The Carlisle independent., 1906-09-27
A DANGEROUS PRACTICE
Burning of Paint Makes Insurance
 Void.

It seems that considerable danger to property exists in the practice of burning off old paint before re-paint- ing. The question has long been a subject of debate in the technical Journals, and now householders al the newspapers have begun to discuss 1t. Those of us who, with trembling. have watched the painters blow a fiery blast from their lamps against our houses, and have leaked, radly at the size of our paintir Ir >use of the time wasted
 ary work, are ip.
 Vestigation by tfJl ,1reenfield 'IassT Gazette and Courler, which gives con siderable space to the reasons for the practice, questions it's necessity and suggests ways to prevent the risk of burning down ones house in order to get the old paint off. It says:
 There is good deal of discussion among householders as to the desir- ability, in painting houses, of burning off the old paint, a practice that has grown very common of late in Green held and elsewhere. Insurance men are strongly opposed to this method. 1t makes void insurance policies for hres caused in this manner. Several houses in Greenfield have gotten af1re as the result of this method, and in some places houses have burned as a result
 Tt is undoubtedly true that when a house has been painted over and over again there comes to be an &C., cumulation of paint in punches. If new paint is put on top of these ac- cumulations it is almost sure to blis- ter To burn it off is the quickest and cheapest and perhaps the surest method of getting rid of this old paint"
 The Gazette and Courier quotes cer. tain old patrons to the effect that ac. cumulations of paint are unnecessary. These old-timers lay the blame partly on the painter who fails to brush his paint in we'll, partly on the custom of painting in damp weather or not allow. Ing sufficient time for drying between coats, and partly to the use of adulter ated paints instead of old-fashioned hnseed oil and pure white lead. The paper says:
 Many of the old householders sav that II care is taken at all these points IL Is absolutely unnecessary to have paint burned off. They advise that people who have houses painted should buy their own materials, and to have them put on by the day, so as to be sure to get good lead and oil. Of course the burning off of paint greatly increases the cost of the job.
 The trouble householders everywhere have with paint is pretty well summed up by our contemporary, and the causes are about the same everywhere. By far the most frequent cause of the necessity for the dangerous practice of burning old paint is the use of poor material The oil should be pure lin. seed and the white lead should be real white lead. The latter is more often tempered with than the oil Earthy substances, and pulverized rock and quartz, are frequently used as cheap eners, to the great detriment of the paint.
 Painters rarely adulterate white lead themselves and they very seldom use ready prepared paints-the most frequent causes of paint trouble. But they do often buy adulterated white lead because the property owner in- sists on low price and the painte. has to economize somewhere. The suggestion is therefore a good one that the property owner investigate the subject a little, find out the name of some reliable brand of white lead. and see that the keg is marked with that brand
 The linseed oil is mon difficult to be sure of, as it is usually sold in bulk when the quantity is small; but reliable makers of linseed oil can be learned on inquiry, and, if your dealer is reliable, you will get what you want.
 Pure white lead and linseed oil are so necessary to good paint that the little trouble necessary to get them we'll repays the house owner in dollars and cents saved.