in the Faubourg St. Antoine, made him colonel of the 8th legion of the national guard of Paris. Each of his workmen became a soldier; he clothed and exercised them, and inspired them with that blind devotion he himself felt for Napoleon. On the 8th of January, 1814, he distinguished himself in the defence of the capital, no less by his courage than by the generous humanity he evinced in succouring the wounded, often at his own expense, always to the injury of his neglected manufactures.

On the restoration of the Bourbons, in 1815, the name of this honourable citizen was on the list of proscription and exile; but he applied personally to the Russian emperor, Alexander, by whom he was affably received, and through whose influence the sentence against him was rescinded.

He remained, therefore, in his native land; but reduced to poverty, forgotten, and almost unknown, he died in Paris, on the 12th of October, 1840, at the age of seventy-eight. His funeral was without pomp, but not without honour. The procession, leaving the house of death in the Faubourg Montmartre, consisted of an immense concourse of mechanics, and received new additions at every step. Arrived at the the manufactory of Bon Secours, they paused, in accordance with the wishes of Lenoir himself, who had expressed a desire to be carried thither after his death, and to be, for the last time, surrounded by those to whom he had been so fond a master. the centre of the magnificent building, the workmen

In

had raised a monument combining simplicity with grandeur. Above the bust of Richard Lenoir stood the statue of Napoleon; on the front of the pedestal were inscribed these words :-" The Emperor lends 1,500,000 francs to Richard Lenoir." On the other side-" Richard Lenoir marches to the defence of Paris at the head of 20,000 united workmen."

H

OBERKAMPF,

AND CALICO-PRINTING IN FRANCE.

Born 1738-Died 1815.

FEW persons have any idea of the variety of operations which cotton has to undergo before it is fit for use, nor think that, in order to produce the dress of a poor peasant-girl, the resources of chemistry, taste, and mechanical skill are all laid under contribution. Most multifarious and delicate are the processes requisite in calico-printing, which has been styled "the most interesting, curious, and refined of all the chemical arts."

So intricate and difficult a process would seem to be characteristic of the scientific refinement of these later days, and yet it was known to the ancient Hindus and Egyptians. The celebrated Roman naturalist, Pliny, describes it with much precision. He says, "Robes and white veils are painted in Egypt in a wonderful way, being first imbued, not with dyes, but with dye-absorbing drugs, by which they appear to be unaltered; but when plunged for a little in a cauldron of the boiling stuff, they are found to be painted. Since there is only one colour in the cauldron, it is marvellous to see many colours imparted to the robe, in consequence of the modifying agency of

the drug. Nor can the dye be washed out. Thus the cauldron, which would of itself undoubtedly confuse the colours of cloths previously dyed, is made to impart several dyes from a single one, painting while it boils."

In India, where manufacturing processes have probably suffered little changes in the course of three thousand years, not only is the art of using these drugs well known, but that of applying resist-pastes, in order to preserve the cloth from the action of the dye-bath in any desired figures or spots. In the Industrial Society of Mühlhausen (a town of great celebrity in calico-printing) may be seen specimens, not only of modern Indian calicoes in the preparation state, covered with wax in places, to serve as a resist to the indigo dye, but of ancient styles of pencilled cloths, which had been the work of princesses, covered with figures of such complexity as could not be made without a very tedious and costly education, beyond the reach of ordinary artisans. Among other curiosities, the counterpane of a state bed is shown, six yards long and three broad, which must have taken a lifetime to execute, on their plan of applying the melted wax with a pencil.

English calicoes and muslins, now among the most important of our textile products, are the fruit of

*Thus, if white calico be impressed with the drug of acetate of alumina in one set of lines, with that of acetate of iron in a second, and with a mixture of the two in a third,-on being exposed to the madder-bath for a proper time, it will become permanently printed in red, black, and chocolate stripes.

mechanical improvements, and quite of modern date. The art was not introduced into this country until the latter end of the seventeeth century, and encountered at the outset the keenest hostility from the silk and woollen manufacturers; nor were the restrictions upon it wholly removed till the year 1831, when they were finally repealed, and the business left to its natural development. In France the same restrictions were long enforced, and a severe prohibition forbade the importation of printed calicoes and chintzes from other countries. There, as here, the interests of hemp, flax, and silk manufactures were alleged against it. But at length a man of indomitable perseverance and first-rate artistic skill triumphed over all obstacles, and introduced this branch of industry, which soon spread over all France, and was attended with great prosperity.

This man was Christopher Oberkampf, who was born at Weissenburg, in Franconia, in 1738. The lad served an apprenticeship to his father, in the manufacture of printed calicoes; the latter, an ingenious, worthy, and industrious man, after having tried without success to settle in various towns of Germany, had finally established a manufactory at Arau, in Switzerland, where he was rewarded with the rights of citizenship, in return for his energetic efforts in favour of his valuable art. Under so skilful a master the young man acquired much valuable information, which afterwards gained him both fortune and fame.

At that time, as we have said, printed calicoes and