CALENDER, a mechanical engine employed by cloth-lappers, for dressing and finishing cloths and stuffs of various descriptions and fabrics, before exposure to sale, or delivery to purchasers. It is also used by calico-printers, in order to extend and smooth the surface of their cloths, after they have been bleached, and before they are subjected to the operations of the printing table or copperplate press.

In all cases two, and in many three requisites must be attained, in order to give to cloth that appearance which it is deemed necessary that it should possess, to attract the eye and gratify the fancy of the purchaser and consumer.

The first of these requisites consists in as perfect extension and smoothness of surface as can be attained; so that no wrinkle or doubled folding may remain in it, excepting such as shall afterwards be intentionally made, in order to the reducing of it to the proper form and shape.

The second requisite acquired by the calendering of cloth, is the compression of the yarn or threads of which the texture is composed, which in some degree divests them of their cylindrical shape, and reduces them to a degree of flatness, which, by bringing them more closely into contact with each other, gives to the fabric a greater appearance of closeness and strength than it would otherwise possess. The operation of the calender also improves the superficial appearance, by flattening down all knots, lumps, and other imperfections, from which no material from which cloth is fabricated can ever be entirely freed during the previous processes of spinning and weaving.

And, thirdly, in many fabrics it is desirable, and esteemed a great addition to the effect and beauty of the superficial appearance, that cloth should receive, by means of friction, an additional lustre or polish, which is generally distinguished by the appellation of glazing, and is chiefly required in those stuffs which are employed in the ornamental descriptions of female attire.

Such, in a strictly limited sense, are the sole and exclusive effects resulting from the mechanical operation of the calender; but, as other operations besides smoothing or glazing are necessary for the proper preparation of cloths for the market, these also are carried on by the same persons, and in the same premises. Hence by a natural, although not strictly correct, extension of its acceptation, the term calender, which really means only the chief mechanical engine employed, gives the general name to the whole establishment where all the varied operations of cloth-lapping are carried on; and it is as usual to say that goods are packed, as that goods are dressed, at a calender. In the illustration, therefore, of those operations which the limits of this article will admit, the first object will be to convey a distinct idea of the principles, construction, and operation of the principal machinery employed; and then to add such general and miscellaneous observations as may serve to elucidate how the business of cloth-lapping is carried on in its present extended form.

For the purpose of smoothing both surfaces of a piece [7:6:18]of cloth, it is necessary that they should be exposed to ’ universal contact and pressure in every point, with some body of sufficient density to acquire the requisite degree of superficial polish. Such equality of surface, however, as will produce this effect, is not very easily attainable in large plane surfaces. Hence the contact of cylinders in this operation has been found to be in all respects infinitely preferable to that of planes, both in the speed and the effect of the operation. The common domestic smoothing iron is the most simple of all calendering utensils; but, even in the application of its small and limited surface, it would be difficult to procure any table or board sufficiently level to bring the whole cloth into equal contact with the iron, without the intervention of a few folds of blanket, or some other thick and soft woollen cloth.

The old and now almost entirely superseded machine termed a mangle gives the most simple and rude approximation towards cylindrical calendering, and the substitution of circular for plane surfaces. Its operation is that of a cylinder applied to a plane, upon which it is rolled backward and forward, until some degree of smoothness is produced by this reciprocating motion. It is, therefore, very analogous in principle to the common gardener’s roller, with which land is resmoothed after having been dug up for sowing or other agricultural purposes.

The smoothing calender completes the substitution of cylindrical for plane surfaces, all the parts which operate upon the cloth being of that form. This ingenious engine, which was introduced into Britain from Flanders and Holland, during the persecution of the Huguenots, has, since its introduction and adoption here, undergone no very material or important alteration or improvement in point of theoretical principle; nor, until the extension of the cotton manufacture had introduced a general spirit of mechanical improvement, had it received any great amelioration in practical execution. Two very important improvements have, however, since that period been introduced and adopted. The first of these, which originated in Lancashire, is now almost universally employed. The second was invented at Glasgow.

The scope of the former of these improvements consists in the substitution of pasteboard in the place of wood, in constructing three out of the five cylinders of which the engine is composed. These cylinders, when previously composed of wood, were found to be liable to two serious and important objections. Calenders employed in general business are necessarily subjected to frequent alternations and vicissitudes of heat and cold. These are entirely unavoidable, because, in smoothing or dressing cloths of the denser fabrics, the effect, as in the common operation of ironing linens, is found to be greatly heightened by the application of as great a degree of heat as can safely be communicated without danger to the fabrics which are to be smoothed.

