IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANufacture of WALL PAPERS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Flint Ramsay at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 7th April 1883.
FLINT RAMSAY of 6 Upper Bedford Place Russell Square in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANufacture of WALL PAPERS
"
The object of this Invention is more especially to improve the production of
imitations of marbles upon paper suitable for covering walls but imitation of wood
and other surfaces may be produced by the same process.
At the present time colored wall papers in imitation of marble are manufactured
by applying color to the surface of the paper and thereby forming the design
required.
By this invention the required patterns are produced upon the paper surface by
removing color from the paper surface after that a color or colors have been placed
upon it at hazard in irregular patches or markings.
For producing imitation of marble upon wall papers I proceed as follows :-
I first take by the ordinary means a tracing of the veins and pebbles in the
surface of the marble I intend to copy. I transfer the tracing on to a thin sheet of
metal or parchment or cloth covered with caoutchouc or other suitable material and
afterwards cut out therefroin by means of a knife or pointed instrument the
tracing of the veins and pebbles.
The perforated slicet so obtained I employ in the following manner.
I first give the paper a coating of "albumine" or "caseine"-this is tinted with
the color of the marble I intend reproducing. I then dry the coating by heat
preferably in the way hereinafter explained.
On the paper so prepared I distribute by means of brushes and sponges and at
hazard the colours of the marble I intend copying, the colours employed are water
colours and prepared with a small quantity of gum and can therefore be washed off
by means of cold water.
After these preparations I take the perforated sheets and apply them to the
paper and by means of a damp sponge I wipe off the colours appearing through the
cut out tracings. When this sheet is taken off there appears reproduced on the
paper a correct copy of the marble with all its numberless details this reproduction
being composed of.

page_text: 1° The back ground tinted with the first coating of albumine for the coloring of
the veins and pebbles traced by the perforated sheet.
2° The colors protected from the sponge by the parts of the sheet which have
not been perforated.
As the perforated sheets can be placed in an infinite variety of positions on the
paper there are thus formed as great a variety of designs as those produced in.
natural marbles,
When the perforated sheets have been taken off from the paper the colored
surface of the paper may be lightly touched in places with a moist sponge to
produce a greater number of markings upon it. Long veins or markings may also
be produced upon it by drawing across it a moist rubber.
The paper being thus prepared the colors are then fixed by applying over them
a second coating of albumine and subsequently if the paper is desired to be brilliant
and polished the paper can be varnished either before or after it has been set up in
place.
In order to dry paper decorated by the above or by the ordinary processes I
cause it to travel slowly over a flat steam-heated table. The table forms the top of
a chamber to which steam is supplied.
The chamber is divided by a vertical longitudinal division into two compart-
ments. The division does not extend the whole length of the chamber but an
opening is left at one end for steam to pass from one compartment to the other.
Steam introduced into the closed end of one compartment by a pipe traverses the
whole length of the compartment and passes into the second compartment through
which it travels back in the opposite direction and finally passes out by a second
pipe after having circulated through and heated the two compartments.
The pipe for letting out the steam passes out from the lower part of the casing
in order to carry off all water that may be formed by condensation of the steam.
To avoid loss of heat a cover may be placed over the heated table and the paper to
be dried be caused to pass between the table and its cover
By drying the paper in this manner as soon as it has been decorated it may at
once be rolled up and no delay in the manufacture will arise and the more
expensive heated drying rooms which are now in daily use may be dispensed with:
such heated drying rooms are very incommodius and papers often get soiled torn or
creased when placed in them.