Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-06-23
AmerIcnna Are PaInt u,er..

II has been remarked that the Amer
ican people consume more paint, boil
in the aggregate and per capita, thar
any other people In the world. In
recently published article on the sub
1eCt IL was figured that our yearly
consumption is over 100000 900 gallons
OF paints OF all kinds, of which ovel
one-half is used in the paintings o.
houses.
The reason for this great consump
ton Is twofold: large proportion Of
our buildings, especially in small
towns and rural districts, are con
structed Of wood and we, as a people
are given to neatness and cleanliness
For. take II all in all, there is nothing
so cleanly or so sanitary as paint.
Travel where we will throughout the
country, everywhere we find the neat,
cheerful painted dwelling, proclaiming
at once the prosperity and The self
respect Of our population.
Fifty years ago this was not so;
painted dwellings, while common In
the larger cities and towns, were the
exception in the rural districts; be-
cause, OH the one hand, large pros
portion of those buildings were tenn
pOrary makeshlfts, and. on the other
hand, because paint was then luxury.
expensive and difficult to obtain in tile
out-of-the-way places, and requiring
special knowledge and much prepare
ton to fit it for use.
The Introduction of ready mixed or
prepared paints, about 1850, changed
the entire aspect of affairs. AS the
Jack-of-all-t told the Walking
Delegate in one of Octave Thaneps
stories ANY one can slather paint"
The insurmountabe difficulty with
our predecessors was to get the paint
ready for "satherlng," That the cOun-
try was ready for paint In convenient,
popular form is shown by the imme.
date success Of the industry and it's
phenomenal growth in fifty years frop/
nothing to G0,000000 gallons-tbe est.
mated output for 1900.
Some pretty severe things have ben
written about and said against DIS
class Of paints especially by painters
ana manufacturers of certain kinds of
paste paints. Doub less in many i'm
stances these strict Tres have been bls-
titled and some fearfully and wouder-
fully constructed mixtures have I'M the
past been worked off OH the gulleess
consumer in the shape of prepared
paint. But such products have had
their short day and quickly 6lsap-
peared, and The 100 cnte2prising' man
that produced them have
come to grief in the bankruptcy
courts or have .earne! by costly ex-
perience that honesty is the best pol
Icy and Lave reformed their ways.
The chief exceptions to this iule are
some mail order houses who sell direct
TO the country trade, at very low
below the wholesale
price of linseed OIL The buyer of such
goods, ike the buyer of gold brick"
has only himself to blame il he inL7
his purchase worthless With gold
selling at any bank or mint at q fixed
)rlce owners of gold do not sell 1t at
l discount; and with linseed oil quoted
at fifty to seventy cents q
gallon, manufacturers do not sell a
Iure linseed oil paint at thirty or forty
ents a gallon.
The composition of prepared paints
Iiffers because paint experts Lave not
ret agreed rs to thr best pigments
nd because the daily results of tests
III iul6C pCulC arc ILL
rowing tie formulas of manufacture
rs; but all have come to the conclu-
ion that the essentials of good paint
re pure linseed oil, fine grln1ing and /
incorporation, and in these
PARTICULARS oil the produces Of repu-
able manufacturers correspond; all
rst class prepared paints are thor
ughly mixed and ground and the liq-
i'd base is almost exclusively pure
inseed oil, the necessary volatile
thinners" and Japan dryers.
The painters opposition 20 such pro-
ucts is based largely on self-interest.
lie want. to mix the paint himself
nd TO be paid for doing it; and to
mmendafion FOR fi pdfs u SHY IT, Tf
will last five or ten years. The longer
paint lasts the longer he will have
o wait for the job of repainting The
after consideration has no weight with
he consumer, and the former is
alse idea of economy. Hand labor
an never be as cheap or as efficient
s machine work, and every time the
FAINTER mixes paint, did he but know
t. he is losing money because he can
,uy better paint than he can mix
It less IMAM II COSTS HIN " lila IL
Prepared paints have won, not only
m their actual merits, but on their
and ECONOMY. They are
cheap, and they are in
handy. But when all is
aid, the experienced painter is the
PROPER person to apply even a ready
mixed paint. He knows better than
my one else the when" and chow"
md the difference between painting
md "slathering' is much greater than
t appears to a novice. Every one to
lis trade, and after all painting is the
PAINTERS trade and not the household
RS