The expansion of every thread which composes a given extent of cloth, although individually indistinguishable, even with microscopic aid, produces very considerable general effect, when exerted upon eight or ten thousand of these minute cylindrical substances, all combined together in the space of one single square yard. In this expanded state, the pressure of the calender divests them more easily of their cylindrical form, and flattens them down until they come more closely into contact than before. This effect, which is in exact unison with the general theories of expansion and contraction, will at once produce an apparent increase of closeness and density to the texture, as well as of gloss to the surfaces; although the former is in fact deceptive, as no real acquisition of strength to the fabric can thus be obtained. The apparent density of fabric, as well as a higher accession of gloss, is also frequently obtained by impregnating and stiffening the cloth, after ' it has been bleached, with a mucilage of starch; and this is ’ too frequently carried to a very unfair height, for the purposes of deception, which is not very easily detected, until the cloth be again exposed to moisture, when the delusive appearance instantly vanishes. Hence, in all dense fabrics, the calender is generally used in a heated state; whilst in flimsy fabrics, in which transparency of appearance is more the requisite than strength, the operation is conducted with the calender perfectly cold.

The effect of these frequent and sudden transitions upon wooden cylinders was necessarily productive both of fissure and warping or twisting ; and no care in drying or seasoning the wood before turning could entirely remove these defects. The substitution of pasteboard, however, afforded a radical cure for both, as well as a collateral advantage arising from its being susceptible of a much higher degree of superficial polish, which is always transferred to the cloth.

The paper or pasteboard cylinder, besides total exemption from all defects incidental to ligneous substances, from the immense density of which it is susceptible by compression, presents a superficies capable of receiving and retaining an almost unparalleled smoothness and polish.

In order to construct cylinders of this description, an axis of malleable iron, and two circular plates of cast iron, are, in the first place, provided. In these plates, which must be at least from one to two inches thick, there are six equidistant perforations near to the circumference, each capable of admitting a rod of malleable iron at least three fourths of an inch in diameter. The entire space between the two iron plates is then to be filled with circular pieces of the strongest pasteboard, exceeding by about one inch in diameter the iron plates, and having each a correspondent perforation, through which the six iron rods may pass parallel to the axis. A cylinder is thus formed, the substance of which is of pasteboard locked together by plates of iron at the extremities, and susceptible, by means of screws on the extremities of the six connecting rods, of immense compression. After undergoing this preparation, the cylinder is exposed to strong beat in a confined apartment; and, as the pasteboard daily contracts, the screws are every day tightened for the space of some weeks. The density of the cylinder is thus increased, whilst it is contracted in length upon the axis, for which contraction adequate allowance must be made in its original measure, and the operation is continued until it has gradually acquired the requisite compression. It is then re-exposed to the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, and by its re-expansion presents a body almost inconceivably compact, its specific gravity in this state being greater than even that of silver. The only operation now required is that of turning its superficies until correctly cylindrical; and this is a work of immense labour and patience.

The rotatory motion in turning does not exceed forty or fifty revolutions per minute; and the turner requires two or three assistants constantly employed in sharpening his tools. When properly finished and smoothed, a pasteboard cylinder, however, amply compensates, by its strength, its gloss, and its durability, for the great labour and expense which its construction has created.

A second practical improvement in calenders of the common description consists in the substitution of cast iron for wood in the construction of the connecting frames. This improvement is now common to almost every description of machinery; and when applied to the calender, it is of more than usual advantage, because, independently of the accession* of strength and diminution of space occupied, the total exemption of iron from warping is of [7:6:19]peculiar advantage in an engine so rapidly exposed to alteration of temperature as the calender must be. The entire exemption of iron framing from combustion forms also another advantage of some importance in an engine frequently heated by the application of red-hot cylinders of iron. With this cursory outline of general improvement, the next object of the present article is to afford a description of the new glazing calender.

Previously to the introduction of this improvement, the operation of glazing, although performed sufficiently well, was somewhat tedious, being effected almost exclusively by the mere application of manual labour. It was performed upon a table, the cover of which was oblique to the horizon, forming with it an angle of 15° or 20°. The cloth being stretched on this, and a quantity of wax being thinly spread on its surface, the glazing was effected by the reciprocation of a smoothed flint, vibrating at the end of a rod, somewhat similar to the oscillations of a pendulum. The centre of oscillation was also movable on a spring, in order to reduce the arc of vibration to a plane, and keep the flint in uniform contact with the cloth. But a man’s power was competent to glaze only a few inches in breadth at once, and it was only by successive shiftings that the whole breadth was successively brought under the friction of the flint. The glazing calender produces the same effect, with increased uniformity, simply by changing the relative velocities of the cylinders to each other, and generating friction, as well as pressure, at the points of contact. The process of flint glazing is still practised in Manchester, but on a large scale, the operation being carried on by means of steam power.

