Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-16
A COMPLICATED PROCESS
The Manufacture of Wall Paper Requires
Elaborate Machinery.
As Many Rollers as There Are COlOrs
in the Design-Duties of
Each Workman.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times
The manufacture of wall paper is singu-
larly interesting. First. a web of blank
paper Is set in a reel behind a blotching
machine; two cylinders bring the free end
of the paper into the machine. where a
roller working in a color pan puts large
quantity of color upon the paper in blotch-
es, Then a set of fiat brushes, called jig
gers, brush quickly back and forth, thus
spreading the coloring matter evenly over
the surface of the paper. AS the paper
comes from the b,otching machine work
man takes one end of it, wraps it around
a stick and places the stick across two
parallel endless chains, and the paper is
thus carried up an incline. When eighteen
feet of it has run out the chains take up
another stick that lies across them, and
carry 1t up as they did the first stick;
third stick soon follows the second, and
thus the work continues until the entire
web of paper has been out of the
botching machine.
The chains, In their working, hang the
paper in loops over a system of steam
pipes, and 1t Is thus thoroughly dried be-
fore it reaches the end of the chain work.
where 1t is again wound into web form.
Wall paper designs are first sketched on
paper, and then transferred to rollers of
the size required. 1t Is necessary to pre-
pare as many rollers as there are Colors in
the design; thus. If the design requires
printing in eight colOrs, eight rollers must
be prepared. When all of the rollers
ready the artist directs the rollers and each
one is given a color. A workman. to whom
that color has been given, takes a roller
to his bench, sets it firmly in the grasp of
q wise, and, with hammers files, brass rib
bons and brass rods, goes to work. Every
bit of the design that is to be in green IS
traced out for him, and he carefully repro
duces 1t in relief on the roller.
10 f.,ish nl no llor
bears on its face. in raised brass. green
stems, leaves, etc, and at the proper time
and place will put the green colorng and
shading just where the designer intended
it should be. In like manner the other
rollers made ready for use and they
are then taken to a press that has large
cylinder of the width of ordinary wall pa
per. There are grooves around the sides
and bottom of this cylinder, into which
fitted the rods ON the ends of the roll
ers, and when In position, the faces of
the rollers just touch the cylinder. An
endless cloth band comes to each of the
rollers from below, each band works in a
color pan, which contains, in liquid form,
the ColGring matter to be carried on the
roller to which the band belongs. Each
roller is placed in such position that the
part of the design upon it will strike ex-
actly in the spot necessitated by the rela-
tive position of the other rollers. When
all is ready the paper that has passed
through the botching machine is placed
between the cylinder and the nrSt roiier,
the cylinder and the rollers revolve rapid
ly, and soon the paper is beautifully print
ed. At each of the endless cloth bands
there is steel scraper called a doctor, and
il is the doctors duty to prevent too much
liquid from the other pans from getting on
the rollers.
The wall paper press throws off ten rolls
of paper a minute, and each roll contains
sixteen Yards 1t is said that stamped
paper for walls was first manufactured in
Holland about the wear l.jJj. Some of the
very costly wall paper in use nowadays IS
beautifully embossed and hand-painted.