PAPER-HANGINGS 479 



of the blocks, which determine all the beauty and regularity of the design. A pattern 

 drawer of taste may produce a very beautiful effect. 



When the piece is completely printed, the workman looks it all over, and if there 

 be any defects, he corrects them by the brush or pencil, applying first the correction 

 of one colour, and afterwards of the rest. 



A final satining, after the colours are dried, is communicated by the friction of a 

 finely-polished brass roller, attached by its end gudgeons to the lower extremity of 

 a long swing frame ; and acting along the cylindrical surface of a smooth table, upon 

 which the paper is spread. 



Thefondu or rainbow style of paper-hangings is produced by means of an assort- 

 ment of oblong narrow tin pans, fixed in a frame, close side to side, each being 

 about 1 inch wide, 2 inches deep, and 8 inches long ; the colours of the prismatic 

 spectrum, red, orange, yellow, green, &c., are put in a liquid state, successively in 

 these pans; so that when the oblong brush A, B (figr. 1592), with guide ledges, a, c, b, 

 is dipped into them across the whole of the parallel row at once, it comes out 

 impressed with the different colours at successive points, 

 e, e, e, e, of its length, and is then drawn by the paper-stainer over Io9_. 



the face of the woollen drum-head", or sieve of the swimming 

 tub, upon which it leaves a corresponding series of stripes in 

 colours, graduating into one another like those of the prismatic 

 spectrum. By applying his block to the tear, the workman takes up the colour in 

 rainbow hues, and transfers these to the paper. /,/, /,/, show the separate brushes in 

 tin sheaths, set in one frame. 



The operations employed for common paper-hangings are also used for making 

 flock paper, only a stronger size is necessary for the ground. The flocks are ob- 

 tained from the woollen-cloth manufacturers, being cut off by their shearing machines, 

 called lewises by the English workmen, and are preferred in a white state by the 

 French paper-hanging makers, who scour them well, and dye them of the proper 

 colours themselves. When they are thoroughly stove-dried, they are put into a conical 

 fluted mill, like that for making snuff, and are properly ground. The powder thus 

 obtained is afterwards sifted by a bolting machine, like that of a flour-mill, whereby 

 flocks of different degrees of fineness are prodiiced. These are applied to the 

 paper after it has undergone all the usual printing operations. Upon the workman's 

 left hand, and in a line with his printing table, a large chest is placed for receiving 

 the flock powders : it is 7 or 8 feet long, 2 feet wide at the bottom, 3 feet at top, 

 and from 15 to 18 inches deep. It has a hinged lid. Its bottom is made of tense 

 calf-skin. This chest is called the drum ; it rests upon four strong feet, so as to 

 stand from 24 to 28 inches above the floor. 



The block which serves to apply the adhesive basis of the velvet powders, bears in 

 relief only the pattern corresponding to that basis, which is formed with linseed oil, 

 rendered drying by being boiled with litharge, and afterwards ground up with white 

 lead. The workmen call this the encaustic. It is put upon the cloth which covers 

 the inverted swimming tub, in the same way as the common colours are, and is 

 spread with a brush. The workman daubs the blocks upon the encaustic, spreads 

 the pigment even with a kind of brush, and then applies it by impression to the paper. 

 Whenever a sufficient surface of the paper has been thus covered, the child draws it 

 along into the great chest, sprinkling the flock powder over it with his hands ; and 

 when a length of 7 feet is printed, he covers it up within the drum, and beats upon 

 the calf-skin bottom with a couple of rods to raise a cloud of flock inside, and to 

 make it cover the prepared portion of the paper uniformly. He now lifts the lid of 

 the chest, inverts the paper, and beats it back lightly, in order to detach all the loose 

 particles of the woolly powder. 



By the operation just described, the velvet down being applied everywhere of the 

 same colour, would not be agreeable to the eye, if shades could not be introduced to 

 relieve the pattern. 1'or this purpose, when the piece is perfectly dry, the workman 

 stretches it upon his table, and by the guidance of the pins in his blocks, he applies to 

 the flock surface a colour in distemper, of a deep tint, suited to the intended shades, 

 so that he dyes the wool in its place. Light shades are produced by applying some 

 of his lighter water-colours. 



Gold-leaf is applied upon the above mordant, when nearly dry ; which then forms 

 a proper gold size ; and the same method of application is resorted to as for the ordi- 

 nary gilding of wood. When the size has become perfectly hard, the superfluous 

 gold-leaf is brushed off with a dossil of cotton-wool or fine linen. 



The colours used by the paper-hangers are the following : 



1. Whites. These are either white lead, good whitening, or a mixture of he two. 



2. Yellows. These are frequently vegetable extracts ; as those of weld, or of 

 Avignon or Persian berries, and are made by boiling the substances witli watar. 