The following is a description of the new glazing calender. Fig. 1, Plate CXLIII. is en elevation of a five-rollered calender for finishing cloth. AA are two paper rollers, of twenty inches diameter each. BB are two cast-iron cylinders, externally turned until perfectly smooth; their diameter is eight inches, allowing the substance of iron to be two inches, and leaving a perforation of four inches diameter. C is a paper roller of fourteen inches diameter; DD is the framing of cast iron for containing the bushes in which the journals of the rollers revolve; EE are two levers by which the rollers are firmly pressed together while the cloth is passing through.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the same calender, with the wheels for glazing cloth. The wheel on the upper cylinder is ten inches diameter, the wheel on the under cylinder is thirteen inches diameter, both connected by the wheel F, which communicates the speed of the upper cylinder, so that the wheel on the under cylinder being nearly one third of an inch more in diameter, the difference of their motions retards the centre paper roller, by which means the upper cylinder passes over the cloth one third faster than the cloth passes through the calender, and polishes it in consequence.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a hydrostatic press. A, the piston, eight inches diameter, working in the cylinder B, and kept water-tight by passing through a collar of leather; D, a cast-iron plate raised by the piston A, between which and the entablature EE the goods to be pressed arc laid; CCCC, four malleable iron columns, 2f th inches diameter, having screwed ends, with nuts, by which the entablature and the base FF are firmly connected together. G, a cistern for holding water to supply the two force-pumps HI, the largest of which has a piston 11 inch diameter, and the other one of half an inch diameter, which is used to give the highest pressure; KK, weights to balance the pump-handles which fit into the sockets at ll. The pistons of the force-pumps are made water-tight by collars of leather, kept in their place by the screwed pieces m and n. eee, a pipe communicating with the pumps and the large cylinder B; there is a stopcock at f which shuts this communication when required.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of the largest piston, to show the method of keeping the rod parallel.

For dressing muslins, gauzes, lawns, and other goods of the light and transparent fabrics, a smaller species of calender is employed. It consists of only three cylinders of equal diameters (generally about six inches), and is easily moved by a common winch or handle. The middle cylinder is iron, and the others are wood or pasteboard. They are of equal diameters, and are moved with equal velocities by small wheels. This machine is always used in a cold state.

The folding of cloth is so entirely regulated by fashion, that no precise rules can be laid down for its regulation. In general, as all the different manufactures of cloth have been imported from other countries, the original foldings have been copied to complete the resemblance. In the infant state of.imitation there was probably some policy in this, but the continuance may be ascribed almost exclusively to the power of habit. Preservation and portability are the main requisites to be attained by folding; and these are attained by subjecting the cloth, when folded, to a very powerful compression.

Water-presses upon the forcing principle of Mr Bramah, or acted upon by the pressure of a column of water, arc now in general use in Glasgow and Manchester. Besides the immense power thereby procured, the labour of pressing is much lessened. No improvements that have taken place in calendering can exceed the power and facility of the water-press; one of these presses is generally wrought by two men, who can with great ease work the press so as to produce a pressure of four hundred tons; and thereby the appearance and finish of the goods, in consequence of such an immense weight acting on them, are materially improved. Not only this, but the Bramah press is also used for the purpose of packing, which has increased the method of packing in bales considerably. The bale is commonly packed, roped, &c. while in a compressed state; the dimensions are therefore greatly diminished from what they would otherwise be by any other method; for instance, the same quantity of goods packed in a bale would be one third less in size than if they were packed in a box.

To the mechanical art of calendering it is found expedient, in the extended states of commerce, to add many of the operations of packing, sheeting, and preparing goods for shipment; and these generally form a branch of the establishment. In order to suit the great extent and va·« ricty of manufacture practised in Britain, and to adapt these to the prevalent tastes and views of the extensive range of consumers to be supplied, a multiplicity of foldings or lappings has been necessarily adopted, few of which probably possess much claim to entire originality. The high, and perhaps pre-eminent, station which the productions of the British looms have gradually attained, seem to be rather the effect of assiduous and enterprising industry, than of great originality of invention, or precedence in mechanical improvement. Certainly she can, at the utmost, boast of only one raw material, from which cloth is manufactured, as peculiarly indigenous.

