p. 10 | HOW LINOLEUM IS MADE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 17, 1898

HOW LINOLEUM IS MADE.

At first sight cork and linseed oil seem most unlikely materials for making carpets, yet no less than twelve million yards of linoleum, consisting almost entirely of these substances, are produced every year in Great Britain. Linseed oil is specially prepared and mixed with resin found in kauri gum, a curious fossil resin found in New Zealand. Cork is pulverized by a machine known as a cork-breaker, which consists of a number of very strong circular saws, rotating close to steel bars the ends of which are toothed in an opposite direction to the saws. The ground cork leaves the breaker in fine powder and is very dangerous to handle. The material is so light that it easily becomes suspended in the air, producing a highly explosive mixture.

It would be safer to take a naked light into a powder magazine than into the building where the cork is ground. All lights are carefully guarded. But in spite of every precaution, explosions are sometimes started by sparks from the machinery. The powdered cork is then mixed with the oil and resin cement. After a preliminary rough mixing, the compound is passed into a gigantic sausage machine, where the materials are incorporated thoroughly. The raw linoleum as it issues from the spout bears a close resemblance to German sausages. The lumps of linoleum are passed through rollers, which convert the material into sheets. These are scraped off the rollers, and the substance is then rolled into a backing of jute canvas or wire gauze, thus making plain linoleum.—Selected.