DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1398#0188
PLATE 161.
FLOOR-COVERINGS,
BY MESSES. HARE & CO., BRISTOL; AND MESSES. TRESTRAIL & CO., LONDON.
BOTH the exhibitors whose productions we have here illustrated were awarded prize medals
by the International Jury of Class 22 (Carpets) ; the Messrs. Hare & Co. for " floor-cloths,
&c.; for excellence of design, colour, and manufacture;" the Messrs. Trestrail & Co. for "kamp-
tulicon, or India-rubber and cork floor-cloth; for novelty of invention and economy of production."
We would add, that the designs employed by this firm were also so good as to induce us to select
a piece for illustration.
Of the substitutes for carpets, as more suitable for public rooms, passages, and halls, the
earliest in point of date, introduced in the second half of the last century, is that of floor-cloth.
The Messrs. Hare, besides them medal in 1862, obtained medals also at the Exhibitions of 1851
and 1855. They are the oldest firm in the kingdom for this manufacture, the house having been
established in the year 1786. Of late years this branch of industry has greatly increased. The
following account of the manufacture is taken from Ure's " Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and
Mines:"—"The cloth is a strong, somewhat open canvas, woven of flax with a little hemp, and
from six to eight yards wide, being manufactured in appropriate looms chiefly at Dundee. A piece
of this canvas, from sixty to a hundred feet in length, is secured tight in an upright open frame
of oaken bars, in which position it is brushed over with glue size, and rubbed smooth with pumice-
stones ; it next receives the foundation coats of paint, two or three in number, first on the back
and then on the front. The foundation paint, made with linseed oil and ochre, or any cheap
colouring matter, is too thick to be applied by the brush, and is, therefore, spread evenly by a
long, narrow trowel, held in the right hand, from a patch of it laid on just before with a brush in
the left hand of the workman. Each foundation coat of the front surface is smoothed by pumiee-
Stone whenever it is hard enough to bear the operation. When both sides are dry, the painted
cloth is detached from the frame, coiled round a roller, and in this state transferred to the printing-
room, where it is spread flat on a table, and variously figured and coloured devices are given to it
by wooden blocks, exactly as in the block-printing of calico or paper. The blocks of the floor-cloth
manufacture are formed of two layers of white deal, and one of pear-tree timber, placed with their
grain crossing one another alternately. There is a block for each colour in the pattern, and in
each block those parts are cut away that correspond to the impressions given by the others.
The faces of the blocks are so indented with fine lines, that they do not take up the paint in a
heavy daub from the flat cushion on which it is spread with a brush, but in minute dots. Applied
in this way, the various pigments lie more evenly, are more sightly, and dry much sooner than
if the prominent part of the block which takes up the colour were a smooth surface. The best
kinds of floor-cloth require from two to three months for their production."
The next novelty in floor-coverings was the cocoa-nat matting, introduced originally into this
country by Mr. Horford, a rope-mat maker, about thirty years since, and greatly extended subsequently
by various manufacturers; amongst whom Mr. Treloar became particularly noted, obtaining a prize
medal for his productions at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and again in 1862. The last invention for
covering floors is called kamptulicon, and has recently been patented by the Messrs. Goodyear, who
devised a method of combining cork, cotton, wool, and other fibrous materials, with India-rubber, and
then spreading the mixture upon a back or ground of canvas or wool, in which state it underwent a
kind of embossing process, plain or coloured; and when thoroughly dried, made an elastic floor-covering.
The Messrs. Trestrail's patent coloured kamptulicon is a felted article, composed of India-rubber,
gutta-percha, and cork, manufactured with P. Walton's patent India-rubber substitute; can be
made plain, coloured, or figured, in imitation of carpets, mosaic-work, &c, and forms an excellent
covering for floors. Messrs. Tayler & Co., and Messrs. Gough & Boyce, of London, also exhibited
some very good designs in this particular class of goods. Messrs. Hare & Co., besides the floor-
cloth in the Medieval style, which we have selected from their contribution, exhibited an excellent
reproduction of the Roman tessellated pavement, discovered some years since at Cirencester, and
other good examples of design applied to floor-cloth. There were four other exhibitors of floor-
cloth ; among whom we particularly noticed the designs of Messrs. Nairn & Co., of Kirkaldy, W.B.,
and Messrs. Kindon & Powell, London. There is room for improvement in the application of
ornament to this material, for which a flat treatment should especially be affected.