At an early period, no doubt, the British wool had attracted the peculiar attention of economistsand statesmen as of paramount value; and the prohibition of its exportation became an object of legislative enactment. That manufacture, therefore, has long been the staple of England, as the linen trade, at a later period, has become that of Ireland.

The attempts to introduce both of these branches of industry into Scotland, although, during the latter part of [7:6:20]the last century, they engrossed much of the attention both of public bodies and of patriotic individuals, cannot be regarded as having proved eminently successful; and the progress actually made has been almost entirely superseded and extinguished by the more recent introduction of the cotton manufacture.

The latter branch of industry, since the splendid invention of spinning by the aid of machinery, has indeed made most rapid advances in every part of the united kingdom, and has attained to a height which has, perhaps, absorbed a greater portion of national industry than consumers can easily be found to employ. The extension of external commerce has constantly supplied the raw material at easy and generally moderate rates; and even the India Company have long ceased to oppose to it any very formidable competition in the market.

The silk manufactures of Britain formerly were not carried on to a very great extent; they have now, however, increased considerably. Whatever may have, directly or indirectly, tended to regulate the finishing, folding, and preparing of British goods for the various markets of consumption, will chiefly refer to the three former branches of manufacture.

Extensively as the woollen trade is carried on, it is in a great measure absorbed either by internal or colonial consumption, and does not, therefore, enter so generally into actual competition with the cloths of other nations, as to render it either peculiarly desirable that its marketable aspect should be either servilely copied from those of other countries, or very peculiarly distinguished from them. The chief object appears to have generally been, to prevent the intrusion of foreign cloths and stuffs into our own markets; and hence adopting their usual folds into such rolls as most effectually preserve the dressed surface from acute cresses, is found to be most expedient and convenient, the goods being distinguished by letters denoting them to be “British manufacture” on the ends of the pieces.

In the Irish manufactures of cambrics and linens, the case is almost entirely reversed. From the superiority of climate, the French flax is admitted to be of finer appearance; and although the importation of manufactured cambrics be strictly prohibited, the restraint during periods of peace has always been considerably evaded, in consequence of the demand experienced, and the reputation in which they are held. Indeed it was found generally most expedient, by many retailers, to sell Irish cambrics under the title of French, and hence the fold was correctly imitated. The pieces, after being folded into lengths of about twelve inches, and twice laterally doubled, until the whole breadth of thirty-four inches was reduced to about eight and a half inches, were subjected to a powerful compression in the press until fully flattened. They were then packed in purple coloured wrappers or papers, and a small engraved card or ticket was attached to each piece, specifying the length, generally about eight or eight and a half yards. The cards were attached by a silken string, so as to be easily cut away with a penknife or pair of scissors, in order to avoid seizure; and French or Irish goods were sold indiscriminately as “foreign cambrics.” Custom has even carried this practice farther; and cotton cambrics, which are avowedly British manufacture, and subjected to no risk whatever, because easily distinguishable from any cambric manufactured from flax, are put up into the same folds, papered, and ticketed, in exactly the same manner.

In linens, hollands, and sheetings, whether of foreign or Irish manufacture, the same fold is also employed; and in cotton shirtings and sheetings it is closely imitated. The form is that of a cylindric roll, somewhat flattened by subsequent compression; and, in general, all dense fabrics, whether of linen or of cotton, are rolled up and compressed in a similar manner, the object of which is evidently safety and diminution of space in land carriage or exportation.

In others of the extensive varieties of cotton cloths of British manufacture, some are avowed imitations of the manufactures of Hindustan, whilst others profess no such imitation. Very few among the manufactures of Lancashire are either distinguished by Indian names, or copied from Indian cloths, although some of great extent are directly so. Calicoes, cossacs, and jaconets, for printing, as well as Ballusore, Bandana, and Pullicate handkerchiefs, are amongst the leading articles of the latter description; whilst among the former may be classed the very extensive manufactures of corduroys, thicksetts, velveretts, velveteens, &c. although their origin is also probably Asiatic, but because well known and manufactured by the Genoese, French, and other European nations, even before the discoveries of De Gama and other mariners had first laid open the maritime intercourse with India by the Cape of Good Hope.

When, at a period infinitely more recent; the splendid invention of spinning cotton by the agency of machinery to any degree of fineness afforded new scope to the British weaver, the imitation of the lighter Indian fabrics fell chiefly into the hands of the Scottish weavers, for executing which they had been in a considerable degree previously prepared, by their habits of weaving lawns in imitation of the French, as well as their lighter fabrics of silk and thread gauzes. To their share, in consequence, fell the bouks, mulls, and japuns, almost exclusively, as well as the lighter jaconets, designed for ornament from the needle and tambour frame. And whilst they have made no successful attempt to compete with their Lancashire brethren in the dense fabrics of corduroys, quiltings, and other ponderous articles, they have shared with them the manufacture of the middling textures of cambrics, Pullicates, and ginghams.

