WASHABLE WALL PAPERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21906, 15 September 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

WASHABLE WALL PAPERS

AMERICAN FIRM'S CLAIM Manufacturers of wall paper have for many years worked on the idea of developing a wall paper which would have the softness of ordinary wall paper and yet would be sufficiently waterproof as to be washable. Some papers have been rendered waterproof by the addition of various kinds of varnish coatings, but these are too glossy to be desirable. By the use of chemicals and an old process which needed but slight development in order to adapt it to the manufacture of waterproof wall paper, an American iirm claims to have solved this problem satisfactorily. This company produces a paper which does not differ in appearauce from the ordinary paper, but is stated to be completely waterproof—so much so that test samples have been washed as many as 300 times without appreciable damage to the surface or colours. In the manufacture of the new paper a sizing material such as casein, animal glue or albumen is incorporated in the material with which the web of paper or similar material is coated. The web of paper is first coated on one side with clay and a solubilised casein. If a coloured or tinted coating is desired a suitable pigment may be added to the coating material. The coating is then dried, and the desired figures or designs are printed with a composition comprising the solubilised casein, pigments, clay and the like. After the printing has been done, but before it is dried, the formaldehyde solution is sprayed on the surface, and the coating and printing are dried.