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the counties of Dunbarton, Stirling, Renfrew, Lanark, Perth ,and Aberdeen. In the first county, previously to the late im-provements in bleaching, the print-fields occupied about 200 a-cres of ground principally on the banks of the river Leven, andat present they give employment to about 1700 persons.
This business is divided into the following branches—1. Cop- 'perplate-printing; 2. Block-printing; 8. Surface machine-work;
4. Pencilling; and, 5. Dying.
1. Copperplate-printing is performed in two ways; lsf, Thepattern is engraved on a fiat piece of copper, and is imprintedon the cloth by a rolling press, similar to those used for commonengravings, although of larger dimensions. 2 dly, The patternis engraved on a copper cylinder, instead of a flat plate, hencethe motion becomes incessant like that of a calender ; and theone side of the cylinder receives the colour, while the other istransferring it to the cloth.
2. Block-printing is efleeted by a piece of wood with a parti-cular pattern represented in relief on its surface. This block ischarged with the colour, and impressed by the hand ; but if thepattern be heavy, the block is struck with a mallet. In thismode of printing, patterns having different colours require ablock for each.
3. The Surface-machine is the latest invention, and was firstused in England only about four years since. It has been broughtto great perfection, and many of them are employed by the Scot-tish printers. It consists ol a cylinder on which the patterns arecut in relief, and, in fact, is nothing more than a revolving cy-lindrical block. Both this machine and the cylindrical copper-plate-press are valuable improvements in the art of printing. Apower less than that of one horse is sufficient to print 100 piecesof 28 yards each per day, while an expert tradesman, by block-printing, can execute no more than five or six pieces.
4. Pencilling is performed by females, with a small brush ofcamels’ hair, or bruised cane, with which the colour is transfer-red in a liquid state to particular places of the cloth as required.
5. Dying is performed in the usual manner, with this difter-orce, that the colours are attached to those parts of the clothonly which has been charged with a mordant, or base, and leavethe rest, or such parts as are defended by pastework, unaffected.
Printed cottons are subjected to a duty of about 15 per cent,of their value, or 3^d. the square yard ; but as half the wholequantity manufactured is exported, the duty on that extent isreturned by Government. Although a considerable quantity oflinens are also printed, chiefly for handkerchiefs, yet the greatproportion is cotton, and consists principally of furniture andgarment pieces, shawls and handkerchiefs.
The amount of the duty collected in Scotland on printedgoods for the year ending the 5th January 1813, was 2QL001A3s. 3i d. . *