In the thick fabrics of cloth, including both those kinds which are used for many parts of household furniture, and those for female dress, the operation of glazing is used both to add to the original beauty of the cloth, and to render it more impervious to dust or smoke. The glazing operation is performed entirely by the friction of of any smooth substance upon the cloth ; and to render the gloss brighter, a small quantity of bleached wax is previously rubbed over the surface. The operation of glazing by the common plan is very laborious, tie ap paratus being of the most simple kind, A representa tion of it is given in Plate CVIII. Figs. 2. and 3. A, is a table, with a thick stout coter of ley( I and well smoothed wood, forming an inclined plane ; that side where the op( rator stands at work being the lowest, and is generally placed near a wall, as re presented in the figure, both for convenience ill suspending- the glazing apparato,, and for the sake of ligot. Along p.ece of wood Ii, is in a groove formed be two en two longitudinal heat,.` I), 1), placed parallel to the wall, and fixed to it. The groo•‘e resembles exaetlt the aperture between the sheers of a common turning lath. The. lever II, of which the groove muy be supposed to be the centre or fulcrum, is faced at the bottom with a s•mir-y lindrical piece of finely polished flint C, wtu.l, gives the friction to the cloth stretched upon the table below. Above the (lint arc two cross handles at 13, of which the. operator lays hold, and moves them bat kward and for ward with his hands, keeping the flint pressing slightly upon the cloth. When he has glazed a portion equal to the breadth of the flint C, he MON•S his lever between the sheers 1) 1), and glazes a fresh part : thus he proceeds from one side or selvage of the cloth to the outer, and when all which is upon the table is sufficiently glazed, he draws it over, and exposes a new portion to tl.e same operation. To preserve the cloth at a proper tension, it may be wound smoothly upon a roller or beam, w Lich being placed to re\ ohs e upon its own axis, behind the table another roller to receive the cloth may be placed before both, being secured by a catch, acting in a ratenet wheel. 2. a profile, and Fig 3. a front diet ation, will serve sufficiently to illustrate this descriptic.n.
To save a great part of the labour employed in glazing cloth, the common five bowl calender has been recently altered to fit this purpose, and upon some years trial has succeeded to the satisfaction of those who use it. It is still confined in the a tcnsiec calender works of the h_te Mr Miller of Glasgow, and was the invention of the superintendant of his works. A profile view of this machine will be found in Plate CVIII. Fig. 5. It con
sists of five bowls or cylinders, like the common calen der, but instead or those bowls re% olying w ith a %duchy in the inverse ratio of their respective diameters, so as always to present an equal surface, and to act merely by their pressure as2;ainst each other ; the bowls or cylinders 2 and 4 move with greater velocity than the bowls I, 3, and 5, and thus create or generate friction at three several parts of the operation. This difference is in o duced merely by the addition of a few wheels; and the difference between the common and gh.zit.g call ndem will he seen at a single glance, by cornparim; the- wheel work of Figs. 4. and 5. In Fig. 4. the motIons of all the cylinders is in the inverse ratio of their diameter s, so that each presents an equal surface. In Fi 5. ti e me tion, instead of being- directly communicated front 3 to 2, as in Fig. 4. is given by the intervention of two additional wheels. The increase of motion depending entirely on the relative number of the teeth in the w heels B and C, on the axis of the cylinders 3 and 2 to each other (for the intermediate wheels E and F merely communicate the motion without affecting the 3 is made to revolve considerably quicker than in the common calen der, and thus the necessary friction is cret.ted. To reduce the glazing to the common calender, it is of ly necessary to remove the wheels F. and I' entirely, and to substitute a larger wheel for the wheel B, which mat be calculated to work directly into the wheel C. The profile view given in this figure affords an opportunity also of sheaving the way in which the cloth is conducted from the table H over the roller I, through the calender, and received again at G. This is common to both cal enders. A patent for Scotland was taken for the glazing calender ; and upon a trial of some years, it has met with the entire approbation of those who have been In habits of having their goods glazed by it. As one machine, by being worked day and night, is capable of glazing nearly 1000 pieces of cloth of z8 yards each in a week, it is peculiarly adapted foe the occasional hurry to which shippers are sometimes unavoidably subjected.
As a matter of accommodation, the different processes of packing, cording of boxes, sheathing of trunks, and in general all the arrangements preparatory to shipments, and also the intimations and surveys necessary for ob taining drawbacks, debentures, or bounties, according to the excise laws, are generally conducted at the calen ders where goods are finished, and these operations suf ficiently account for the general meaning attached to the word. (J. D.)