230. Color Designs in Cloth. It is thought that the earliest
attempts at making "fancy materials" consisted in painting designs on
a fabric by means of a brush. In more recent times the design was cut
in relief on hard wood, the relief being then daubed with coloring
matter and applied by hand to successive portions of the cloth. The
most modern method of design-making is that of machine or roller
printing. In this, the relief blocks are replaced by engraved copper
rolls which rotate continuously and in the course of their rotation
automatically receive coloring matter on the engraved portion. The
cloth is to be printed is then drawn uniformly over the rotating roll,
receiving color from the engraved design; in this way, the color
pattern is automatically printed on the cloth with perfect regularity.
In cases where the fabrics do not unite directly with the coloring
matter, the design is supplied with a mordant and the impression made
on the fabric is that of the mordant; when the fabric is later
transferred to a dye bath, the mordanted portions, represented by the
design, unite with the coloring matter and thus form the desired color
patterns.
Unless the printing is well done, the coloring matter does not
thoroughly penetrate the material, and only a faint blurred design
appears on the back of the cloth; the gaudy designs of cheap calicoes
and ginghams often do not show at all on the under side. Such
carelessly made prints are not fast to washing or light, and soon
fade. But in the better grades of material the printing is well done,
and the color designs are fairly fast, and a little care in the
laundry suffices to eliminate any danger of fading.
Color designs of the greatest durability are produced by the weaving
together of colored yarns. When yarn is dyed, the coloring matter
penetrates to every part of the fiber, and hence the patterns formed
by the weaving together of well-dyed yarns are very fast to light and
water.
If the color designs to be woven in the cloth are intricate, complex
machinery is necessary and skillful handwork; hence, patterns formed
by the weaving of colored yarns are expensive and less common than
printed fabrics.
CHAPTER XXIV
CHEMICALS AS DISINFECTANTS AND PRESERVATIVES
231. The prevention of disease epidemics is one of the most striking
achievements of modern science. Food, clothing, furniture, and other
objects contaminated in any way by disease germs may be disinfected by
chemicals or by heat, and widespread infection from persons suffering
with a contagious disease may be prevented.
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--Pasteurizing apparatus, an arrangement by
which milk is conveniently heated to destroy disease germs.]
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