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WHEN carpets, from being
regarded as luxuries fit only for the upper ranks of society, came into
general use, a great advance took place in the popular idea of what was
necessary in house furnishing, and many articles and contrivances for
enhancing the comfort and convenience of households were devised. One thing
that came to be desiderated was a covering for lobbies and stairs, which,
while it would possess to some extent the richness of effect imparted by
carpeting, would be better able to withstand the tread of mud-stained feet
and general wear and tear. In the houses of the upper classes polished oak
was used with good effect, but was too costly to be adopted in humbler
dwellings. Then, paving stones looked poor and cold, and would not admit of
wall decorations; plain deal was little better, and even painted deal failed
to satisfy the eye. Painted canvas was tried with better success, and in
course of time was generally adopted. At first the canvas was of uniform
colour throughout, then a centre of one hue and a border of another became
fashionable. From that to chequered and other designs was an easy step; and
so floorcloth came to be an article of manufacture. It is little more than
half a century since it was introduced; and it is less than twenty years
since it began to be produced by other than the most primitive means.
Up till three years ago there
was only one floorcloth manufactory in Scotland, but that establishment was
and still is the largest of the kind in the world; and the proprietors of it
have done more to perfect and extend. the manufacture than all the other
British firms put together. In 1847 the late Mr Michael Nairn built at the
east end of Kirkcaldy an extensive establishment, in which he began to make
floorcloth according to the most improved methods then practised. He
obtained skilled workmen from England, and soon won a reputation for the
excellent quality of the goods he turned out. Thus encouraged in his
enterprise, Mr Nairn devoted himself to the development of the manufacture,
which he looked upon as being then in little more. than its infancy. He made
many experiments in material and in design, and so successfully that he shot
far ahead of all competitors; and the present firm of Michael Nairn & Co.
are maintaining the position thus attained. About three years ago Mr James
Shepherd, who was taken into copartnery after the death of the late Mr Nairn,
withdrew from the concern, and, in company with Mr M. Beveridge, started
business on a considerable scale in the neighbourhood of the parent
establishment; so that there are now two floorcloth factories in Scotland.
Messrs Nairn & Co.'s
manufactory occupies an extensive range of buildings in the vicinity of the
ruins of Ravenscraig Castle, at the east end of the "Lang Toon." The
original portion of the factory is 160 feet in length, eighty-seven feet in
width, and fifty-two feet in height. It stands on the top of a cliff, and
occupies all the available ground on that level; so that, when extension
became necessary, it could be accomplished only by building on the beach,
some fifty feet below. On the latter site a painting house and drying store
were erected several years ago. This second block is 129 feet in length,
eighty-four feet in width, and eighty-six feet in height; and the space
between it and the face of the cliff—sixty feet —is partly occupied by paint
mills and a boiler-house, and partly by a covered platform thirty feet in
width. The upper and lower buildings are connected by bridges at various
heights. The first thing that strikes a visitor to the factory is the almost
entire absence of machinery and noise. The cloth is woven, painted, and
printed by hand; and the energies of the two steam-engines in the place are
almost limited to grinding paint and supplying the stoves with heated air,
giving off a little power occasionally to work elevators and move the
lathes, &c., in the mechanics' workshop.
The cloth used as a
foundation for the paint is made from flax tow yarn of a coarse quality, a
rough and fibrous surface being best adapted for taking on and retaining the
paint. The cloth is made in immense webs, measuring 150 yards in length and
eight yards in breadth, and the looms required to weave it are consequently
of gigantic size. Two men are required to work each loom, and the weaving of
a web of the dimensions stated occupies them for about fourteen days. When
the weaving is completed, the web is cut up into six "cloths," each
twenty-five yards in length. The "cloths" are taken to the frame-room and
stretched firmly on vertical frameworks of wood. In that position the cloth
is sized and painted. The "back," or what is to be the lower side of the
fabric, is first operated upon, and after the two coats of size and paint
which are bestowed on it have been thoroughly dried by the injection of hot
air into the apartment, the cloth is turned and the "face" is subjected to a
succession of sizings and paintings.
