CALENDER. A machine consisting of two or more rollers or cylinders in close contact with each other, and often heated, through which are passed cotton, calico and other fabrics, for the purpose of having a finished smooth surface given to them; the process flattens the fibres, removes inequalities, and also gives a glaze to the surface. It is similarly employed in paper manu facture. The derivation is from the Fr. calendre, from the Med. Lat. calendra, a cylinder.
Calender is also the name (from the Arabic galandar) of an order of dervishes who separated from the Baktashite order in the 14th century; they were vowed to perpetual travelling. Other forms of the name by which they are known are Kalenderis, Kalenderites, and Qalandarites. (See DERVISH.)