3 January: 10 things you didn't know about wallpaper

Today is the feast day of St Genevieve, who is the patron saint of wall coverings. 10 things you never knew about wallpaper:

1. Since the Chinese invented Paper in the first place, it’s hardly surprising that people in China were the first to use wallpaper, back in 200BC.
2. It was the 16^th century before people started using wallpaper in Europe. The earliest known European wallpaper was found on the beams of the Lodge of Christ's College, Cambridge. It was initially used to decorate smaller rooms and cupboards, but later caught on among the aristocracy who used to hang paper scenes on their walls like tapestries.
3. Wallpaper as we know it came into being in the 17^th century when Jean-Michel Papillon began making block designs in identical, repetitive patterns on rolls of paper. It was a slow, laborious process, however, so it was only a matter of time before someone invented a machine to make wallpaper. In 1839 the first wallpaper printing machine was patented by Potters & Ross, a cotton printing firm based in Darwen, Lancashire.
4. In 1778, Louis XVI issued a decree that required the length of a wallpaper roll be about 34 feet.
5. Flock wallpaper is made from powdered wool, which is a waste product of the wool industry. A design would be applied to the paper in varnish or glue so that the powdered wool stuck to the design. As well as being fashionable, the paper had the added advantage of repelling Moths due to the turpentine in the adhesive.
6. At one time, your wallpaper could literally kill you. Green was a popular colour for wallpaper in the 1850s, but the colour was created using arsenic. By the 1870s people had cottoned on to the fact that sleeping in a damp, airtight room left one in danger of being poisoned by fumes coming off the wallpaper. The young and the sick were in particular danger, and so special wallpapers for nurseries and children’s bedrooms started to appear. Not only were these wallpapers free of arsenic, but they were made from oil based pigments so the paper could be sponged down without damaging the colours. The designs were intended to influence impressionable young minds and featured images like cherubs asleep in roses which they thought would encourage the children to go to sleep.
7. The most expensive wallpaper in the world today is called Les Guerres D’Independence and consists of 32 panels of military scenes created from 19th century woodblock prints. It takes a year to make and would set you back £24,896 in 2006, or £432.83 a metre.
8. All manufactured patterned wallpaper is based on one of seventeen basic patterns, called wallpaper groups.
9. In Oliver Cromwell’s time, wallpaper was seen as frivolous and production of it stopped. However, when Charles II was restored, wealthy people started buying it again. It was popular enough that the government of the day saw a money-grabbing opportunity and taxed it. A tax of 1d (0.75p) per yard was levied in 1712, rising to 1.5d (1p) in 1714 and 1.75d (1.25p) in 1777.
10. In the 21^st century, You can get scratch and sniff wallpaper – a tutti-frutti roll costs $550. You can get wallpaper that glows in the dark or black light wallpaper. There’s even wallpaper you can use to light the room, with LED lights incorporated in it. It’s even possible to control and change the pattern of these lights using a Bluetooth app. Finally, in 2012, scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology announced wallpaper which could help stop walls from crumbling during Earthquakes. The wallpaper uses glass fibre reinforcement in several directions and a special adhesive which forms a strong bond with the masonry when dry.

NEW!

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.

His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.

A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?

Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-Book