Indeed, whatever prepossession may, at an early period, have existed in favour of the real Indian fabrics, it has now so. entirely subsided as to possess no influence whatever in swaying general opinion. The British workmanship has proved itself long ago so decisively superior to the Indian, both in spinning· and weaving, as to eradicate every doubt in the minds of all who are really competent to decide the question of comparative superiority. Still, however, candour will compel us to allow that the Indian possesses advantages in the rich qualities of his cotton, and the brilliancy of some of his dyes, which, in some degree, compensate for the immense superiority of the British skill and machinery, and which, to those who examine superficially, may appear to entitle him to the preference.

Nothing, therefore, exists in the cotton manufacture which could, in general cases, prompt to a servile imitation of external appearance for the purposes of deception; and the Indian mode of lapping their cloth is too rude and laborious to admit of its being copied as a matter of convenience. Their method consists merely in doubling a piece of twenty yards, to reduce its length to ten yards, which is again doubled, in order to reduce it to five; and thus they continue to redouble, until the piece be reduced to a moderate length, capable of being contained in a chest or bale. Thus often redoubled, an Indian piece cannot be examined throughout unless the whole piece be again unfolded; and this, in large transactions, would be utterly impracticable.

British muslins are folded generally to a yard in length, with a small allowance for extra measure; and as the folding is alternately from right to left, every part can be [7:6:21]instantly examined upon a table or counter, every fold opening as easily as the leaves of a book in its uncut state. The piece, when folded, is reduced by doubling it longitudinally to about nineteen inches, and it is then folded across to the breadth of about thirteen inches. An ordinary sized trunk, 39 × 19 inches, thus contains three layers of pieces, in which package goods for exportation to the colonies are generally packed, the trunk there forming an article of merchandise as much in general demand as the muslins which it contains.

Even the Indian ornaments of gilt silver threads which were at first woven into one end of each piece, although they did not exceed the value of twopence each, have been either greatly curtailed, or totally given up upon principles of economy. Even the cost of this trivial ornament has been computed to have amounted annually in Glasgow and Paisley to about L.30,000.

Pullicate and other handkerchiefs are most commonly folded up in dozens. For the African and some other foreign trades, pieces containing only eight handkerchiefs are preferred. These are still imitations of Indian precedents, confined to markets where competition continues to exist, not only with the British Company, but with Americans and others trading to India. A species of pale orange-coloured India handkerchiefs, distinguished by the name of Mudxus, being in extensive reputation in the Caraccas and other Spanish settlements in South America at the period of the capture of Trinidad in 1795, patterns were procured by some British traders, who ordered very large quantities to be manufactured in Scotland of the same quality and appearance. With such effect were these imitated in texture, in dye, in finishing, and even in the packages, that some hundreds of pieces sent to London for exportation were actually seized at the customhouse as India goods, either illegally imported, or stolen from some of the Company’s ships in the river. A scrutiny, however, clearly ascertained that these goods were not Indian, but British, and that no trespass against either the privileges or the property of the Company had been even attempted. The goods were of course released, and permitted to proceed to their destination, where, after examination and trial, it was found totally unnecessary longer to conceal their real origin; and a very extensive trade, through direct channels, has been since carried on for similar goods.

From the above general and cursory sketch, it will be obvious that the management of an extensive calendering establishment will require, on the part of its conductor, not only a competent knowledge and experience of the mechanical operations and duties of his particular profession, but that a more extensive mercantile acquaintance with the demands, habits, and tastes of particular markets, will conduce equally to his own interests and those of his employers. From the variations of markets, and fluctuations of mercantile transactions, there can be no precise or definite limit to the extent of such knowledge. It is only by constant attention and sedulous inquiry that he can preserve accuracy in what is liable to almost daily change. His immediate employers will no doubt be often both able and desirous to supply him with this. But as even they must sometimes be liable to error or deception, he ought to omit no opportunity of extending his inquiries, and arriving, as nearly as he can, at the most comprehensive and unambiguous information.

Calender of Monteith, a district in the south-west corner of Perthshire, in Scotland, from which a branch of the ancient family of Livingstone had the title of earl. Both estate and title were forfeited in consequence of the possessor being engaged in the rebellion of 1715.