The pieces are prepared for Bleaching by passing them very quickly over a red-hot Iron Plate, which burns off the ends of the fibres or nap; thus making the surface even for Printing upon afterwards. It is then washed by the Dash-Wheel to take the sizing out, which the Dresser had put in. After this it is boiled for several hours in a large iron vessel called a Keir, filled with weak caustic soda. This washing and boiling is repeated, and a third washing finishes the preparation. It is then put into a Stone Cistern containing chloride of lime and water, which is called Bleaching Liquor; and when taken out of this, is put into another cistern containing sours, consisting of oil of vitriol and water. It next passes through the Squeezers two rollers, placed in a Frame, to squeeze the wet out; and, lastly, it is dried in a hot Stove. When the Bleaching is thus completed, the pieces are as white as snow. Some goods are ready for sale in this state, others must first be callendered or glazed, and others again, must be printed or dyed. The account just given refers to the Bleaching of Cloth; but this picture shows the Bleaching of Yarn before it is woven. This is not only done when the yarn is intended for white-sewing Cotton, but also for that which is to be woven into coloured cloths, such as Stripes, Checks, and Ginghams. Here the firing is omitted, and it is wrung by a Winch, instead of being pressed by rollers; but the same sort of Bleaching Liquor is used in both cases.

When the clear, white cloth is brought from the Bleacher to the Printer, it is wound upon a cylinder like a weaver's beam. In front is the copper roller, with a pattern engraved upon it, which dips as it turns round, in the box below, filled with a coloured liquor. To keep this colour from fixing on the whole of the cloth, a fine thin piece of steel, called the Doctor, is so placed as to scrape it off the flat or smooth parts of the roller, before it touches the cloth, leaving only the engraved parts filled. The piece runs between the engraved roller, and a large iron bowl covered with a blanket, and thus receives the impression from the engraving. It then passes upwards, over hollow iron boxes, to dry it quickly, lest the liquor should spread or run; and it is then hung up in a hot room for a few days, for dyeing. The liquor printed on the cloth is not the proper dye, but is what is called a mordant, because it fixes upon the cloth the colour in which the pieces are afterwards dyed. Sometimes the cloth is entirely soaked în a mordant liquor, and dyed of one even colour; but a pat tern may be afterwards produced by printing with a fluid termed a solvent, which discharges it, and leaves white figures. These mordants and solvents consist of preparations of alum, iron, sulphuric acid, or other agents, according to the colour wanted or imparted. They are also slightly coloured with dye stuff, to show the Printer how the work is done. Thus it may be seen that the science of Chemistry is as useful in Dyeing as that of Mechanics is in Spinning and Weaving.

PLATE XII.

The Dyer's Machinery is very simple, and so are his operations; but the management of the colour requires much skill. When the colours are to be fixed upon cloth which has gone through the Printing Machine, the pieces are first passed through a number of rollers, in a stone Cistern containing cowdung and hot water, to take away the printer's colouring. After this they are well washed in a Dash-wheel. Four pieces are then tied together and put into a Dyeing Cistern, with water and the dye stuff required, such as Madder for red, or lilac, Indigo for blue, &c. The pieces are rinsed in cold water and put again into the Dash-wheel. The dye is thus fixed in the pattern given by the printing machine : and as the rest of the cloth is slightly tinted, it is washed in hot water and bran, and put into a cistern of bleaching liquid. It is next passed between two squeezers, and dried by the drying machine.

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