[Illustration: MILL.]
The business of the Calenderer and Hotpresser in so many respects
resembles part of that already described as preceding the printing of
calico, that only a brief notice of it will be necessary. The singeing
and bleaching of the cotton has been explained, and calendering is the
name generally applied in the manufacturing districts to the processes
of smoothing, dressing, and glazing cotton and linen goods; the object
being either to prepare them for the operations of the calico printer,
or to impart the last finish to the goods before they are folded and
packed for the market. The earlier calenders, or calendering machines,
closely resembled a common mangle in their action, but were very large
and heavy, and worked by a horse-wheel or other sufficient power, but the
process was greatly improved by the invention of a machine in which the
pressure is produced between rollers, instead of between rollers and flat
surfaces, and in which consequently the alternating movement is got rid
of, and also it is easier to give a uniform and equal pressure.
[Illustration: Singeing Cotton Goods before Calendering. Iron Plate.
Roller. Windlass. Scissors. Tongs.]
[Illustration: Embossed Roller for Machine Printing. Presses.]
The rollers or cylinders were formerly made of wood; they are now
usually of paper or cast iron. The paper cylinders are formed by packing
a great number of circular pieces of stout pasteboard upon an iron
axis, and compressing them very tightly by means of iron bolts passed
through them, acting upon circular end-plates of cast iron. The surface
is brought to a perfectly even and polished state by turning in a
lathe. Iron rollers are made hollow and when necessary heated from the
inside. When a glazed or polished surface is required on the goods to
be calendered, mechanism is employed to cause two adjacent rollers to
revolve with different velocities, so as to produce a rubbing action.
[Illustration: Printing Press. Chair with Rollers. Tin Block.]
The _furnace_ for heating the _rollers_, the _chair with rollers_, the
_presses_ and _tin blocks_ for hotpressing, and the _windlass_ for
turning, are easily understood in relation to this trade. The _printing
press_ and _embossed cylinder_ have been mentioned in the trade of calico
printing. The _mill_, turned by a horse, is used where steam power is not
employed to put the machinery in motion.
[Illustration: Furnace.]