Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/457

 May 31, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. > 435 which God had endowed us, and have been in the same position asour Indian brethren. Itwasonly lately that we had begun to feel that a worship of the Author of All might be a true one, even in a painted and well- decorated church or chapel, and that not every form of beauty elevating our minds, or every strain of music touching our hearts, was an unpardonable and idolatrous sin. (Loud cheers). Dr. Zerffi then referred to. the services Mr. William Tayler had rendered in the critical times preceding the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny, and traced them to that keen power of observation and deep psychological study by which Mr. Tayler had made himself acquainted with the people he had had to govern. The lecture was a real reflex of the gigantic impressions the Indian nature must produce, even on the mind of a well organised and disciplined European. What a range of subjects the lecturer had passed on review! Reli- gious conceptions, wonderful trees, peculiar horses, snake-charmers, zoology, botany, mineralogy, had been touched upon, and at last even mesmerism. Upon this latter subject he (Dr. Zerffi) had had the misfortune to write a book, in which he had tried to interest the public to study certain phenomena from a higher point of view, as so many a marvel of yes- terday had become an intelligible scientific problem to be solved, even with arithmetical precision. Irom all we heard the time appeared not far when we should carry to the Indians the unalloyed blessings of pure art and science, and thus alone gain them over to our higher Christian civilisation. (Cheers.) Sir Rutuerrorp Atcock said that he was quite unprepared to speak, and only did so because he had been called upon by the chairman. As regarded the productions of Japanese art they cer- tainly were very fine, and he thought that Japan was the England of the Eastern world, being, in fact, in about the same latitude; he had no doubt that still greater changes for the better would take place in that country, provided that our American cousins did not put a finger in the pie and cause the progress to become too fast. After some observations from Mr. Lewis, the Chairman tendered the thanks of the meeting to Mr. William Tayler, who briefly replied. A vote of thanks to Mr. Eastwick, M.P., for his kindness in having presided, terminated the proceedings. The walls of the larger, room of the Society—which was crowded—were covered with water-colour sketches, powerful in their naturalness. Rajahs on horse- back, Brahmans, soldiers, working men, temples of the Brahmans, as well as the Buddhists, carts, mountain ranges, trees, all sketched with photo- graphic fidelity. Mr. William Tayler is also one of the largest exhibitors of Indian and Mahometan curiosities at the South Kensington Museum. ees PAINTED METALLIC HANGINGS FOR MURAL DECORATION. PAPER was read before the Society of Arts on Wednesday week, by Mr. George Clark, bearing the above title. In justice to our intelligent neighbours across the ‘Channel, said Mr. Clark, I wish to mention that this new art is a French invention. The first conception of the principle was the idea of a journeyman painter, who saw damp walls, intended to be painted, covered with tin-foil, but he was unable to realise and give a practical form to his erude idea. A gentleman of mechanical genius, who aided the painter, imagined and produced the tools, and invented the modus operandi, without which the work and production could not be economically done. Aneminent Parisian decorative painter associated himself with the under- taking, and brought his experience to bear on its practical application. Their combined industry, in- telligence, and perseverance brought to its present state of perfection the invention, of which a descrip- tion follows :— Tin-foil in sheets, the thickness of ordinary writing-paper, is the material on which this new style of mural decoration, including gilding, is executed. Tin-foil is pliable and supple, sufliciently tough not to be easily torn, and offers a smooth and uniform surface. It forms an excellent base for the work executed upon it. It also possesses the advantage of being waterproof, a property well known to architects and builders, who frequently use it to cover damp walls, on which, without that covering, any decorative work would soon perish. The process of executing the painting on tin offers no difficulty. The sheets are manufactured of a width and in lengths suitable to their applica- tion on the surfaces to be covered. At the manu- factory in Paris the ordinary widths made use of are from thirty to forty inches, and the length five metres, or rather more than five yards, The following are the processes, as I saw them carried out in Paris at the works of Messrs. Daniel & Co., Rue de Rocroy:— A portable frame, corresponding in length and width to the dimensions of the painting intended to be produced, is placed on a solid table, made as true and level as a billiard-table. For the perfection of the work, the face of this frame is required to be perfectly level, hard, and smooth. A sheet of glass presenting these advantages in an eminent degree was at first made use of, but as this material is fragile and not safely removeable, stiff cardboard of the finest texture has been substituted for glass; and, after successive improvements, by using double cardboards of considerable thickness, with stretchers and braces between the two boards, an appropriate frame has been produced well adapted for the requirements of the manufacture, presenting a level, hard, and smooth surface, and conveniently portable. The sheet of tin-foil is care- fully laid on and extended over the frame from end to end, and is smoothed down to the surface of the frame with a suitable tool, being secured at both ends to stretch and keep it from shifting. The coating of ground colour, whatever it may be, is laid on the tin sheet with a brush in the ordinary way of painting, so as to cover the metal with a good coat of paint. This process being com- pleted, the frame is removed into a drying-room, where a regular temperature of 80° to 90° Fahr, is maintained by a system of heating, which sends a current of hot air through the room, and speedily dries the coat of paint. Tor the next process, when the paint is quite dry, the frame is taken out of the drying-room and placed on the table before described. The execution of what may be termed the decorative coat of paint is produced by mechanical means, which may be familiarly described as stencilling and printing, by means of sheets of thin copper for the former, and rollers for the latter, much after the manner of staining paper-hangings. ‘The exact nature and the mode of producing these two kinds of tools, which are the most importantinstruments for the artistie perfection of this new decorative work, I will presently describe ; but to give anidea of the celerity and precision with which the process is effected, it may be mentioned that the stencil plate, of the same width as the sheet of tin, is placed over the ground coat, and the painter produces the pattern by painting with the brush over the stencil plate. Or if the roller be used, it is