MACHINE USED FOR BLOCK PRINTING

Mechanization of block printing:
In 1834 a machine that automatically performed all the actions of block printing was invented by Perrot (it became known as the Perrotine), and achieved some success in block printing process. Mechanization block printing was limited to three dyes and a maximum repeat of only 15 cm and operation of the printing could not be truly continuous, but the three colours were printed simultaneously in that printer. Storey gives an illustrated account of this printing machine, and of hand block printing.

Much earlier, attempts had been made to obtain continuous surface printing using wooden rollers, but the difficulty of uniform application of the printing paste to the roller was the common problem. In about 1805, however, a rotating woollen fabric ‘sieve’ was introduced in Accrington, and used successfully thereafter. The other essential step of block printing was the preparation of a raised pattern on the roller by inserting copper outline strips and felt, just as in hand block printing. This technique of surface block printing was used until recently for printing furnishing fabrics and for wallpaper, but was never as important as the copper roller method. It had the advantages of requiring low pressure and avoiding the dyes contamination that occurs on engraved roller printing machines, because no contact was made with previously printed colour, but the cost of roller making of roller printing was high. Wallpaper printers found that inexpensive rollers could be cast from epoxy polymers and the nonprinting areas were easily cut away, but they did not carry enough colour to print most fabrics.

Essentially the same method of block printing has been used for printing polymer film, other packaging materials and transfer paper, but is then usually known as flexographic printing. The design is built up on wooden rollers by the application of rubber mouldings and the colour is applied by uniformly engraved metering rollers.

Surface printing machines with woolen fabric sieve

A Pressure bowl
B Surface roller
C Furnishing blanket moving over rollers 1, 2 and 3
D Colorant trough
E Plain furnishing roller rotating in colorant
F Second furnishing roller spreading colorant evenly on the blanket
G Blanket for extra resilience round the pressure bowl
H Back-grey
I Fabric to be printed
J Printed fabric

BLOCK PRINTING; SURFACE PRINTING METHODS

Block making for surface printing:
The typical hand block printing had no large, uniform areas of colour but was skillfully built up from many small coloured areas, because wooden surfaces larger than about 10 mm in width would not give an even print. Block printing had the advantage that a motif such as a flower would have an effect of light and shade obtained from three or four blocks, each block printing contains different depth of the same colour, or a different hue. This obviously meant that a lot of blocks were required. Special care was needed in setting the adjacent parts of the design during block printing. If the block printing design had a large repeat there would be a multiplication of the number of blocks because the size of a single block for block printing was limited to about 45 cm square and its weight to about 5 kg. Most blocks for block printing were much smaller than this, perhaps because many printers were women.

Wood blocks surface printing with brass strip and pin inserts

Block making for surface printing required patience and skill. A fairly hard wood was required, such as pearwood, and four or five layers were usually glued together with the grain running in different directions. The printing design was traced on to the surface and a fine chisel used to cut away the non printing areas to a depth of perhaps 1 cm. To obtain more detail from some blocks, strips and pins of copper or (more usually) brass were hammered into the wood. In the 19th century some blocks were made with the printing surface entirely in brass, which gave very delicate prints.
 

Wood blocks of surface printing with cast type-metal printing surface without pitch pins

 Another technique for surface printing used for complex printing designs was to prepare a mould, use this to cast the image from molten type metal, fasten the casting to the block, and then grind the surface perfectly flat. When large areas of solid colour were required, the areas within metal or wooden outlines were filled with felt, which would absorb and print the paste uniformly. Finally, each block required corner ‘pitch pins’ which printed small dots; these allowed the succeeding blocks to be correctly positioned by accurately locating the pitch pins above the already printed dots. A less precise form of block printing is practised in the production of, for example, Africa prints using large plywood blocks with polyurethane foam printing surfaces.
 

The printing table for surface printing:
A very solid table was needed; it was topped with flat surface slabs of stone or iron covered with a resilient blanket and a sheet of waterproof material for block printing. A back-grey of plain cotton was usually stretched over the table, to absorb any surplus colour for surface printing. Ideally the back-grey would be gummed to the table and the fabric to be printed could be pinned to it, for tight-fitting patterns.

The printing process of block printing:
Printing paste must be applied to the block surface in a controlled manner, and this was achieved by using a ‘sieve’. A small tub was nearly filled with a starch paste and a water proof fabric, stretched on a frame, rested on the block printing paste. A piece of woollen fabric was stretched on a slightly smaller frame and fastened to make the printing sieve. The sieve was saturated with printing paste and placed on the waterproof fabric. For each impression of block printing, the ‘tierer’ (a boy) spread the printing paste on the top surface of the woollen sieve with a large brush and the printer charged the block by pressing it on the wool. The block was then carefully positioned on the fabric, using the pitch pins as guides, and struck with a mallet. After printing a table length with the first block, the second was printed and then any others required completing the design. The fabric was then transferred to a few elevated surface printing rollers or rods and allowed to dry, while the next table length was printed.

