FLOOR-CLOTH MANUFACTURE. This useful production is made partly of hemp and partly of flax, the former being the cheaper of the two, but the latter better fitted to retain the oil and paint on the surface. As a means of avoiding the necessity for seams or joinings in the cloth, looms are constructed expressly for the weaving of the canvas of the greatest width likely to be required. As brought to the floor-cloth factories, the pieces of canvas have generally one of these scales of dimensions : a hundred yards long by six wide, a hundred and eight yards by seven, a hundred and thirteen yards by eight. The flax and hemp are spun, and the canvas woven, almost entirely in Scotland, chiefly at Dundee ; and the degree of fineness is generally such as to present about 10 threads to the inch. The canvas is cut into pieces varying from sixty to a hundred feet long : each of these pieces is stretched over a frame in a vertical position ; and in most of the factories there is a large number of such frames, some a hun dred feet long by eighteen or twenty high, others sixty feet long by twenty-four high. A wash of melted size is applied by means of a brush to each surface ; and, while this is yet wet, the surface is well rubbed with a flat piece of pumice-stone, whereby the little irre gularities of the canvas are worn down, and a foundation is laid for the oil and colour after wards to be applied. The paint employed consists of the same mineral colours as those used in house-painting, and, like them, mixed with linseed oil ; but it is much stiffer or thicker in consistence, and has very little turpentine added to it. The canvas receives many coatings on the back as well as the front, and is well dried and smoothed at intervals.
The printing of floor-cloth is conducted much on the same principle as that of paper hangings for rooms, and that of 'colour-print ing,' viz., the successive application of two or more blocks or engraved surfaces, each one giving a different part of the device from the others, and being supplied with paint of a dif ferent colour. As at present conducted, the
pattern is engraved or cut upon blocks of wood, formed of pear-tree on one side and deal on the other : they are about fifteen inches square ; and each block is to give the portion of the device which is to be in one particular colour.
The blocks (which we will suppose to be, four for one pattern, red, yellow, blue, and' green) being ready, and the prepared canvas spread out on a flat table, the printing com mences. The paint (say red) is applied with a brush to the surface of a pad or cushion formed of flannel covered with floor-cloth; the block, held by a handle at the back, is placed face downwards on this cushion, and the layer of paint thus obtained is transferred to the surface of the canvas by pressing the block smartly down on the latter. A second impression is made in a similar way by the side of and close to the first ; and so on throughout the length and breadth of the canvas ; each impression being about fifteen inches square. The proper junction, or 'register,' of the successive impressions is aided by pins at the corners of the blocks. When the whole surface is thus printed with one colour, all the other three are similarly applied in succession. Such would likewise be the case if the number of colours was more than four : but the greater the number the greater would be the care necessary in adjusting the numerous partial impressions so as to insure a proper arrangement of the whole.
There will be some splendid specimens of floor-cloth at the approaching Exhibition ; some made on the usual commercial princi ples, and some as curiosities.