Charles Taylor (died 1816) was a Manchester calico printer and dyer, who later became Secretary of the

Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

Biography

Little is known about his origins, but he was an M. D. He was a partner in the Manchester firm of Taylor and Maxwell,

fustian Fustian is a variety of heavy cloth woven from cotton, chiefly prepared for menswear. History and use Known in Late Latin as ''fustaneum'' or ''fustanum'' and in Medieval Latin as ''pannus fustāneus'' ('fustian cloth') or ''tela fustāne ...

manufacturers, dyers and printer, and was involved with the development of printing machinery for calico in about 1770. About 1785 Taylor set up a dye-house in Manchester for

Turkey Red Turkey red is a dyeing method that was widely used to give cotton a distinctive bright red colour in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was made using the root of the rubia (madder) plant, through a long and laborious process which originated in t ...

dyeing. Taylor and Maxwell were early experimenters in the use of 'dephlogisticated marine acid' (chlorine) following the work of

Berthollet Claude Louis Berthollet (, 9 December 1748 – 6 November 1822) was a Savoyard-French chemist who became vice president of the French Senate in 1804. He is known for his scientific contributions to the theory of chemical equilibria via the ...

and

Scheele Scheele is a surname of Germanic origin. Notable people with the surname include: *Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786), German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist *George Heinrich Adolf Scheele (1808–1864), German botanist * Karin Scheele (b. 1968), ...

. The idea was suggested to Taylor by Dr

Richard Kirwan Richard Kirwan, LL.D, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, FRSE Membership of the Royal Irish Academy, MRIA (1 August 1733 – 22 June 1812) was an Irish geologist and chemist. He was one of the last supporters of the theory of Phlogiston theory, ...

F.R.S. and according to the article on 'Bleaching' in ''

Rees's Cyclopædia Rees's ''Cyclopædia'', in full ''The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'', was an important 19th-century British people, British encyclopaedia edited by Rev. Abraham Rees (1743–1825), a Presbyterian minis ...

'', which Taylor wrote: :''... a whole piece of calico, in the state received from the loom, was in the spring of 1788 actually bleached white, printed in permanent colours and produced in the Manchester market ready for sale, having undergone all these operations in less than 48 hours by the joint efforts of Mr. Cooper, Mr. Baker and Mr Taylor, which is perhaps the first time an entire piece, either in France or England, that fully ascertained the real merits of a new mode of bleaching, and certainty that it might be generally useful in commerce.'' In 1788 they took as an apprentice

James Watt Jr. James Watt, Jr., FRS (5 February 1769 – 2 June 1848) was a British engineer, businessman and activist. Early life He was born on 5 February 1769, the son of James Watt by his first wife Margaret Miller, and half-brother of Gregory Watt. H ...

(1769-1848) Taylor retired from his Manchester business in 1800 and in February of that year was appointed Secretary to the

, a post he held until his death in 1816.

Works

For ''

'' he contributed articles on: *Bleaching, vol 4, 1805 *Crimson, vol 10, 1808 *Dying, history of, vol 12, 1808 *Fustian. vol 15, 1810

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Charles Year of birth missing 1816 deaths Businesspeople from Manchester