IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOOR CLOTHS AND COVERINGS AND SIMILAR FABRICS, AND IN PAVEMENTS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Walton, of the British Grove Works,
Chiswick, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOOR CLOTHS AND COVERINGS AND SIMILAR
FABRICS, AND IN PAVEMENTS."
Sealed the 31st May 1864, and dated the 19th December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Walton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th December 1863.
I, FREDERICK WALTON, of the British Grove Works, Chiswick, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOOR CLOTHS AND COVERINGS AND
SIMILAR FABRICS, AND IN PAVEMENTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of floor
cloths and coverings and similar fabrics, and in pavements, and is applicable
when employing in such manufactures a composition consisting of oxidized oil,
india-rubber, or similar plastic and more or less elastic material combined
with ground cork, sawdust, or similar material.
To produce a floor cloth or fabric with a pattern upon it, I take a com-
position such as above stated, colored with a suitable pigment, and spread it

page_text: on a back of woven fabric; I then pass the fabric between rollers, one of which
has the pattern cut upon it, and thus press down the composition at the part
where it is desired that a color should appear differing from that of the com
position spead on the fabric; I then take a second fabric and spread thereor
composition colored according to the second color of the pattern, and with
rollers as before I press down the composition at the parts where a differen
color is required to that of the composition spread on, that is to say, the
second embossing roller is raised exactly in the parts in which the first rolle
is depressed or cut away, and vice versâ. The two coated and embossed
fabrics thus produced I place face to face, so that the raised portions of
the one enter the recesses in the other. The fabrics are made to adhere firmly
the one to the other by pressing them together, the composition still being soft
and lastly by means of a splitting machine I cut the two backs apart, leaving a
portion of the composition on each. In this manner a pattern fabric is obtained
which will wear quite down to the back before the pattern is obliterated. If
it be desired to obtain more than two colors in the pattern, it may be done by
repeating the operation for each additional color required. When it is
desired to obtain an outline around the masses of the pattern, I spread a
fabric with composition of the ground color, and over this I put a thin layer of
composition of the outlining color, and then emboss the fabric with the second
color upon it, and the two are cut apart as before. It will be found that the
act of embossing carries down the layer of the outlining composition into a
vertical position around the edges of the pattern, so that when separating the
two fabrics it is cut through and appears; the remainder of the outlining
composition is buried and hidden. In some cases I coat and emboss a fabric
as before, and then fill in the recesses with composition of a different color in a
soft state by a spreading operation, and scraping or doctoring off the excess of
the soft material: Or the second composition may be simply spread or rolled
in and an upper back fabric applied, the two back fabrics being then cut apart
as before. In order to produce the smaller parts of the design where the
larger parts of the pattern have been already produced, by preference, by one
or other of the methods herein-before described, I indent into the composition
on the fabric the design to be added, and fill in the recesses with small pieces
of suitably colored composition cut to the shapes required, and consolidate the
whole by pressure; or I fill in the recesses with powder made by grinding
composition of a suitable color, and consolidate the fabric by heat and
pressure.
Another method of producing similar pattern fabrics is to take sheets of
composition of various colors, and cut or punch out pieces from them in the

page_text: form of the pattern. The pieces punched out of a sheet of one color are then
introduced into the corresponding holes in a sheet of another color, a back
fabric is cemented on, and the whole consolidated by pressure; if desired,
the back fabric may be omitted.
In order to produce a floor cloth or fabric with a marbled pattern upon it,
I reduce compositions of several different colors into fragments of irregular
shapes, which is conveniently done by a process of very coarse grinding; the
fragments are then rendered tacky by heat or otherwise. The pieces are then
spread in an even layer between two cloths, and consolidated by passing
between rollers, or otherwise by pressure; the two back fabrics may then be
cut apart, or one or both of them may be stripped off.
A similar fabric may
also be produced by pressing these variously colored pieces into a circular
block and then cutting off sheets concentrically. And I would remark that in
every case it is not essential that the back fabric should remain attached to
the composition; it may, if desired, be stripped off when the process of manu-
facture is complete, but (except for economy) I prefer to leave the back fabric
attached.
In some cases, in order to obtain a marbled floor cloth or covering or similar
fabric, I lay several sheets of composition differently colored one over the
other, and roll them on to a maundril, and then from the roll so obtained I
obtain a sheet by spiral cutting. In making the roll I employ sheets of com-
position which are very irregular in their thickness, or else I use sheets of
regular thickness and roll them upon an irregular maundril; without this a
suitable variety of color would not be obtained. The cut sheet may be
cemented on to a back fabric if desired.
In some cases, in order to give to floor cloths and coverings and similar
fabrics, the face of which is composed of a plastic or semiplastic composition,
an appearance resembling Brussels carpeting, I indent its surface with shallow
grooves at short distances apart and parallel the one to the other, or there
may be two sets of grooves crossing each other, and afterwards I print a
pattern on to the surface so prepared. The grooves on the surfaces will be
found to break up the masses of color sufficiently to give the effect desired.
The several processes which I have described may be applied to produce
slabs of composition suitable for use as pavement, and in making such slabs
the use of back cloths may sometimes be dispensed with, when if the compo-
sition were thin enough for floor cloth they would be necessary.

