Article: Heir to linoleum is a high-tech flooring.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

I sort of miss linoleum, even though I realize that it was unfairly bad-mouthed as a floor covering by Americans for most of the 111 years that it was produced.

Linoleum flooring was cheap, versatile and resilient. In an age when an easy-to-clean material was a welcome addition to any house, linoleum fit the bill. Unlike wood, linoleum didn't have cracks to catch dirt _ the reason so many beautiful hardwood floors were hidden by it over the years.

Before World War I, it was marketed primarily as a sanitary flooring for kitchens, bathrooms and institutions.

The Armstrong Co. of Pittsburgh, which originally produced cork bottle stoppers, ...

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