Copper cylinder (roller) textile printing
Estampación a rodillo de cobre
- Date
- 1783 · confidence high
- Place
- Walton-le-Dale, Preston, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Thomas Bell (1783 patent)
- Field
- Tools
What it is
Printing of fabrics with engraved copper cylinders that turn continuously over the cloth and apply successive colours. It multiplied by a hundred the output of hand block printing.
Bell patented the system in 1783 at the Livesey, Hargreaves & Co. works; there had been earlier, less effective cylinders by Oberkampf and others. It spread during the 1790s.
What it led to
- calicoes and cheap prints for mass consumption
- Lancashire and Alsace printing industry
- cheaper cotton clothing and home decoration