BLOCK-PRINTED TABLE-COVER.

titions of the pattern, in intaglio and ready for printing from, to the entire surface of the longer and larger

copper cylinder, which it was before necessary to engrave entirely by hand.*

In the improved block-printing machine called the Perrotine, three wooden blocks are brought to bearupon the faces of an iron roller or beam in the form of a prism, around which the cloth is wound. Thenecessary pressure of each block is regulated by springs, and it is charged Avith the colouring matter from aprepared elastic surface, which is coated by means of a brush, moved at regular intervals by the machinery.By this contrivance, and with three children to superintend the colouring materials, one man can executeas much Avork as Avas performed in an equal time by tAventy men and trventy children Avith the hand-blocks. Another improved method of block-printing is also practised, someAvhat resembling the ordinary typepress in its mode of operation, and admitting of the simultaneous use of several colours. In this process a setof blocks (or stereotype casts), in number equal to the Avidth of the piece of cloth, are so arranged as toreceive and print one colour. Adjoining them is another set, prepared for printing a second colour trans-versely across the fabric; and a third, fourth, and fifth set of blocks may be added; the Avhole being securely

fixed, Avith their engraved surfaces doAvnAvards, in a frame, which receives a vertical motion from a lever, as

in type-printing. An ingenious method of colouring the blocks, so arranged in stripes, is adopted. As manytroughs as there are rows of blocks are filled with the different colours, and ranged in the proper order.From these a boy spreads Avith a brush upon a flat felt cushion a corresponding number of differentlycoloured stripes, in such a manner as to keep them perfectly free from one another. The cushion thuscoloured is moved on small wheels under the blocks, which in descending upon it are charged Avith theirrespective colours, and are then made to print them upon the cloth. This is then moved onAvards tothe extent of the length of one toav of blocks; the colouring of the blocks is repeated; and a second printing,by means of the pressman’s lever, produces a combination of tAvo colours on the cloth, Another repetition ofthe process, the cloth being moved fonvard at the same time, combines a third Avith. the two precedingcolours; and the remaining tints are added in the same Avay. Great care is necessary in the adjustment andworking of this machine, but the beautiful simplicity of its action when properly regulated is very remarkable.

' The elaborate cylinder-machines now employed for calico-printing are generally worked by steam-poAver,

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and have been brought to such perfection that five or six colours are commonly printed by them simul-taneously, at the extraordinary speed of nearly a mile in length within an hour; and there is no doubt thatas many as eight colours Avill very soon be printed at once. The cylinders are placed horizontally, so that theloAver portion of each dips into a trough containing a colour, mordant, discharger, or resist, as may be sue-,cessively required; and with one of these, in its rapid revolution, the cylinder becomes completely coated. Aninstrument resembling a long knife or thin rule, technically called “ the doctor,” is adjusted, so that its edgepresses obliquely on the cylinder, with such precision as to remove all the colour from the surface, but toleave it in the depressed or engraved lines. The pieces of cloth to be printed are temporarily, stitchedtogether in considerable lengths, and one end of the fabric being introduced between the first cylinder and alarge central drum, the latter presses it upon the cylinder so that it may imbibe the colour from the engravedpattern. Thus printed Avith one colour, the cloth is brought in rapid succession into contact with the othercylinders, each supplied from its separate trough, and superficially cleansed by a “ doctor,” at the same timethat it imparts the requisite effect to the cloth, which, in an incredibly short space of time, leaves themachine completely and accurately printed with a perfect pattern.

The continuous action of the cylinder-machine presents a striking contrast to the mode of printing Avithblocks by hand, as already described; and the extreme nicety of adjustment necessary to secure the perfectionof the pattern may be readily conceived.

“ * A particular account of Mr. Perkins’s invention will be found in Holtzapffel’s “Turning and Mechanical Manipulation;” and a paper by Mr.P.ei’kins in the “ Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. xxxviii., fully describes the mode of decarbonising the steel, and the application of machineryto the successive transfers.