Charles Taylor (calico printer and dyer)


Charles Taylor was a Manchester calico printer and dyer, who later became Secretary of the Society of Arts.

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 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 dyeing.
Taylor and Maxwell were early experimenters in the use of 'dephlogisticated marine acid' following the work of Berthollet and Scheele. The idea was suggested to Taylor by Dr Richard Kirwan F.R.S. and according to the article on 'Bleaching' in Rees's Cyclopædia, which Taylor wrote:
In 1788 they took as an apprentice James Watt, Jr.
Taylor retired from his Manchester business in 1800 and in February of that year was appointed Secretary to the Society of Arts, a post he held until his death in 1816.

Works

For Rees's Cyclopædia he contributed articles on: