St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-12-28
SHORT TALKS WITH THE BOYS
ny NJ. QUAD.
detroit Free Press.

Fifteen or twenty of you boys get on your
old clothes and come with me into the paint
factory, and We will learn some secrets worth
knowing,
To Begin with, what is white lead, which is
the basis Of nearly all paints!
Don't know"
1t would be odd If you did. Now and then
you may find some one to tell you that the
same lead YOU mold into bullets is the white
cad you see in the paint pots, but you will
ask great many people before you End one
! TO explain the recess Of manufacture. Let US
follow it out.
Iron is melted into what is called ''pigs'
for shipment and for convenient use. 1t is
the same with lead. only the pigs" are not
as large and heavy. The first step in the
manufacture is to corrode the lead We will
take what is called the ''old Dutch process, >"
because that makes the best article. The
pigs" are tossed into a melting furnace, and
when reduced to liquid state the metal is
drawn of into molds which are called
''buckle-molds. The lead thus nodded is
called BUCKLE" being little round cake
| nearly as large as saucer, but not so thick,
and perforated in many places.
These buckles are carried by an endless
| belt and dropped into earthen jars of various
sizes. At the bottom of each jar is d small
quantity of acetic acid. When a jar is full
OF buckles" which have been dropped in
without regard To order, it is removed to the
corroding house. Here the Jars are placed in
a row, covered By boards, the boards covered
by two inches of tanbark, and then another
course of jars is added until all the room is
taken up. There is nothing more to do for
ninety days except to wait. The acid at once
begins its wo.k on the buckles" and cor
rosiou is the result. 1t isn't the acid direct,
but its fumes, and the perforations Of which
spoke permit the fumes to get at all parts
OF the little cake.
At the end Of ninety days the lead should
be corroded. The buckles are then
bleached out until they look like crackers,
and will erumble 10 pieces at the touch. The
same acid which has befriended us in the
eorrosiOn is now our worst enemy, and must
be got rid Of Haven't you rubbed your
hand along the clapbOards OF a house and
foun it smeared with white powders Well,
that house was painted with lead from which
the acetic acid was not thoroughly washed
o..
Tue jars are taken to the washing troughs
aud their contents emptied in, and the water
let in aud the batch is sluiced until We have
a mixture the color of milk, and scarcely
heavier. After q deal of washing the water
Is drawn of and the lead is found at the bot
tom of the troughs. II the acid has been
taken out it is shOyeled into jars again, and
these are carried into hot air room and left
for the water TO evapOrate. When this has
been accomplished the contents of the Jars
are empted on copper drying pans heated by
steam. The stuff now looks like ice cream,
but soon dries until it is as fine and almost
as white as -four. To make paint it simply
has to be ground in oil.
Let me ask you if that wasn't curious
diseoveryi Who cOnld have got the idea
into his head as he looked at bar of lead
thai it would preserve and beautify the build
tngs Of the wOrldl And the process requires
so much time that men must have spent
years in Experimenting to get the right acid
and the proper method Of using.
Now 70 prove to you that this white paint
was once metal, we'll take this piece of char
coal, dig out q small hole in the center, and
ILL the cavity with paint. Now light your
coal and put the blow pipe to work, and
what is the resulti A ragged button of lead
/
original state.
The cOrroder ships to the paint factories BY
the barrel At the factories the dry stuff is
poured into paint mills, oil aided. and the
I stuff is ground through three different mills
before It comes out as you see it in the paint
/ cans If the paint man is making pure
I lead he adds nothing. If he so desires the
/ lead is adulteratrd while grinding. There is
8 species OF quartz v9ck called barytes.
4 When this is pulverized it closely resembles
/ lead, aud is largely used to adulterate it.
Did YOU ever call a boy Equity headl"
/ Wen, you AID Il without knowing ANYTHING
/ about putty = Here is where it is made So
mauy pounds of whiting are placed in this
! great iron basin, so much oil added, and
! then the machinery is set in motion. Iron
I knives kept mixing the stuff up and turning
/ it over and over, and grindstone, weighing
4. 600 pounds and faced with iron, rolls
around the basin twenty times q minute.
/ This stone is called chaser, and il mashes
/ the putty down as fast as the knives can
/ fling it over. Pure putty is made almost en-
tirely Of whiting and linseed oil, although a
/ a small quantity of cotton seed oil is used in
/ every grade, to prevent it from drying too
/ soon The next grade contains about half
! marble dust, and the poorest grade, which is
/ good enough for all outdoor work, is five
/ sevenths marble dust to two of whiting.
But what is whitfngi'
Ask your father that question and see If be
can come within forty rods of correct an
/ swer I've many a time been told that it
/ was clay. 1t is chalk-the very same chalk
you Use on the blackboard, only ground to a
fine powder.
( Now, about other paints. Red lead is the
/ white lead burned on the copper pans l
spoke of until it is red. Yellow ochre is a
| mineral, black is made fom lamp black,
which is simply SCOT, and there are several
kinds Of paint which are simply a mineral
clay purified and burned. Most of the COL
ored paiRts--as blue, green, pink, ETC.
/ have white lead for basis.
Here IN, the office of the factory is q fine
! pair Of scales, delicate enough to weigh gold
dust with, and here are two samples Of Prus-
sian blue which agents have brought in 10
sell. Both look alike and each claims his