page_text: SPÉCIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Walton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WALTON, of the British Grove Works, Chiswick, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant. unto
me, the said Frederick Walton, Her special licence that I, the said Frederick
Walton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Frederick Walton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
⚫ IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOOR CLOTHS AND COVERINGS AND
SIMILAR FABRICS, AND IN PAVEMENTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
1, the said Frederick Walton, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Walton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-:
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of floor
cloths and coverings and similar fabrics, and in pavements, and is applicable
when employing in such manufactures a composition consisting of oxidized oil,
india-rubber, or similar plastic and more or less elastic material combined with
ground cork, sawdust, or similar material.
The following I find to be a very suitable composition:-
1 aut oxidized oil

page_text: Any color can be added, venetian red and ochre being mostly used. These
inaterials are mixed in a steam-heated pan, and the cement so formed is in
the first place cast into cakes, and afterwards it is combined with an equal
weight of ground cork in a mixing machine. In case sawdust is used, a
larger quantity to the same bulk of cement may conveniently be used. The
mixing machine may consist of two rollers, one running quicker than the
other, and the cakes of cement are, before being submitted to its action, heated
by being placed on steam plates. Or a machine of the following construction
may be employed:-The softened cakes of cement are put in a circular steam-
heated casing, fitted with a coarse screw, which forces the cement through an
aperture in the bottom of the casing, fitted with a moveable slide, so that the
quantity of cement delivered per minute may be regulated as required.. Below
this cylinder is fixed another steam-heated cylinder containing a central: shaft
having radial arms fitted in such manner as to form a screw, and between such
arms are fixed on the side of the cylinder other arms to mix the materials, and
also to cause the mixed material to travel forward and be delivered at the
bottom of the cylinder. The ground cork and cement are admitted and in the
proportions desired at the same end of the cylinder. The ground cork is fed
in by means of a pair of rollers, which deliver more or less in proportion as
they are set closer or further apart. When employing sawdust in place of
cork I prefer, if light colors are desired, to bleach it before it is used; short
fibre may be similarly employed.
To produce a floor cloth or a fabric with a pattern upon it, I take a com-
position such as above stated, either uncolored, or colored with a suitable
pigment, and spread it on a back of woven fabric. For this purpose I take
the above cork or wood sawdust composition, and break it into small pieces
like peas in a bark mill or similar cutting machine; it is then spread evenly
by a gauge or gauges on a travelling cloth or blanket, which passes through a
steam-heated chamber, and delivers it when softened into the mouth of a pair
of powerful rollers, which are heated by steam admitted to the interior of
them; these rollers press the composition and roll it on a linen or jute fabric,
which lays on the bottom roller. A steel doctor, held on by levers and weights,
keeps the roller clean, and a woollen pad tightly screwed down and supplied
As the
with oil lubricates it, and prevents adhesion of the material rolled.
fabric leaves the rollers the composition which overlaps the edge is cut off.
For this purpose the fabric is caused to pass over a bar with two blades fixed
in it at a distance apart equal to the width of the fabric. The bar is able to
slide endways in guides, so as to accommodate itself to the run of the fabric,
and the blades are inclined at a considerable angle, so that they may cut freely