FLOOR-COVERINGS,
BY MESSES. HARE & CO., BRISTOL; AND MESSES. TRESTRAIL & CO., LONDON.
BOTH the exhibitors whose productions we have here illustrated were awarded prize medals
by the International Jury of Class 22 (Carpets) ; the Messrs. Hare & Co. for " floor-cloths,
&c.; for excellence of design, colour, and manufacture;" the Messrs. Trestrail & Co. for "kamp-
tulicon, or India-rubber and cork floor-cloth; for novelty of invention and economy of production."
We would add, that the designs employed by this firm were also so good as to induce us to select
a piece for illustration.
Of the substitutes for carpets, as more suitable for public rooms, passages, and halls, the
earliest in point of date, introduced in the second half of the last century, is that of floor-cloth.
The Messrs. Hare, besides them medal in 1862, obtained medals also at the Exhibitions of 1851
and 1855. They are the oldest firm in the kingdom for this manufacture, the house having been
established in the year 1786. Of late years this branch of industry has greatly increased. The
following account of the manufacture is taken from Ure's " Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and
Mines:"—"The cloth is a strong, somewhat open canvas, woven of flax with a little hemp, and
from six to eight yards wide, being manufactured in appropriate looms chiefly at Dundee. A piece
of this canvas, from sixty to a hundred feet in length, is secured tight in an upright open frame
of oaken bars, in which position it is brushed over with glue size, and rubbed smooth with pumice-
stones ; it next receives the foundation coats of paint, two or three in number, first on the back
and then on the front. The foundation paint, made with linseed oil and ochre, or any cheap
colouring matter, is too thick to be applied by the brush, and is, therefore, spread evenly by a
long, narrow trowel, held in the right hand, from a patch of it laid on just before with a brush in
the left hand of the workman. Each foundation coat of the front surface is smoothed by pumiee-
Stone whenever it is hard enough to bear the operation. When both sides are dry, the painted
cloth is detached from the frame, coiled round a roller, and in this state transferred to the printing-
room, where it is spread flat on a table, and variously figured and coloured devices are given to it
by wooden blocks, exactly as in the block-printing of calico or paper. The blocks of the floor-cloth
manufacture are formed of two layers of white deal, and one of pear-tree timber, placed with their
grain crossing one another alternately. There is a block for each colour in the pattern, and in
each block those parts are cut away that correspond to the impressions given by the others.
The faces of the blocks are so indented with fine lines, that they do not take up the paint in a
heavy daub from the flat cushion on which it is spread with a brush, but in minute dots. Applied
in this way, the various pigments lie more evenly, are more sightly, and dry much sooner than
if the prominent part of the block which takes up the colour were a smooth surface. The best
kinds of floor-cloth require from two to three months for their production."
The next novelty in floor-coverings was the cocoa-nat matting, introduced originally into this
country by Mr. Horford, a rope-mat maker, about thirty years since, and greatly extended subsequently
by various manufacturers; amongst whom Mr. Treloar became particularly noted, obtaining a prize
medal for his productions at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and again in 1862. The last invention for
covering floors is called kamptulicon, and has recently been patented by the Messrs. Goodyear, who
devised a method of combining cork, cotton, wool, and other fibrous materials, with India-rubber, and
then spreading the mixture upon a back or ground of canvas or wool, in which state it underwent a
kind of embossing process, plain or coloured; and when thoroughly dried, made an elastic floor-covering.
The Messrs. Trestrail's patent coloured kamptulicon is a felted article, composed of India-rubber,
gutta-percha, and cork, manufactured with P. Walton's patent India-rubber substitute; can be
made plain, coloured, or figured, in imitation of carpets, mosaic-work, &c, and forms an excellent
covering for floors. Messrs. Tayler & Co., and Messrs. Gough & Boyce, of London, also exhibited
some very good designs in this particular class of goods. Messrs. Hare & Co., besides the floor-
cloth in the Medieval style, which we have selected from their contribution, exhibited an excellent
reproduction of the Roman tessellated pavement, discovered some years since at Cirencester, and
other good examples of design applied to floor-cloth. There were four other exhibitors of floor-
cloth ; among whom we particularly noticed the designs of Messrs. Nairn & Co., of Kirkaldy, W.B.,
and Messrs. Kindon & Powell, London. There is room for improvement in the application of
ornament to this material, for which a flat treatment should especially be affected.