charged with colour, and being passed over the ground coat, produces in like manner the required pattern. Both these tools are sometimes alternately used to produce certain patterns or effects, but, as a rule, the imitations of wood are stencilled, and those of marbles printed. No grainer, however skilful, could attain the same perfection, or do the work in a tythe of the time. The best graining is not an imitation of nature ; it is conventional repre- sentation of wood or marble, but could hardly be taken for nature itself. Whereas the imitations, of which specimens are before you, are so exact that skilful judges might take them for reality. The frame is now again conveyed to the drying- room, and when sufficiently dry is brought back to the table, and the paint is covered with a coat of varnish; this again being dried as before, the painted sheet of tinis ready for use. If more highly- finished work is required, as in the case of imitations of the finest woods and marbles, a second coat of varnish is laid on, and this again, after being dried, is brought to the highest state of finish by being polished on the frame. The painted sheets, of any degree of finish, are removed from the frame, and after being dusted with soap-powder, are roiled on cylinders, being now in a merchantable form, ready for sale and application with the same facility as paper-hangings. But it is well here to observe that the difference between painted metallic hangings and paper-hangings is, that on the former the decoration is oil-painting, and when applied to any surface is more durable than painting on such surface by the ordinary method, whilst the base or lining being metal, the painted decoration is effec- tually protected from damp. These advantages make it superior, not only to ordinary painting, but, in a much higher degree, to paper-hangings, which are stained with water-colours of much shorter duration, and subject to the effects of damp both in the walls and externally. The application of the painted metallic hangings to either wood, stone, plaster or iron surfaces, offers no difficulty. The operation is somewhat similar to putting up paper-hangings, with this difference, that with the latter the paper is pasted over at the back before being hung, and with the former the surface to be decorated is covered with a thin coat of adhesive varnish, on which, after it has been left to dry partially, the painted tin is affixed with great ease. So little is the difficulty that any skilled paper-hanger can, after a few hours’ practice do the work successfully. From the extreme flexi- bility of tin-foil, mouldings and cornices are covered with the metallic hangings in the most perfect manner, and with a smoothness of surface and sharp- ness of outline at the edges and mitres which the painter’s brush cannot rival. These last effects are obtained by covering undu- lating surfaces with the painted material, of dimen- sions slightly larger, say din. to tin. in length and width, than the superficial measure, By this contri- vance when the painted tin-foilis affixed on any sur- face with the varnish, the excess of length or width is cut away along a straight edge with a sharp knife, which leaves the edge of the work clean, and invisible where two edges meet. It is thus that the close joints are obtained in mouldings and mitres as in the specimens exhibited. The varnish used for fixing the material is of the nature of gold-size, but more adhesive. Being of itself “hydrofuge” it adds to the protection of the paint against damp. The manufacture of the tools before-mentioned (the stencil-place and printing-roller) deserves notice as an ingenious mechanical contrivance. The first operation in their production is to make a drawing of the grain or pattern of the wood or marble. For that purpose a selected slab is placed before an artist, who traces an exact copy of the pattern on prepared paper, from which the drawing is transferred, when a stencil is required, on to a tin sheet of copper covered on both sides with a coat of wax. Then, with a graying tool, as in etching, the wax is removed from the lines, and spots, and figures of the pattern, whereby, in those places, the copper on that side is laid bare. The sheet of copper is after- wards plunged into an acid bath, in which the de- sign of the patternis bitten through, thus producing a perfect stencil of the imitative copy of the original slab. The tool is now ready for use. When a roller has to be made, the drawing is transferred to a stout piece of buff leather, of equal thickness throughout, and the material between the lines and marks of the pattern is cut away, as in wood- engraving, the pattern remaining in relief. The leather so prepared being fastened to a large wooden cylinder, this tool is also ready for use. Being charged with colour, it reproduces the pattern of the wood or marble on the tin-foil, in the manner before- mentioned. The process is successfully applied to gilding. Gold leaf is laid and fixed on a sheet of tin, in the workshop, in the usual way, without any waste of the precious metal, whilst in ordinary gilding the loss is usually estimated at 25 per cent. The gilded foil, which may be produced burnished or matt, being cut in strips to the required dimensions, is readily applied to frames, mouldings, poles, or rods, pre=- viously coated with adhesive varnish. The foil being remarkably flexible, easily follows the sinuosities of the work, and the gilding thus produced is equal to the best gilding by the ordinary method on wood or plaster, and superior oniron or zine, not being liable to oxidation, which, in time, eats away the gold laid on those metals. About a year before the late war, the first appli- cation of painted tin hangings was successfully made in several houses in Paris. Soon after order was restored in that city, this new style of decoration was adopted by several French architects, and espe- cially by M. Blondel, one of the most eminent, who now introduces it in preference to decorative paint- ing with the brush for the works he undertakes, a handsome saloon in his own house being so decorated, > LONDON SCHOOL BOARD COMPETITION. T]NO-DAY and to-morrow two more sets of designs for schools for the London School Board are on view in the rooms of the Sunday School Union in the Old Bailey. The competition for the Essex-street, Stepney, schools is limited; that for the site in Beazley-crescent, Old Ford, is an open one. We applied to the Clerk of the Board for the names of the architects invited to the limited competition, and for other information, and were informed that the 3oard had ordered that no information should be given to the press. Other public bodies, such as the Metropolitan Board of Works, the City Sewers Commission, &e., send us their printed reports and intimations when important business is to be brought before them. Any information we have been able to give about the doings of the School Board has had to be sought, and now our applications are met by a refusal. We are not at all surprised that the members of School Board are somewhat shy of publicity. The majority of them are probably con- sciously ignorant of the duties of their office, and hence the late frequent resignations. We wait patiently for their more courteous and business-like successors.