News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-29
TALKS WITH THE BOYS.
NJ. QUAD TAKES his YOUNG DUDES
INTO A PAINT STORE
And Talks to Them About White Lead and
Yellow Paint and Putty.
From the Detroit Free Press

And Talks to Them About White Lead and
Yellow Paint and Putty.
| From the Detroit Free Press.1
Fifteen or twenty of you boys get OIL
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 lead you see in the paint
pots. but you will ask a great many
people before you find one to explain
the process of manufacture. Let us
follow it out.
Iron is melted into what is called
''pigs' for shipment and for convenient
use. It is the same with lead, only the
"pigs" are not as large and heavy. The
first step in the manufacture is to cor
rode the lead. We will take what is
called the ''old Dutch process" because
that makes the best article. The ''pigs"
are tossed into melting furnace, and
when reduced to liquid state the metal
is drawn off into molds which are called
''buckle-molds. The lead thus nodded
is called a "buckle," being a little round
cake nearly as large as a saucer, but
not so thick, and perforated in many
places.
These sbuckles" are carried by end.
less belt and dropped into earthen jars
CT various sizes. At the bottom of each
jar is a small quantity of acetic acid.
| When 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
row, covered by boards, the boards COW
cred 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 work
on the "buckles," and corrosion is the
result. 1t isn't the acid direct, but its
/ 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 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 white powder?
Well, that house was painted with lead
ffrom which the acetic acid was not
thoroughly washed out, and the paint
killed and powdered up.
The Jars are taken to the wash
ing troughs and their contents
emptied in, and the water is then let i'll
and the batch Is sluiced until we have
mixture the color of milk and scarcely
heavier. After deal of washing 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 shoyeled
into jars again, and these are carried
into hot-air room and left for the water
to evaporate. When this has been ac-
complished the contents of the jars are
emptied 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 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 ex-
perimenting to get the right acid ana
tine 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 center, and fill the cavity with paint.
Now light your coal and put the blow
pipe at 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 fac
tories 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. Ii he so desires the
lead is adulterated while grinding
There is species of quartz rock calleG
barytes. When this is pulverized i
closely resembles lead, and is largely
used to adulterate it.
Did you ever call boy ''putty-
head p Well, you did it without
knowing anything about putty. Hereis
where it is made. So many pounds Of
whiting ara placed in this great iron
basin, so much oil added, and then the
machinery is set in motion. Iron knives
kept mixing the stuff up and turning it
over and over, and a grind-stone, weigh
ing 4 900 pounds and faced with iron,
rolls around the basin twenty times a
minute. This stone is called "chaser,"
and it mashes the putty down as fast as
the knives can fling it over. Pure putty
IS made almost entirely of whiting and
linseed oil, although 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
f9e- seventies marble-dust to two of
whiting.
Ask your father that question and see
il he can come whiting forty rods of a
correct answer. I've many time been
told that it was clay. 1t is chalk-the
very same chalk you use on the black
board, only ground to fine powder.
Now, about other paints. Red lead is
the white lead burned on the copper
pans spoke of until it is red. Yellow
ochre is mineral, black is made from
Iamp-black, which is simply SCOT, and
there are several kinds of paint which
are simply mineral clay purified and
burned. Most of the colored paints
AS blue, green, pink, etc.-have white
lead for basis.
Here in the Office of the factory is a
fine pair of scales delicate enough to
'feigh gold-dust with, and here are two
samples of Prussian blue which agents
have brought in to sell. Both look
like, and each claims his sample to be
the stronger. Now watch the factory
man make the test He weighs ont one
grain of each sample, and then five
grains of white lead for each. In each
case the one grain is mixed with the FIVE
on palette, and whichever colors the
white the bluest is of course the
strongest sample.
And now about the cans. You find
them of all sizes, from the little chap
holding four ounces to the big one
holding gallon. All are filled from a
large tin bucket provided with a spout,
and each is filed to exact weight. Here
IS a machine which puts the covers on.
Formerly this work was done by 10 an
with soldering iron, and it was slow
process. The boy takes up can on
which other hands have placed the
oornp ord s,Joaao II m, tb:e IL 81