On the floor with McLuhan

McLuhan once said words to the effect “new technology always copies old technology”. An example being that when designs for the new moveable type were designed in the fifteenth century, they copied the scribes black letter faces so that printed documents looked like manuscripts. When I read about McLuhan’s aphorism I was reminded of Linoleum, or Lino, as it was more commonly known to me as a child. This was a floor covering material made (so I read on Wikpedia) of solidified linseed oil with wood flower or cork dust over a canvas backing. Lino was a used mostly in kitchens and hallways. The thing is, the surface was always printed to imitate the more expensive wood block flooring. Nowadays Lino is hardly used as we are so rich we use real wood blocked flooring. When Lino is used however, designers now have the confidence to use surface designs which utilise the unique facilities that Lino has to offer. Read more about linoleum at: http://www.armstrong.com/resflram/na/linoleum/en/us/