The size of the canvas operated on, which must be free from all seams and joinings, is 8 yards wide by 25 yards long. The huge webs from which these canvasses are cut are woven, chiefly in power-looms, in lengths of 150 yards, from which six floor-cloth pieces are obtained. For the cheaper qualities of floor-cloth jute canvas is employed, but in the best kinds the material is woven of stout tow yarn. The pieces of canvas in sizes above indicated are mounted on a series of stout wooden stretching frames, ranged about 30 inches apart from each other in a lofty, well-ventilated hall. The back or under part of the floorcloth is first dealt with, the first operation being to coat the whole surface with thin size, which fills up the interstices and prevents the oil of the pigment from penetrating and rotting the fibres. The paint, which is next applied, is of the consistency of a thin plaster, and is made up of raw oil, some turpentine, and ochre, umber, and other earthy pigments. It is laid on, not with brushes, but with long trowels, the operation being called “trowelling,” and the workmen go over a large surface with great expedition. When the operation is complete, the iron doors of the hall are closed and streams of heated, slightly moist air are blown by a fan blast into the apartment, a temperature of from 78° to 90° Fahr, being then maintained. The moisture in the heat is essential for keeping the paint while drying from shrinking, cracking, and scaling off. When the paint is dry the whole surface is smoothed with pumice, and the back is finished with a coat of thinner colour, in which boiled oil without turpentine is employed, thereby securing a glossy surface and finish. As soon as the back is dry the face or upper side has to be turned to the workmen, an operation which demands great caution aud precision to prevent the canvas from being torn and destroyed. The lower edge being carried up and secured along the top of the frame, the upper part is suddenly detached and let down to the floor. The face receives, in succession, a coat of size and three “trowelling” coats, with pumicing between, and on the conclusion of these operations it is ready for printing. The printing is a costly process, owing to the great store of blocks which it is found necessary to provide and keep up; and the colours used are also expensive, consisting as they do of the flue bright pigments with a foundation of white lead. The blocks have a printing surface of 18 square inches, cut either of pear tree or other wood, or with faces of type metal cast in wood matrices, the interstices being filled up with felt. The cost is further increased by the laborious and tedious nature of the operations, the printing of an eight-colour pattern over a full piece requiring no less than 7200 separate applications of the set of eight colour blocks and one finishing block. The cloth is brought to the printing room by a kind of overhead tramway arrangement, where it is passed over a long narrow table. At the side of this stands the printer, and the colour table, on which is spread the colour he is to print, is mounted on rails which run parallel to the table over which the cloth is spread. Guide bars are arranged over the cloth to secure that the various impressions fall on their proper places with the utmost precision, and overhead are suspended from a spring beam screw presses which travel from end to end of the table. The block having received the needful amount of colour, and being laid in position over the cloth, receives by means of the movable screw press a tight elastic squeeze, which secures a uniform impression of the portion of the pattern brought out by one colour. The various colours are so printed in in succession, and thereafter the whole is gone over with a finishing block, the surface of which is cut into fine straight grooves or lines. Finally, the finished cloth is moved to a drying room, where, suspended by the two extremities face outwards, it is left to harden and season.

Oil floor-cloth is open to the∙objection that it has a hard, cold, and uncomfortable surface, while it is almost as noisy to the tread as ordinary wooden flooring. Many substances have been proposed to supplant it, in which these objectionable features have been more or less overcome, while they retain its advantages of resistance to wear, cleanness, and freedom from damp. Of these bodies linoleum has proved most successful in experience, but various other materials of a similar kind have been introduced and used to a considerable extent.

Kamptulicon is a variety of floor-cloth, which, although invented about 1843, did not receive prominent public notice till the London International Exhibition of 1862. The materials and processes employed in its manufacture vary considerably, but it is essentially a preparation of india-rubber masticated up with ground cork, the preparation and mixture being effected by repeated passing of the material between grooved rollers. When thoroughly incorporated the preparation is rolled out into sheets, sometimes over a backing of canvas, by passing it between pairs of wide and heavy steam-heated rollers. In addition to the substances above mentioned, gutta-percha, sawdust, peat-dust, ground leather, boiled oil, resins, pitch, asphalt, tar, chalk, and fibrous residues have all been used in kamptulicon making. The rolled sheets are ornamented by printing simple patterns on their surface, but, as much of the peculiar advantages of kamptulicon w ould be lost were its whole surface covered with oil pigments, the kamptulicon surface is, as far as possible, left exposed. Kamptulicon forms a warm, pleasant, soft, and noiseless floorcloth, but the higher qualities, in which india-rubber aud ground cork are the main ingredients, are rather expensive, and the manufacture has been curtailed since the introduction of linoleum.

Linoleum.— This substance consists of oxidized linseed oil combined with ground cork, treated and rolled very much in the same manner as kamptulicon, to which, in appearance and properties, it bears a close resemblance. The manufacture was first conducted under a series of patents secured by Mr F. Walton, the essential feature of his process—his method of oxidizing linseed oil—having been patented in January 1860. The oxidation was effected by mixing the oil, perfectly clear and bright, with a suitable drier, by preference from 5 to 10 per cent, of acetate of lead being used, and spreading it in thin films on surfaces of considerable extent, which films were exposed to currents of heated air. In this way a rapid oxidation was induced, the oil being transformed into linoxein, a slightly elastic semi-resinous body, having many properties in common with india-rubber, with the advantage of a clear semi-translucent yellow colour. In his patent of December 1863, dealing chiefly with the production of coloured patterns on linoleum, Mr Walton specifies, as a suitable composition for the body of the material, 4 cwt. of oxidized oil 1⅜ cwt. of resin, I cwt. of kaurie-gum and colouring matter, mixed together in a steam-heated pan and cast into cakes. It was afterwards to be mixed with an equal weight of cork dust, or a somewhat larger quantity of sawdust, and spread on and pressed into a woven fabric between steam-heated rollers. The breadth of the finished linoleum is determined by the breadth of the spreading rollers through which it passes; at present that does not exceed six feet. The manufacture of linoleum is rapidly extending, and since the expiry of Mr Walton’s patent rights, it has been begun by the leading Kirkcaldy floorclothmakers.

Boulinikon.— Under this name a kind of floor-cloth with a linoleum-like surface is manufactured of waste materials, by a process patented in January 1865 by John B. Wood. It is composed of about equal portions of raw buffalo or other hide macerated and reduced to a pulp, pulped cotton or linen rags, and coarse hair ground up short and fine. These are mixed into a common pulp in a form of rag engine, and subsequently spread, drained, dried, and pressed on a machine similar to that used in the paper manufacture. The ornamentation is effected in the manner employed for kamptulicon and linoleum; but the substance may be entirely covered with pigment and finished like oil floor-cloth. (j. pa.)