Paint is made up of two principle parts, the pigment and the vehicle. Pigment of paint may be defined as the minute particles of insoluble solids that form the body of the paint and remain as the hard opaque surface after the liquid or vehicle had evaporated or deteriorated. Vehicle of paint is the liquid content which acts as a binding agent between the minute particles of pigment, holding them together as well as to the surface of an object. The Vehicle also contains the drying agent. Vehicles are as definitely liquids as pigments are solids.
Red Leads come in two basic forms, reddish powder and heavy paste.
As red lead and white lead and zinc form the base of most paint it may be well to discuss briefly just what they are an how they are made. Lead melts easily at 620 degrees F, but in this burning process the temperature is boosted to 900 degrees to 1200 degrees F at which oxygen is included into the lead producing an oxidizing effect and the resultant compound is the bright reddish powder that we know of as red lead. This is sold either in this form or as paste, the latter being more favored. The process which resembles that of making red lead, in the the ore is roasted, the fumes mixing with oxygen forming the white powder we know as white lead. Zinc Oxide is a compound of zinc and oxygen, and is the finest of all white pigments.