Linoleum
a particularly durable variety of floor-cloth made of oxidized linseed oil and ground cork. It was invented in England in 1860, and was brought out under the name of kamptulicon. When, later, an improved variety was produced, it was given the name of linoleum, a word made up from linum, flax, and oleum, oil. Floor oil-cloths are frequently called linoleums, but are manufactured by a different process and are far inferior. The foundation of linoleum is a strong jute canvas, varying in width from three to twenty-four feet. The cork used in its manufacture is for the most part the waste from the manufacture of bottle corks. It is crushed with great difficulty, owing to its elasticity and the rapidity with which it blunts the hardest steel knife edge. A specially constructed machine, however, reduces the cork to small pieces, which are afterward ground to powder. Boiled linseed oil is pumped to the top of a high building and allowed to flow downward over pieces of light cotton scrim which are hung from iron bars. The building is heated to aid in the oxidization and the layer of oil on the scrim becomes gummy and solid within twenty-four hours. This operation is repeated daily for several weeks until the mass of oxidized oil is about one-half an inch thick. These "skins," as they are called, are cut down from the sheets of scrim and ground between rollers. This ground oil is then mixed with resin, kauri gum, and the ground cork. Coloring matter is added, if desired. While hot, this mixture is placed in a feeding box and delivered in a fine shower directly on the surface of the canvas. It then passes immediately between powerful, smooth rollers that press the mixture into the jute and cause it to adhere firmly. A waterproof coating of oil and paint completes the process.
Linoleums of this sort are of one color. Others are printed in colors with oil paint. The printing, however, wears off quickly. In recent years a method has been perfected by which linoleums are made in patterns, the colors extending throughout the entire thickness. This is called inlaid linoleum, and costs from twenty to fifty cents more per yard to manufacture than does the plain. Over 2,000,000 yards of inlaid linoleum were manufactured in the United States in 1905. Linoleum deadens noise, is easily cleaned, and wears well. It is used extensively for kitchen floors and in the aisles of libraries and buildings of similar character.