Kamptulicon was a substance used for flooring. It was invented in 1843 by Elijah Galloway and was comprised of rubber and cork combined by a masticating machine. Research Kamptulicon
Prior to the use of carpets in Britain, a floor-cloth was a covering for the floors of halls, passages, lobbies, and other places where there was a great deal of traffic. The original floor-cloth was a heavy canvas coated with painters' colours and decorated by hand, the hand-painting being subsequently replaced by stencil-work, which in its turn gave way to the use of hand-blocks which had become universal by the Victorian period.
During the Victorian period, Kirkcaldy, in Fifeshire, Scotland, was the chief seat of the floor-cloth manufacture. The canvas, which forms its basis, was woven in webs from six to eight yards wide and 150 yards long, each web being subsequently divided into six for further operations. The material of the best kinds was stout tow yarn, but for the cheaper qualities jutecanvas was employed. The pieces were stretched in frames, and the under surface received a coating of thin size, upon which a layer of paint was laid with trowels, the chief ingredients being oil, turpentine, ochre, and umber; this was allowed to dry and then smoothed with pumice-stone, after which it was finished off with another thinner coat, in which boiled oil without turpentine was employed, the result being to produce a glossy surface and finish. The face then received a layer of size and three 'trowelling ' coats, with intermediate applications of pumice-stone, after which it was ready for printing, an expensive process, often as many as eight different colours being employed.
Oil floor-cloth having a cold and hard surface, and being almost as noisy to the tread as wooden flooring, several other substances were introduced to take its place which, while free from these defects, retained its advantages of durability, cleanliness, and freedom from damp. Of these, kamptulicon, invented about 1843, was composed essentially of india-rubber mixed with ground cork, the amalgamation being effected by repeated passing between grooved rollers. When thoroughly incorporated, the preparation was rolled by heavy steam-heated rollers into sheets, sometimes over a canvas backing. Simple patterns were printed on the surface, which was, however, left as plain as possible.
Gutta-percha, sawdust, ground leather, asphalt, and chalk have also been used for the inferior kinds of kamptulicon, the higher grades of which, composed mainly of india-rubber and ground cork, were rather expensive. By 1906 Kamptulicon had been almost entirely superseded by the cheaper linoleum, a substance then consisting chiefly of oxidized linseed-oil, resin, and ground cork, treated in much the same manner as kamptulicon. Corkcarpet was a floorcloth introduced during the later Victorian period, differing from linoleum in containing larger particles of cork. Research Floor-Cloth
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Abbreviations
Research Kamptulicon