HISTORY OF BLOCK PRINTING

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BLOCK PRINTING
Block printing history is much more complex. The word ‘printing’ implies a process that uses pressure, being derived from a Latin word meaning pressing. The German word druck for print also means pressure. And there is no doubt that the first textile-printing technique (making impressions) was that using blocks with raised printing surfaces, which were inked and then pressed on to the fabric. By repetition, the image from a single block builds up into a complete design over the fabric area. Some early blocks were made of clay or terracotta, others of carved wood. Wooden blocks carrying design motifs were found in tombs near the ancient town of Panopolis in Upper Egypt. In the same area a child’s tomb contained a tunic made of fabric printed with a design of white rectangles, each enclosing floral motifs on a blue background. Pliny (born AD 23) described in his book Historia naturalis how in Egypt they applied colourless substances to a fabric that was later immersed in a dyebath that quickly produced several colours. As Pliny also records that the best-quality alum was obtained from Egypt, it seems likely that alum was one of the mordants used and that the dye was madder.

By the 14th century the use of wooden blocks for printing was certainly established in France, Italy and Germany, but the craft was practised by ‘painters’, using mineral pigments rather than dyes. One of the early European uses of blocks was to produce church hangings that imitated the more expensive brocades and tapestries. Cennini, writing in 1437, described in some detail the production and use of brick-sized wooden blocks to print a black outline on brightly coloured cloth, which was then hand painted with other bright colours. In 1460 the nuns of a convent in Nuremberg described the block printing of mineral colours in boiled resinous oils, of gold and silver leaf, and of wool ‘flock’ on to a printed adhesive.

In the 15th century Portuguese traders were discovering the potential for trade with India, where the dyed style was used to produce cotton fabrics of great beauty that were quickly in demand in Europe. As early as the first century AD there was an Indian centre famous for the production of painted fabric, and the use of madder was by then long established. Early in the 17th century hand-painted Indian cottons were reaching London in significant quantities. They were both colourful and colour-fast, and introduced a richness of novel and stimulating design styles. Paisley designs, for example, were derived directly from one of these styles and the words ‘calico’ and ‘chintz’ were adopted into the language at around this time. A substantial and lucrative import trade began, reaching a peak about 1700. In 1708, Daniel Defoe wrote that ‘everything that used to be wool or silk was supplied by the Indian trade’.

The craftsmanship applied to produce these prints can be judged from the following summary of the process. The cloth was wetted with milk and burnished to achieve a smooth surface. The design was transferred from paper, using charcoal powder that was rubbed through holes pricked in the paper. The main outlines were painted in and the fabric was then waxed, except for the areas that were to be blue or green. The latter were dyed in a bath of reduced indigo, and the wax was then removed by scraping and washing. After drying, the reds, pinks, lilacs, browns and blacks were painted in with the appropriate metal acetate mordants, aged and developed in a madder extract dyebath. If necessary, the pale areas were rewaxed and darker colours obtained by a second dyeing. Thorough washing removed most of the unfixed dye, and then bleaching in the sun whitened the ground. Painting in a saffron yellow for green and yellow areas completed the work.

The desire to imitate these prints in order to compete in the new market was soon aroused. Merchants who had earlier organised the production of larger quantities by the Indians, and who had also encouraged them to speed up the process by using block printing, turned to the foundation of factories in Europe near the main ports of entry. In 1648 the first recorded calico-printing factory was set up in Marseille. In 1676 there were units in Amsterdam and London. Among the merchants who financed the trade was one of the best known Huguenot families, the Deneufvilles, and before the end of the century the Huguenots had established the new industry in Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt, Neuchatel, Lausanne and Geneva.


The importance of printing in the commerce of Europe was very significant in the
18th century and the growth of the textile industry was clearly stimulated by the demand for prints. The British prohibition of printed cotton in 1721 actually helped because Lancashire-woven linen/cotton ‘fustians’, which used flax grown in the Fylde area, were exempt. The linen yarn provided a strong warp, and the developing industry moved from London to the Manchester region, and also to Northern Ireland and Scotland where flax was also grown. The factory system of spinning had not yet been developed; it was not until 1766 that Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny. Yet in 1729 there were already four Dutch printers employing more than 100 workers in each unit. In Britain the number of calico-printing firms grew from 28 in 1760 to 111 in 1785, with annual production rising to 12 million yards, and in 1792 it was estimated that at least 60% of the white cotton cloth produced was sent to the printers. After 1774, when Richard Arkwright achieved the repeal of the 1721 Prohibition Act, most of the growth was in the printing of 100% cotton fabric. Liverpool now became the centre for raw cotton import.

How had the European printers acquired the necessary skills? Making wooden blocks would not be too difficult but finding suitable thickeners may have taken time. Gum Senegal and tragacanth seem to have emerged as useful, and starch was added to improve the colour yield. A combination of block printing and painting (usually described as pencilling) was used for some time. The biggest problem was that of achieving bright and fast colours. Madder was the most important dye that was able to satisfy the need. It had been known, and used with a mordant, since Saxon times but not in prints or on cotton. Awareness of what the Indians had achieved was important, and information about their methods would be gleaned from merchants and from returned missionaries. As late as 1742 details of the method were being sought from a French Jesuit in Pondicherry by a friend in France. The importance of pretreating the cotton with milk fat may have been a vital piece of information, though olive oil became the preferred material in Europe. Attaining a bright red was a preoccupation for many years, and recipes became more and more complicated. The processes of ageing the print and clearing the last traces of madder from unprinted areas also presented new problems that were not solved immediately.