PAPER HANGINGS. This import ant and elegant substitute for the an cient "hangings" of tapestry or cloth came into use about 200 years ago. The manes facture has undergone a gradual succes sion of and has now reached a high state of beauty and per fection. The patterns on these papers are sometimes produced by stencil plates, but more commonly by blocks, each color being laid on by a separate block cut in wood or metal upon a plain or tinted ground. The patterns are sometimes printed in varnish or size, and gilt or copper leaf applied ; or bisulphuret of tin (attrunt musinum) is dusted over so as to adhere to the pattern ; and in what are called flock dyed wools minced into powder are similarly applied. Pow dered steatite, or French chalk, is used to produce the peculiar gloss known under the name of satin. Striped papers are sometimes made by passing the paper rapidly under a trough, which has par allel slits in its bottom through which the color is delivered; and a number of other very ingenious and beautiful contrivances have lately been applied in this impor tant branch of art. The invention of the paper machine, by which any length of paper may be obtained, effected a great change in paper hangings, which could formerly only be printed upon separate sheets, and were much more inconveni ent to print as well as to apply to the walls.
Originally the first method of making this paper was stencilling ; by laying upon it, in an extended state, a piece of pasteboard having spaces cut out of vari ous figured devices, and applying diffe rent water colors with the brush. An other piece of pasteboard with other pat terns cut out was next applied, when the forriAr figures were dry, and new designs were thus imparted. By a series of such operations, a tolerable pattern was execut ed, but with no little labor or expense. The processes of the calico printer were next resorted to, in which engraved blocks of the pear or sycamore were em ployed to impress the colored designs.
Paper-hangings may be distinguished into two classes ; 1. those which are really painted, and which are designed in France under the title of papkrs pants, with brilliant flowers and figures ; and 2. those in which the designs are formed by foreign matters applied to the paper, under the name of papier tontisse, or flock paper.
The operations common to paper-hang ings of both kinds, may be stated as fol lows : 1. The paper should be well sized.
2. The edges should be evenly cut by an apparatus like the bookbinder's press.
8. The ends of each of the 24 sheets which form a piece, should be nicely pasted together ; 'be a Fourdrinier we of paper should be taken.
4. Laying the grounds, is done with earthy colors or colored lakes thickened with size, and applied with brushes.
An expert workman, with one or two children, can lay the grounds of 300 pieces in a day. The pieces are now sus pended upon poles near the ceiling, in order to be dried. They are then rolled up and carried to the apartment where they are polished, by being laid upon a smooth table with the painted side un dermost, and rubbed with the polisher. Pieces intended to be satined, are ground ed with fine Paris plaster, instead of Spanish white, and are not smoothed with a brass polisher, but with a hard brush attached to the lower end of the swing polishing rod. After spreading the piece upon the table with the grounded side undermost, the dusts the upper surface with finely powdered chalk of Briancon, commonly called cal°, and rubs it strongly with the brush. In this way the satiny lustre is produced.
The laying on of colors is accomplished in precisely the same way as in calico printing, either by block press printing., or by the cylinder machine. With the latter, 18,000 yards a day are printed ; these are afterwards cut into pieces 12 yards long. The great length to which paper is now made, in some cases 2,800 feet long, facilitates very much the work ing of this machine.