Frederick Walton Mosaic Inlaid Linoleum Co
Frederick Walton's Mosaic Inlaid Linoleum Co Ltd
See Frederick Walton
1895 'REVOLUTION IN LINOLEUM MANUFACTURE. AN INGENIOUS PROCESS. By the courtesy of Mr Frederick Walton, the original inventor of linoleum and of the lincrusta wall decorations, the representatives of the press were privileged yesterday afternoon to view his newly-perfected machinery, which is a triumph of mechanism, in connection with a new and interesting process. The Frederick Walton Mosaic Linoleum Company have secured the extensive works of Sir Henry Bessemer & Co., situated at East Greenwich, on the Thames, where the machinery has been erected. From beginning to end this machinery is automatic, and entirely supersedes hand work. It is on the one hand ponderous and massive, while, at the same time, delicate and endowed with remarkable precision. A pattern formed of four colours requires a mixing masticating machine for each of such colours. The materials are kneaded into a homogeneous mass of colour, similar somewhat to bread dough, but hot and adhesive. These machines empty themselves to rollers below, and cylinder is covered with pins, called scratchcrs, which tear the material into shreds and deliver it on to travelling bands, these in their turn transporting it into lofty building adjoining, whilst elevators lift it to the top floor and deposit it into large iron cylinders, which are constantly revolving and keeping it in motion. From these cylinders it is measured out into the mouth rollers calenders heated by steam. These convert it into a continuous sheet of coloured linoleum, which passes down over supporting rollers into the inlaying machine below. This consists of an immense cylinder some seven feet in diameter, around which are grouped the cutting rollers, which receive the coloured sheets and cut them up with the tesserae composing the pattern to be made. These tesserre, which are not required to form the pattern, are extruded by m.'ans of cams contained within the cylinder itself, and these waste pieces are carried once outside the inlaying machine by travelling bands and deposited into machines which remix the material, and it is then raised into the sheeting machine above, and comes down again to the iuiaying machine as a new sheet of coloured linoleum. At the same time the tesserae that go to form the pattern are pressed out of the knives in the cutting rollers and deposited on to the large cylinder before referred to, each set of cutting rollers placing its coloured pieces in order to form the desired pattern, and fitting them together in the same way as a child will compose a puzzle map. At this stage the fabric has much the same appearance as it will have when laid on the floor. The tesserae, however, require uniting and cementing together into one perfect sheet. This is effected by their being passed forward through a series of cylinders which heat weld the pieces together in such a way not to distort or disarrange the accurately-combined pattern to be treated, a problem of great difficulty and delicate adjustment, which has called for much thought and patient observation. As the sheet of inlaid linoleum issues from the pressing cylinder it is practically complete for the market, with the exception of having the edges cut or trimmed.'[1]
1897 The company was in liquidation[2]