150 years of carpet printing: a retrospect

This retrospect of the development of the carpet printing industry, mainly in the UK, traces its origins from the birth of calico hand printing in the late 18th century to the first attempts to apply mechanised methods of producing patterned carpets during the 1840s. The author's involvement with the industry from its rebirth in the 1950s, through the heydays of the 1970s and to the present is then reviewed. Developments both in machinery and dye technology, not all of which enjoyed long‐term commercial success, are described, including the latest introduction of digital printing systems.