The construction of the paper bowls is simple al though tedious, and may be fiery briefly explained. The axis of the cylinder is a square bar of malleable iron, of the proper length. Upon this is first put a strong round plate of cast iron, of the diameter intended for cylinder when finished. A quantity of thick stout paste board is then procured, and cut into round pieces, rather larger in the diameter than the iron plate. In the plates, and in every piece of the pasteboard, a squace hole must be cut in the centre to receive the axis ; and the circle being divided into four or five equal parts, a hole mu;:.
also be cut at each of the divisions, an inch or two within the rim. These pieces of pasteboard being successively put upon the axis, a long rod of malleable iron, with a head at one end, and screwed at the other, is also intro duced through each of the holes near the rim, and this is continued until a sufficient number are thus placed to form a cylinder of the length required, proper allowance being made for the compression which the pasteboard is afterwards to undergo. Another round plate is then put on, and nuts being put upon the screws, the whole arc screwed tight, and a cylinder formed. The cylin der is now to be placed in a stove, exposed to a strong heat, and must be kept there for at least several days ; and as the pasteboard shrinks by exposure to the heat, the screws must be frequently tightened until the whole mass has been compressed as much as possible. When the cylinder is thus brought to a sufficient degree of density, it is removed from the stove ; and when allowed to cool, the expansion of the pasteboard forms a sub stance almost inconceivably dense and hard. Nothing now remains but to turn the cylinder, and this is an operation of no slight labour and patience. The motion in turning must be slow, not exceeding about forty re volutions in a minute ; and the substance is now so hard and tough, that tools of a very small size must be used to cut, or rather scrape it, until it is true. Three men are generally employed for the turning, even when the motion of the cylinder is effected by mechanical power, two being necessary to sharpen tools for the third who turns—so quickly are they blunted.
The upper and lower bowls 1 and 5 are generally of iron or wood, and of the same diameter as 2 and 4. For the common smoothing operation of the calender, it is only necessary that these five cylinders should be made to revolve on their respective axes, the motion of each being in an inverse direction to that of those with which it is in motion, and the revolutions must be in the inverse ratio of the diameters, that an equal portion of the cir cumference of each may be exposed to that with which it comes in contact. The motion is taken from the mov
ing power by a belt passing over the piffles at D, that next the cylinder being fast upon the axis of the main cylinder 3, and the other loose upon the axis. Thus, when the belt is upon the fast puny, the calender will be in motion ; and whenever it is shifted to the loose pully, the calender will stop without interrupting the motion of any other machine acted upon by the same power. The large cylinder 3 being set in motion, the iron cylinders 2 and 4 receive their motion by means of the wheels C, C, worked by the wheel 13 on the axis of the large cylinder. The cylinders I and 5 will revolve pretty accurately, merely by their friction upon the cylinders 2 and 4, or their motion may he rendered per fectly certain by other two wheels pitching into the wheels C, C. When a person stands in front of the calender, the cloth coming from behind, above the up pet cylinder 1, passes between I and 2 ; passing oehind 2, it again comes to the front between 2 and 3 ; between 3 and .1 it is again carried behind, and lastly brought in front between 4 and 5. w here it is received, ,r,(1 smoothly folded on a clean board, or in a box, by a person placed there for the purpose. In folding- the cloth at this time, care must be taken that it may be loosely done, so that no mark may appear until it be folded in the precise length and form into which the piece is to be made up. The folding may be done either by two persons or by one, with the aid of two sharp polished spikes placed at a proper distance, to ascertain the length of the fold, and to make the whole equal. When folded into lengths, it is again folded across upon a smooth clean table, according to the shape intended, which varies according to the different kinds of goods, or of the particular market for which the goods are designed. In general, the obvious desire at every market is, to have the goods well smoothed and folded, so as to occupy the least possible bulk in pack ing. From this, however, a singular exception took place in a coarse kind of striped cotton stuffs, great quantities of which were carried out by the ships em ployed in the African slave trade. in that market, the estimation of a piece of those goods depended entirely upon its bulk when folded, and great care was therefore taken to have them done up very loosely, or what would in any other market have been termed as ill dressed as /iossible.