396 Scientific Intelligence. [May 



Article IX. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE., 



Royal Institution — 27th February. 



I. — Floor Cloth Manufactory. — Mr. Brande gave a description 

 of this manufacture, and added greatly to its interest by going through 

 the various steps of the process, with the assistance of some workmen 

 employed in the manufactory at Knightsbridge. The main part 

 of the manipulation is similar to calico-printing, the figures on the 

 blocks being upon a much larger scale, and the cloths which are 

 printed being of an infinitely greater size. The common dimensions 

 of a floor cloth are 210 or 220 square yards, and hence the immense 

 size and often unseemly appearance of floor cloth works. A stout 

 canvass is chosen in the first instance. This is nailed to one ex- 

 tremity of a wooden frame, and stretched by means of hooks which 

 are attached to the other sides. It is then washed with a weak 

 size and rubbed over with pumice stone. No other substance has 

 yet been found which answers the purpose so well as this mineral. 

 The next step is that of laying on the colour, which is performed by 

 placing dabs of paint over the canvass with a brush, and then rub- 

 bing or polishing it with a long peculiar shaped trowel. Four 

 coats of paint are thus applied in front and three on the back of 

 the cloth. To remof e it from the frame when these processes are 

 finished, a roller on a carriage is employed, upon which it is rolled 

 and conveyed to the extremity of the manufactory for the purpose of 

 being printed. 



It is then gradually transferred from the roller and passed over 

 a table which is 30 feet long and 4 feet wide, made of planks placed 

 vertically, and as it proceeds over the table, the blocks, dipped in 

 the appropriate colours, are applied. The colours used are ochre, 

 umber, vermilion, and different kinds of chrome, mixed up with 

 lintseed oil and a little turpentine. 



The number of blocks applied to one pattern depends upon the 

 number of colours. 



The first mode of applying the patterns was by stencils, that is, 

 the pattern was, cut out in paper, and when the paper thus prepared 

 was applied to the cloth to be painted, that portion where the ground 

 was exposed by the interstice in the paper was traversed by a brush. 

 Then a combination of stencilling and printing was had recourse to, 

 the former process being first made use of, and then a block was 

 applied, the stencilling forming the groundwork. Stencilling is 

 now abandoned. In printing, it is necessary that the cloth should 

 first be rubbed over with a brush, else the colours will not adhere. 

 Whether the effect is electrical or not has not been ascertained. 

 Every square yard of good oil cloth weighs 3^ or 4 J lbs. each gain- 

 ing by the application of the paint 3 or 4 lbs. weight, and hence, the 

 quality of this manufacture is judged of by the weight. Whiting is 

 often used in spurious cloths, mixed with oil. Cloth prepared in this 

 way speedily cracks and becomes useless. 



Good cloth, with a very stout canvass, is used for covering veran- 

 dahs, and will last nine or ten years, while spurious cloth will 

 become useless in the course of one year. Floor cloth is employed to 