page_text: and cleanly. I then pass the fabric between rollers, conveniently of gun metal
or cast iron, one of which has the pattern cut upon it, and thus press down
the composition at the parts where it is desired that a color should appear
differing from that of the composition spread on the fabric; or the same end
may be attained, and perhaps more conveniently, by flat pressure, a pattern
plate being employed pressed down on the fabric by hydraulic or other pressure.
I then take a second fabric, and spredd thereon composition colored according
to the second color of the pattern, and with rollers or otherwise, as before,
I press down the composition at the parts where a different color is required
to that of the composition spread on, that is to say, the second embossing
roller is raised exactly in the parts in which the first roller is depressed or cut
away, and vice versa. The projections on the pattern surface should be a
good deal tapered, so that they may draw out of the composition with facility,
and so that the two pressed sheets may go together readily and accurately.
The two coated and embossed fabrics thus produced I place face to face, so
that the raised portions of the one enter the recesses in the other. The fabrics
are made to adhere firmly the one to the other by pressing them together, the
composition still being soft or being rendered soft by passing the fabrics
between steam pipes or chests, arranged so as to form a chamber. The
pressure is best applied by squeezing the fabric between flat plates in a
bydraulic press.
Lastly, by means of a splitting machine, I cut the two backs apart, leaving
a portion of the composition on each. The splitting machine I employ
consists of an endless band of steel sharpened at the edge; it is mounted on
two pullies, say 4 feet in diameter, and padded with wash leather, after the
manner of Perin's saws. The bearings of one of the pulleys are fitted with a
slide and screw for stretching the band. A pair of rollers carry the floor cloth
against the knife by an equable motion, and the floor cloth is thus evenly split.
The band runs at a high speed, say 90 feet per second, and is steadied in brass
guides. A piece of Turkey stone, balanced by weights and levers, bears very
slightly on the edge, and keeps it sharp, and pieces of doctor steel placed
before the sharpener on the edge remove any dirt. A little oil is applied to
the blade by a fixed pad to lubricate it. In this manner a pattern fabric is
obtained which will wear quite down to the back before the pattern is
obliterated. The process is more particularly applicable when the two colors
are distributed pretty equally over the fabric, but when one is greatly in
preponderence a greater or less thickness of material should be allowed. If
it be desired to obtain more than two colors in the pattern, it may be done by
repeating the operation for each additional color required.

page_text: When it is desired to obtain an outline around the masses of the pattern,
I, according to another part of my Invention, spread a fabric with composition
of the ground color, and over this by a second spreading process I put a thin
layer of composition of the outlining color, and then emboss by rollers or
otherwise, as in the former case. The fabric with the second color upon it
is applied, and the two are cut apart as before. It will be found that the act
of embossing carries down the layer of the outlining composition into a vertical
position around the edges of the pattern, so that when separating the two
fabrics it is cut through and appears. The remainder of the outlining
composition is buried and hidden.
In some cases, and according to another part of my Invention, I coat and
emboss a fabric as before, and then fill in the recesses with composition of a
different color in a soft state by a spreading operation, and scraping or doctoring
off the excess of the soft material. This process is applicable more particularly
to fine lines. I prefer to proceed as follows:-A metal plate or block having
fine raised lines on its surface (this process being more especially applicable
to the production of fine line patterns) is pressed into the material by hydraulic
pressure, and after the sunken lines are produced, composition the same as
that already described, dissolved with naptha until of pasty consistence, is
spread into the sunken lines by means of a steel doctor; it is then allowed to
dry, and the surface cleaned off by pumice stone and water; or the surface may
be finished by taking off a thin shaving with a cutting machine such as before
described.
Or, according to another part of my Invention, the second composition may
be simply spread or rolled in and an upper back fabric applied, the two back
fabrics being then cut apart as before. In this case the composition should
contain less naptha than is used in the former case, and a second fabric is
run in between the composition and the rollers; afterwards the cutting operation.
is performed as before.
In order to produce the smaller parts of the design where the larger parts of
the pattern have been already produced, by preference, by one or other of the
methods herein-before described, I, according to another part. of my Invention,
indent into the composition on the fabric the design to be added, and fill in the re-
cesses with small pieces of suitably colored composition cut to the shapes required,
and consolidate the whole by pressure. The indentation is best effected by means
of plates with a raised pattern upon it forced on to the fabric by hydraulic
pressure. To consolidate the fabric I prefer to employ hydraulic pressure and
perfectly flat plates which are steam heated during the operation; rollers would
disarrange the pattern. In some cases I fill in the recesses with powder made by

