Printing on textiles has primarily been a “contact” process because, whether by stamp
or stencil, these as well as the ink come into contact with the print substrate. Contact
by a pen or a “plotter,” however, especially on moving paper, also risks distortion.
This was the case in printing from the faint signals coming through at the other
end of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, finally laid in 1866. As a scientific advisor
to the cable laying project, Professor William Thomson (later known as Lord Kelvin)
addressed this by inventing the ink jet printing method, where the stream or “jet” of
ink but not its delivery system made contact with the moving surface of the rolling
paper tape. The sensitivity of this printing mechanism has been its claim to fame,
and perhaps its curse, ever since.