History of Screen Printing
Amanda Grady Some believe that silk-screen printing has dated all the way back to the earlier times in China and Japan. It’s a known fact that the process of silk-screen printing was publically known by the time World War 1 occurred. But the most used silk-screen printing process used today began more than a century ago. The father of silk-screen printing should be credited to Charles Nelson Jones. Jones was a brilliant professor of math at the University of Michigan. There he was granted a patent for a stencil-printing machine in 1887. He was the first introduce an idea to use a diaphragm of any previous material, preferably made of silk or linen fabric. It stood on its own, constructed of wood, foot operated, and most of all; it featured the permanent diaphragm of silk. A sale of the patent was never confirmed. The Badger State Typewriter Co. in Milwaukee in 1890, made a very similar machines. Which in turn would indicate that Jones invention was manufactured and sold within two years of the patent grant. One thing is known for sure, before the turn of the century, many had already begun too see the advantages of this new printing method. With this particular method, it was possible to print on all sorts of unusual surfaces. Rubber, wood, cloth, and glass continuously held oil-based paints on these surfaces being applied by this new silk-screening process. Stencils could be prepared directly onto silk with varnishes or lacquers and were very durable. From this moment, many different techniques of the process began. A transition from hand stenciling to silk-screening was beginning. It’s not surprising that equipment manufacturers in Minnesota were among the first to use the silk-screening process since Jones had resided there before. Minneapolis had large milling producing different grades of milling silk, which is known for strong thread and various mesh weaves, both of which helped in creating the silk-screen. Other examples of silk-screen printing would be after the turn of the century found during war times. In 1901, the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus began to utilize the screen-printing process. In the early 1910’s, a few printer’s experimented with photo-reactive chemicals and revolutionized the screen printing industry by developing photo-imaged stencils, using safer chemicals for creating such. Joseph Ulano founded the industry chemical supplier Ulano in 1928, which created a method of applying a lacquer soluble stencil material to a removable base. What used to be a profitable technology, was eventually mainly used by artists as easier and cheaper way to mass-produce using a reusable medium before the 20th century. A group of artists started using the word ‘Serigraphy’ in place of screen-printing. “Seri” meaning silk in Latin along with the word “graphein” meaning to write or draw in Greek. Screen Printing is now popular amongst the fine arts and commercial printing. It is commonly used to print images on posters, t-shirts, hats, cd’s, dvd’s, glass, paper, metals and so on. The Printer’s National Environment Assistance Center says, “This process is arguably the most versatile of all printing processes”