page_text: grinding composition of a suitable color, and consolidate the fabric by heat and
pressure. The powder is made by grinding the cork or wood sawdust composition
(the latter preferred) in a fine bark mill; the recesses are filled by a gauge
and rollers, one following the other on a flat surface, on which the fabric is laid.
The whole is passed through a steam chamber before being drawn into the
hydraulic press for pressing and.consolidating as before.
Another method which I employ according to my Invention, for producing
similar pattern fabrics, is to take sheets of composition of various colors and
cut or punch out pieces from them in the form of the pattern. The pieces
punched out of a sheet of one color are then introduced into the corresponding
boles in a sheet of another color; or pieces of suitable shape but otherwise
produced may be employed; a back fabric is now cemented on, and the whole
consolidated by pressure; if desired, the back fabric may be omitted. I proceed
as follows: The punching is done by a perforating machine, such as is used
for metal, consisting of punches and dies arranged so as to punch, say, six
feet wide at one stroke, the fabric passing forward (to receive another punching)
around rollers working at intervals. When the holes are all punched, corre-
sponding pieces of another color are put in by hand labor; or a machine may
be employed having two sets of punches; the first set makes the holes in the
sheet of material, whilst this travels on step by step, and the second set of
punches in descending passes through fillets or narrow bands of material
differently colored, and then by continuing to move on they carry the pieces
cut out into the holes made in the sheet by the other set of punches, and there
they leave them. The holes in the sheet being filled, a woven fabric, prepared
as herein-after mentioned, is, if desired, applied on each side or on one side of
the sheet; the whole passes forward into a hydraulic press, where it is pressed,
say, 10 or 12 inches in width at each pressing; it moves forwards at each
operation, being drawn by rollers. The cement I employ is the same material
as the composition (without the cork or sawdust), and thinned with naptha;
this should be put on the cloth previously and allowed to dry before the cloth
is applied. If two back fabrics are applied the compound fabric is split, as
already described.
In order to produce a floor cloth or fabric with a marbled pattern upon it,
I, according to another part of my Invention, reduce composition of several
different colors into fragments of irregular shapes. This is conveniently done
by a process of very coarse grinding, as already described; the fragments.
are then mixed together and spread in an even layer between two cloths, and
consolidated by passing between rollers, or otherwise by pressure, in the manner
already set forth. I prefer to pass the two cloths, having the particles gauged

page_text: to an equal thickness between them, to a hydraulic press with flat plates; if
rollers be used to apply the pressure, the particles fuse into one another to a
greater or less extent; the two back fabrics may then be cut apart, or one or
both of them may be stripped off and the surface cut smooth by the cutting
machine, as desired.
A similar fabric may also, according to another part of my Invention, be
produced by pressing these variously colored pieces into a circular block, and.
then cutting off sheets concentrically; the forming india-rubber into cylindrical
blocks and cutting off sheets concentrically is a process well understood. I
proceed with the floor cloth composition in a similar manner. I would remark
that in every case it is not essential that the back fabric should remain
attached to the composition, it may, if desired, be stripped off when the process
of manufacture is complete, but (except for economy) I prefer to leave the
back fabric attached.
In some cases, in order to obtain a marbled floor cloth or covering or similar
fabric, I, according to another part of my Invention, lay several sheets of com-
position differently colored one over the other and roll them on to a mandril,
and then from the roll so obtained I obtain a sheet by spiral cutting. In
making the roll I employ sheets of composition which are very irregular in their
thickness, or else I use sheets of regular thickness and roll them upon an
irregular mandril, without this a suitable variety of color would not be obtained.
The cut sheet may be cemented on to a back fabric if desired. The following
is the method I prefer:-Sheets of various colors are rolled on an excentric
roller, and when sufficiently large the roll is warmed, placed in a press (a
hydraulic press is preferred), and pressed into a solid roll; the roll is then
advanced by gradual movement against a knife by a machine such as is used for
cutting india-rubber, and an endless sheet of marbled material is produced;
a back fabric is cemented on in rollers with cement as previously described.
In some cases, in order to give to floor cloths and coverings and similar
o fabrics, the face of which is composed of a plastic or semi-plastic composition,
an appearance resembling Brussells carpeting, I, according to another part of
my Invention, indent its surface with shallow grooves at short distances apart
and parallel the one to the other, or there may be two sets of grooves crossing
each other, the pattern is produced by engraved embossing rollers of gun
5 metal, which are used cold afterwards. I print a pattern on to the surface so
prepared as heretofore practised in printing floor cloths. The grooves on the
surfaces will be found to break up the masses of color sufficiently to give the
effect desired..
The several processes which 1 have described may be applied to produce

page_text: slabs of composition suitable for use as pavement, and in making such slabs
the use of back cloths may sometimes be dispensed with, when if the com-
position were thin enough for floor cloth they would be necessary.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Walton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
FRED. WALTON. (L.S.)