The paint is prepared in a
special department, furnished with a variety of mills for grinding and
mixing the colours, tanks for holding oils and prepared paints, and a boiler
for boiling oil. The paint is made of the consistency of treacle, and is
passed to the various departments either through tubes or by means of
buckets. The pigments used are chiefly ochres and leads. About twenty tons
of paint are used every week, each "cloth" requiring about half a ton. The
mode in which the paint and size are applied is this:—The size is a thin
liquid, somewhat resembling soap-suds in appearance, and is put on with a
broad flat brush. After all the pieces have been coated, the windows of the
chamber are closed, and the hot-air valve is opened. Currents of heated air
are made to sweep along the surface of the cloth for a certain time. The
place is then allowed to cool, and the workmen, who stand on a series of
platforms in front of the stretching frames, shear the surface of the cloth
with large knives, which remove all the fibres that have not been "laid" by
the size. The paint is then put on. Its consistency does not admit of a
brush being used, and accordingly trowels are employed. The workmen rub the
paint well in, and then smooth it off with the trowels. This is an operation
requiring great care, because any unequal distribution of the paint would be
sure to show in the finished goods. Hot air is again admitted, and after the
paint is dry the workmen rub the surface with slabs of pumice stone, which
remove or reduce any roughness. Another coat of size is then laid on, and so
the work proceeds until the required "body" is obtained. The process of
manufacture is much retarded by the time required to dry the successive
layers of size and paint. After the cloth leaves the loom it cannot be got
ready for the market in less than two or three months, and the longer it is
allowed to "season" after that time the more durable will it be. An engine
of fifty horse power is kept going constantly forcing air through a series
of heated tubes into the frame-rooms.
The new block of buildings is
devoted to sizing, painting, and drying; and when these operations are
completed, the cloth is taken off the frames, rolled up, and hoisted to the
printing-room, on the upper floor of the old building. Like other processes
in the manufacture of floorcloth, the mode of printing has been much
improved in recent years, and much of the credit pertaining to the degree of
excellence that has been attained in that department is due to Mr Nairn. The
earliest figuring on floorcloth was executed by a common brush, in the hands
of a house-painter. As the demand for the material increased, a more
expeditious mode of producing variegated patterns was sought, and an attempt
was made to supply the want by a modification of the ancient stencilling
process. The forms of leaves and other objects were cut out of sheets of
pasteboard, the sheets were then laid on the cloth, and the paint applied
through the excised parts. Mr Nathan Smith, of London, tried to impress the
designs from engraved blocks; and the experiment was so successful that it
is still retained, though in a much improved form. The early designs were
very faulty, both in conception and in execution; and before the Exhibition
of 1851 little progress had been made in the direction of improvement. The
criticism which the display of floorcloth at the first World's Show called
forth, had a wholesome effect on the trade. Then the design was worked out
in dots of colour, arranged on a neutral ground, and it was rarely that more
than two-thirds of the surface were covered by the colours of the pattern.
The surface consequently was uneven, and the raised figuring was soon worn
off. Mr Nairn was the first to remedy this defect, and how he did so is
explained in the following extract from the "Art Journal's" notice of the
floorcloths shown at the Exhibition of 1862 :—" Since 1851 a most important
fundamental change has been introduced and matured by the enterprising and
able Scottish firm of Michael Nairn & Co., of Kirkcaldy; and now floorcloth,
having got over the long-established condition of dot-printing, has
demonstrated that it may be produced with all the richness, the minuteness,
and the finish of velvet-pile carpet. The Messrs Nairn have devised and
adopted a system of printing which enables them to introduce any number of
colours, and any variety and combination of tints, and also to impart to
their designs a clearness of definition, with a depth of tone, absolutely
impossible of attainment by dot-printing. The new floorcloth presents a
solid surface of colours, in actual contact, which entirely covers, and
therefore completely conceals, the ground painting—thus at one and the same
time affording facilities for the production of a much higher class of
designs, and affording a greatly superior and much more durable surface to
the wearer. And the inventors of this real improvement in an important and
most useful manufacture, have not been slow to carry out, in the matter of
design, the advantages which they themselves had introduced by their novel
producing processes. Being enabled to produce far better designs than
heretofore had been associated with floorcloth, they have executed examples
of several varieties of their designs, and placed them in the Exhibition
Some few specimens of floorcloths having tile patterns appeared in the
Exhibition, in the execution of which there are some laudable attempts to
emulate the example set by the Messrs Nairn; but the Scottish firm is
without any real rival whatever; and more than this, to them belongs the
merit of having first projected every important improvement which has been
introduced into their manufacture. We must not omit to add that, in the
treatment of imitative marbles and woods, and in chintz patterns, the
Scottish floorcloth maintains the same supremacy as distinguishes their
original designs of a higher order. Altogether, this is one of the most
gratifying instances of superior excellence in a manufacture that the
Exhibition adduced, in favourable contrast with its predecessor of 1851; and
it is with sincere pleasure that we are able, in such decided terms, to
record our admiration for a staple article of British industry." Visitors to
the Scottish Floorcloth Manufactory will readily confirm the complimentary
language in which the productions of the establishment are spoken of by the
"Art Journal."
