July 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



MANUFACTURE OF PAPER-HANGINGS, 535 



The padding of the raw paper consists of laying the grounds for the 

 reception of colours from the. printing machine in the cheaper sorts of 

 goods upon the surface of the paper. This is done with French chalk, 

 or earthy colours, or coloured lakes thickened with size and applied 

 with brushes. When the paper is to be machine-printed it is retained 

 in the continuous web, and padded by machine action operating by a 

 system of rotatory brushes, and afterwards dried. There are here three 

 such padding machines, and three persons are in attendance on each 

 machine. The paper so prepared is afterwards polished by machine 

 action, using French chalk in the process. The more expensive papers 

 are worked in piece lengths, and more laboriously j)repared by hand 

 operations. An expert workman, assisted by a couple of boys, can lay 

 the grounds of 300 pieces in a day. The operation is conducted with 

 brushes upon a smooth table, and the pieces are suspended upon cross 

 rods near the ceiling, where, in a genial temperature, they are permitted 

 to dry. They are then rolled up and carried to the apartment where 

 they are polished by friction rollers and brushes, and in some establish- 

 ments by being laid upon a table for the purpose with the coloured 

 side under, and rubbed with the polisher. Pieces intended to be satined 

 are grounded with fine plaster of Paris, and operated upon with a brush 

 attached to the lower end of a swing polishing rod. Talc or china clay 

 is sometimes used with the brush to give the surface a fine satiny 

 lustre. 



The colours employed: — The whites used are French chalk, good 

 whitening, and, in some works, white lead is mixed with the latter. 

 The yellows are chrome yellow, terra de sienna, yellow ochre, and 

 when vegetable extracts are used, Persian berries. The reds are 

 afforded by decoctions of woods, such as Brazil wood, &c. The blues 

 are artificial ultramarine, Prussian blue, or blue verdila. Some colours 

 are produced by mixtures, such as greens from blues and yellows, and 

 Scheele's green is also used. Violets, browns, blacks, and greys are 

 procured from various vegetable and mineral sources, and from mix- 

 tures. All colours are rendered adhesive and consistent by being worked 

 up with gelatinous size or a weak solution of glue, and in the engine- 

 house of the work there are placed three steam-heated rectangular vats 

 charged with materials of this kind ready for use at all times. 



There are three printing machines in the work, severally a four, a. 

 six, and a twelve colour machine. The operation of printing is 

 effected by means of a succession of rollers arranged round a drum, 

 with a colour box, sieve, &c, to each roller, similar to the well-known 

 process of calico printing, the difference being that the rollers for paper- 

 hangings produce surface work and with body colours, whereas calico 

 printing is done from engraved rollers. Immediately on leaving the 

 printing machine the paper passes into a chamber heated to about 200 

 or more, and is thus dried and finished, the power of produc- 



