1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
185 
(For other Household Items, see '■'■Basket" pages.) 
About Paper-Hangings. 
It has no doubt puzzled many housekeepers that 
wall-paper should be called paper-hangings, and 
there had to be as many blocks as there were to be 
colors in the figure, each color being applied sep¬ 
arately, and the paper dried after each impression. 
For the finest French papers block printing is still 
in use, and at one establishment celebrated for its 
papers, which are said to equal fine paintings, as 
many as 3,000 blocks are required for one pattern. 
The invention of the paper machine, which pro- 
it body. The first operation, as in block printing, 
is to apply the ground color, which, like all other 
steps of the process, is done by a machine (fig. 1); 
here one side of the paper which is in large rolls 
of 60 to 100 pounds comes in contact with the 
body color, and is passed into the drying-room 
(fig. 2), where it hangs over poles in a highly 
heated atmosphere until it is quite dry. It is again 
that a man whose business it is to paste paper 
upon a wall should be called a paper-hanger. In 
olden times the rooms of the wealthy had their 
walls covered with fabric of some kind—silk or 
velvet and even leather being used, as well as 
tapestry, which was often most elaborately em¬ 
broidered and very costly. These were called 
hangings. Some 200 years or more ago paper to 
use instead of these fabrics was imported into 
England from China, and was naturally enough 
called paper-hangings. Paper for walls had been 
in use from time immemorial in China, where the 
designs were put upon the paper with a brush. 
The early English attempts to imitate the Chinese 
paper were by stencilling— i. e., rubbing on the 
colors through patterns cut out of pasteboard. 
This rude method soon gave way to stamping the 
figures upon the paper by means of wooden blocks 
upon which the design was carved. Before the in¬ 
vention of the paper-making machine the paper 
was all in single sheets, which were first printed 
and then pasted together. First there was a ground 
Fig. 4.—PRINTING THE PAPER. 
rolled up for the next process. If the paper is to 
be “satined,” as those which have a smooth, pol¬ 
ished surface are called, it is passed through a 
machine (fig. 3) where it is subjected to the fric 
tion of a rapidly revolving brush, which leaves 
the surface finely polished. The paper, whether 
“ satined ” or with a rough ground, has the 
figure printed on it by means of a machine 
(fig. 4) very much like those on which calico is 
printed. The designs are cut upon rolls, which 
are cylinders, usually of copper, upon which the 
pattern is engraved. These are so arranged as to 
take up the color and apply it to the paper as it 
passes over them. There must, of course, be as 
many rolls as there are colors to the figure, and the 
impression made by each must match that made by 
the preceding one with great nicety. The final op¬ 
eration is to make up the paper from the large roll 
into smaller ones such as are sold in the stores. 
This is also done by a machine (fig. 5). When the 
small roll is of the proper size it is cut off by means 
of a large knife with an edge like a saw. Those pa¬ 
Fig. 5.—MAKING UP THE ROLLS. 
pers that present a rich, velvety surface have this 
effect produced by what is called flock—this is wool, 
usually the shearings from woolen-cloth factories, 
dyed of different colors, ground in a mill, and 
sifted. The portion of the paper to which the 
flock is to be applied is first covered with an ad¬ 
hesive size and the flock sifted over it. Frequently 
color rubbed evenly over the paper by means of 
brushes made for the purpose ; this was dried, and 
cither printed on directly or the surface polished 
by rubbing. Then the design was printed on by 
blocks, first dipped in the color, and then applied 
by means of pressure or struck a smart blow with 
a mallet. One block printed but one color, and 
led to the use of a similar one for printing paper. 
One of our artists has recently visited a. paper¬ 
hanging factory, and made sketches of the opera¬ 
tions. The colors used are mixed with a size of 
glue-water sufficiently strong to make them adhere 
when dry, and some, especially the ground color of 
the paper, are thickened with very fine clay to give 
duces paper in a continuous sheet of any required 
length, and the application of machinery to the 
printing, has quite revolutionized the manner of 
making all bnt the most costly kinds of wall-paper. 
Calicoes were formerly all printed by hand with 
blocks as described for paper printing, and the in¬ 
vention of the calico-printing machine naturally 
