There is a branch of cotton-printing carried on at Sholapur. The patterns of various kinds are printed upon coarse cloth, and are used for floor coverings, bed-coverlets, etc. etc., the latter by the poorer classes. The colours are very perma nent, and will bear any amount of washing, but are confined to madder reds, and browns, black, dull greens, and yellows. See Dyes.
The object of calico-printing is to apply one or more colours to particular parts of cloth, so as to represent a distinct pattern, and the beauty of a print depends on the elegance of the patteni and the brilliancy and contrast of the colours. The processes employed are applicable to linen, silk, worsted, and mixed fabrics, although they are usually referred to cotton cloth or calico. There are various methods of calico-printing, the simplest of which is block-printing by hand, in which the pattern or a portion thereof is engraved in relief upon the face of a block of sycamore, holly, or pear-tree wood, backed with deal, and furnished with a strong handle of boxwood. A machine, called the perrotine, in honour of its inventor, M. Perrot of Rouen, is in use in France
and Belguiin as a substitute for hand-block print ing. Copperplate printing similar to that used in the production of engravings, has also been applied to calico-printing. The invention of cylinder or roller printing is the greatest achieve ment that has been made in the art, producing results which are truly extraordinary : a length of calico equal to one mile can by this method be printed off with four different colours in one hour, and more accurately and with better effect than block-printing by hand. By another method of calico-printing, namely, press-printing, several colours can be printed at once. The cloth to be printed is wound upon a roller at one end of the i machine, and the design, which is formed in a block of mixed metal about 2f feet iron is i supported with its face downwards in an ron frame, and can be raised or lowered at pleasure.
i The face of the block is divided into as many stripes, ranging crossways with the table, as are colours to be printed.—Royle's Arts of !who.