Daily AncestorCalico printer
A calico printer printed colored patterns onto calico, plain cotton cloth, first by hand with carved wooden blocks and later with engraved copper rollers.
Calico was cheap plain cotton cloth, first brought from India, where it was dyed and printed in bright colors. European makers copied it, block-printing designs with dyes fixed by mordants; using several sets of blocks gave more colors.
In 1783 Thomas Bell patented printing with copper rollers, which let mills turn out printed cloth much faster. Calico printers at work even appear in a stained glass window at the Maryhill Burgh Halls in Glasgow.
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Daily Ancestor. "Calico printer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/calico-printer. Last checked 2026-10-10.