The process by which the
designs are conveyed to the cloth may now be described. As in preparing
designs for the Jacquard loom and Berlin worsted-work, the figures in most
cases are drawn and coloured in dots. The number of colours employed in one
pattern ranges from four to fourteen, and each colour requires a separate
block. In preparing the blocks great care has to be taken in order to make
the successive impressions fall into their respective places. The outline
blocks have the figures formed on their surface either in copper or
type-metal, and sometimes in a combination of both. The "filling" blocks are
faced with boxwood, and before being "cut," the printing surface is sawn
into minute squares—eighty-one to the square inch—the saw penetrating to a
depth of nearly a quarter of an inch. These squares correspond to the
squares in the design, and the block is prepared by all the squares being
chipped out, except those that are required for the colour to which the
block is to be devoted. The division into squares has another and more
important purpose. If a close surface were used, the block would not take up
nor lay down the paint properly, and one result would be the squeezing out
of the colour, and the formation of a ridge round the edges of the figures.
It would appear, then, that "dot printing" has not been abolished after all,
persons who have read thus far will be ready to say. As a part of the
printing process it still prevails, but a subsequent operation changes, or
rather obliterates, its effect.
There are two floors in the
printing department of the factory, and the upper is separated from the
lower by a space of fifty, feet. The printing-room is on the upper floor,
and the object of the great space beneath it is to admit of the cloth being
suspended as it is printed. Two men and two boys are employed at each
printing-table. Having prepared the cloth, the men apply the blocks in
succession. The blocks are about eighteen inches square, and one is required
for each colour in the design. For each colour there is a skin-covered
moveable table, on the surface of which the " tear-boy" spreads the paint in
an even layer, and on that the printer presses his block after each
impression. The cloth is operated upon in sections equal to the width of the
blocks, and extending across the cloth. It is interesting to watch the
effect of the successive applications of the colours, and wonderful to
observe the want of harmony that generally prevails until the last colour
has been filled in. After all the printing-blocks have been applied, the
surface of the work has a dotted appearance, but that is dispelled by the
application of the " finishing block," which bears no design, but has its
surface divided into fine parallel lines. Under the pressure of these lines
the colours are blended and more equally distributed, while the fine ribbed
marking that remains makes the cloth look soft and rich. The mode of taking
an impression off the blocks is much superior to the old plan of striking
them with a hammer, as is still the fashion in calico-printing. Over each
printing table is a stout beam, to the under side of which a pair of
travelling screws are attached. When the printer lays his block on the
cloth, he brings one of the screws over it, and by pulling a lever takes off
the impression. In proceeding from side to side of the cloth he slides the
screw along with him. As each section. of the cloth is finished, it is
passed over the side of the table and allowed to descend through an opening
in the floor. Both ends of each "cloth" are secured to a beam, the bight
only being allowed to go down; and when the piece is finished, it hangs in a
long loop with the printed side outward. Thus suspended, the cloth may be
moved from one part of the building to another on a peculiar kind of railway
constructed on the ceiling of the lower room. When a certain number of
cloths have been got ready, they are run into another compartment of the
building, and there dried by means of hot air, a process which occupies
several weeks. All that then remains to be done is to cut the margins off
the cloth and make it up into rolls. The variety of cloth made as above
described is of one pattern throughout; but other kinds are made with
borders, such as the narrow cloth used for stairs, several widths of which
are printed on one web of canvas.
Messrs Nairn rank among their
customers all the reigning families of Europe, and have received the highest
honours at the great Exhibitions in London and Paris. The piece of
floorcloth shown at Paris was the most magnificent work of the kind ever
produced. It was designed by Mr Owen Jones, and illustrated in an
extraordinary degree the capabilities of the art. Only four colours were
employed, but there was great variety in the figuring—so much, indeed, that
upwards of 100 blocks were required.
The number of persons
employed is nearly 200, all men and boys. The printers serve an
apprenticeship of five years. They begin as "tear-boys," when they receive
from 3s. 6d. to 5s. a-week, and from that are promoted to be assistant
printers, with from 8s. to 14s. a-week. As journeymen in charge of a table,
they receive from 21s. to 23s. a-week. The "trowellers," or those who put on
the ground paint, have pretty heavy work; but as it requires less skill,
they receive only from 18s. to 20s. a-week. The quantity of cloth turned out
weekly is 40 pieces, measuring 25 by 8 yards. Each piece weighs from 11 to
12 cwt., the paint being equal to five-sixths of that weight. |
