Artificial Leather - Historic and Upholstery Uses

Historic and Upholstery Uses

Under the name of artificial leather (not to be confused with the more modern Pleather) or American leather cloth, large quantities of a material having a more or less leather-like surface were once used, principally for upholstery purposes, such as the covering of chairs, lining the tops of writing desks and tables, and so on.

There was considerable diversity in the preparation of such materials. A common variety consisted of a web of calico coated with boiled linseed oil mixed with dryers and lampblack or other pigment. Several coats of this mixture were uniformly spread, smoothed and compressed on the cotton surface by passing it between metal rollers, and when the surface was required to possess a glossy enamel-like appearance, it received a finishing coat of copal varnish. A grained Morocco surface was given to the material by passing it between suitably embossed rollers.

Preparations of this kind have a close affinity to cloth waterproofed with rubber, and to such manufactures as ordinary waxcloth. An artificial leather which was patented and proposed for use as soles for boots, etc., was composed of powdered scraps and cuttings of leather mixed with solution of guttapercha dried and compressed. In place of the guttapercha solution, oxidized linseed oil or dissolved resin could be used as the binding medium for the leather powder.