An old engraving showing a wallpaper printing press of the 1800s. It is from a book of the 1890s on Victorian discoveries and inventions during the 1800s. The continuous feeding of the roll of paper allowed for many colours to be printed on this big machine – here it appears that 10 separate rollers pick up various coloured inks from shallow troughs. The finished design on the paper is visible at the top. An operator monitors proceedings. Wallpaper enjoyed a huge boom in popularity in the nineteenth century. It became almost the norm in most areas of middle-class homes.
An old engraving showing a wallpaper printing press of the 1800s. It is from a book of the 1890s on Victorian discoveries and inventions during the 1800s. The continuous feeding of the roll of paper allowed for many colours to be printed on this big machine – here it appears that 10 separate rollers pick up various coloured inks from shallow troughs. The finished design on the paper is visible at the top. An operator monitors proceedings. In 1785 Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf invented the first machine for printing colours on sheets of wallpaper. In 1799 Louis-Nicolas Robert patented a machine to produce continuous lengths of paper, the forerunner of the Fourdrinier machine. The development of steam-powered printing presses in Britain in 1813 allowed manufacturers to mass-produce wallpaper, reducing its price and so making it affordable. Wallpaper enjoyed a huge boom in popularity in the nineteenth century. It became almost the norm in most areas of middle-class homes. Many 19th century designs by Morris & Co and other Arts and Crafts designers remain in production to this day.
Size: 3155px × 3543px
Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1800s, 19th, black, century, color, colour, continuous, cylinder, decorating, decoration, design, drum, early, engineering, engraving, feed, hanging, historical, history, home, hundreds, illustration, industrial, industry, ink, interior, letterpress, machine, machinery, maker, mechanical, nineteenth, operator, paper, press, print, printer, printing, production, revolving, rotary, rotating, trough, victorian, wall, wall-paper, wallpaper, white, work, worker
