers it is saturated with this solution. It passes immediately through a box containing a vapour of steam, which at once arrests the action of the chlorine, the momentary contact being con sidered sufficient to brighten the Avhite ground without giving time for the colours to be affected. From the steam ing box the piece passes through a water mangle, where pure water is spurted on the cloth, and after passing through the trough it receives a hard squeeze to extract as much moisture as possible before the drying is reached. The machine is a range of steam cans, generally made of copper. The next operation is that of starching, the machinery of which is almost identical with that used for chloring, starch paste, however, occupying the place of the chlorine liquor. The lower roller revolves in and carries up the starch to the cloth, which passes round the upper rollers and becomes saturated by the squeezing action produced and regulated by the screws and levers of the machine. After starching, the goods pass direct to another drying machine, whence they are taken to be damped by a slight sprinkling of water, which they receive in passing over a simple machine for the purpose, consisting of a rapidly revolving brush throwing up a fine spray. Calendering is the next and final operation, after which each piece is separated and folded up by a plait ing machine, or hooked by hand. It is then made up in the ordinary book form, and after being pressed in a screw or hydraulic press is ready for the market.  

 CALICUT, or, a seaport town of India on the western coast, in the British district of Malabar and the presidency of Madras, situated about 560 miles S. of Bom bay, in 11 15 N. lat. and 75 52 E. long. The town stands on the sea-shore in a low and unsheltered position ; and as there is neither river nor harbour, ships are com pelled to anchor in five or six fathoms water, about two or three miles from land The houses are for the most part built either of sun-dried brick or laterite, and have a tidy appearance. In the quarter of the Moplahs or Mapillas there are several mosques, and the Portuguese quarter pos sesses a Roman Catholic church One of the largest build ings is the jail, which can accommodate 600 prisoners. The port is frequented by vessels from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, which return with freights of rice, cocoa- nuts,^ ginger, cardamoms, sandal-wood, and teak. The weaving of cotton, for which the place was at one time so famous that its name became identified with its calico, is no longer of any importance. Calicut is of considerable antiquity ; and about the 7th century it had its population largely increased by the immigration of the Moplahs, a fanatical race of Mahometans from Arabia, who entered enthusiastically into commercial life. It was the first place in India visited by any European navigator, for it was there that Vasco de Gama arrived in May 1498, ten months and two day s after his departure from Lisbon. At that time it was a very flourishing city, and contained several stately build ings, among which was especially mentioned a Brahminical temple, not inferior to the largest monastery in Portugal. In 1509 the Marshal Don Fernando Continho made an unsuccessful attack on the city ; and in the following year it was again assailed by Albuquerque with 3000 troops. On this occasion the palace was plundered and the town burnt ; but the Portuguese were finally repulsed, aud fled 