Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-02-05
miscellaneous &eadiug,
HOW WHITE PAINT IS MADE.


10 begin with, what is white lead, which
is the basis of nearly all paints:
'Don't known'
It 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 lead you see in the paint-pot, but you
will ask a great many people before you
find one to explain the process of manufact-
ure. 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 pro-
cess" because that makes the best article.
The "pigs" are tossed into a melting FUR
mace, and when reduced to liquid state
the metal is drawn off 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 end
less belt and dropped into earthern jars OF
various sizes. At the bottom of each jar
is small quantity of acetic acid. When
lar is full of "buckles," which have been
dropped in without regard to order, it is re-
moved to the corroding house. Here the
lars are placed in row, covered by boards,
the boards covered by two inches of ftanbark,
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 walt.
The acid at once begins its work on the
"buckles" and corrosion is the result. 1t
isn't the acid direct, but its fumes, and the
perforations of which 1 spoke permit the
fumes to get at all parts of the little cake.
Iofr rin 6o1y Ch0nId
be corroded. The ''buckles' are then bleach
ed out until they look like crackers, and
will crumble to pieces at the touch. The
same acid which has befriended US in the
corrosion is now our worst enemy, and
must be got rid of. Haven't you rubbed
your hand along the clapboards of house
and found it smeared with a white pow
der? Well, that house was painted with
lead from which the acetic acid was not
thoroughly washed out, and the paint was
killed and powdered up.
The jars are taken to the washing troughs
and their contents emptied in, and the wa.
ter is then let in and the batch is slulced
until we have mixture the color of milk
and scarcely heavier. After deal of wash
ing the water is drawn off and the lead is
found at the bottom of the troughs. If the
acid has been taken out it is shOveled into
Jars again, and these are carried into no,
air room and left for the water to evaporate
When this has been accomplished the con-
tents of the jars are emptied on copper dry
ing-pans heated by steam. The stuff now
looks like ice cream, but soon dries until
it is fine and almost as white as flour. IC
make paint it simply haste be ground in Oil
Let me ask you if that wasn't curious
discovery? Who could have got the idea
into his head as he looked at bar of lead
that it would preserve and beautify the
buildings of the world? 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, to prove to you that this white
paint was once metal, we'll take this piece
of charcoal, dig out small hole in the CEN
ter, and fill the cavity with paint. Now
light your coal, and put your blow-pipe al
work, and what is the result? A ragged
button of lead! Acid made it paint-fire
turns it back to its original state.
The corroder ships to the paint factories
by the barrel. At the factories the dry stuff
is poured into paint mills, oil added, and
the 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 lead he adds nothing. If he SO desires
the lead is adulterated while grinding.
There is a species Of quartz rock called barry
tes. When this is pulverized it closely re-
sembles lead, and is used to adulterate 1t.
THE POWER IN THE SNOW.-COnSlder
that the descent Of snow has relations not
alone to fancy, but it is also worker. We
send abroad to the islands and the coast OF
South America, to bring hither the stimu-
liant that shall kindle new life in the wasted
soils and bring forth new harvests, and yet
from the unsullied air snow brings down
fertility. In the endless wastes that are
going on, eXhaled gases, and from towns
and cities multiplied forms that are phan-
toms wandering in the sky, get caught in
the meshes of the snow, the ammonlacal
gases, and various Others are brought down
BY it and laid upon the soil. And it has
become proverb that snow, fresh and new
fallen, is the poor mans manure. 1t gath
ers again the waste material of the earth,
whose leviJy carries it above and rains with
equal distribution over all the lands that
which brings hack to them their needed
fertility. When the snow has covered the
garden and hedge, is it a pail, is it a shroud
or is it not swaddling clothes? The old
abandoned stalks, the brown and withered
grass, no longer comely, it puts them to rest
and is indeed a shroud. But underneath
this is going on those processes that ere
long shall bring forth all buds and all come
ly bloom and all ripening things. Under
meath it's twilight, spring is preparing its
work, without a sound of wheel, without
stroke of hammer; more is going on under
the silent snow to-day and in the coming
week than in all the smithies, than in all
factories than in all the dwellings or shops
upon the earth. And all the forces of ma
ture, spring, winter, summer, the thousands
of forces whose energy is irresistible, they
all are silent, they all are hidden. The
powers of God in the earth are all silent
wonder-workers.-Henry Ward Beecher.
GENTLE EACCOMPLIsHMENT.-H sweet
ly patient and calm are gentle manners
Courtesy is often finest when negative
when, instead of seeking to entertain
others, we let them entertain us. 1t is a
small thing to be silent, and it is often
the kindest thing we can do for a man to
let him talk. Gentle respectfully puts the
shyest and most timid man at ease and at
his best, and to do that is a finer pleasure
than detailing ones own notions and eXpe-
riences in the most elegant and happy Pc
riods. Do not be in hurry. Emerson says
"Hurry is for slaves" All! the slaves who
are bought and sold in the market-place do
not hurry. 1t is the greedy man, who is
free to get and keep all that he can lay his
hands upon, who hurries. 81 DO not like
to go North, because the men there are all in
such mighty hurry they cannot be civil"
a Southern man once said before me. l am
not sure that q finer sense Of the sweet kind
illness that is one of the springs Of gentle
manners would not have softened this criti-
cism, for the sake of the Northern woman,
alone among strangers, who listened to him ;
but to candid mind not puffed up with
vain-glory the criticism is suggestive. No
doubt the great prosperity of the North may
be partly owing to the push and energy ne