The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-05-20
The Evolution of Paint.
BY G. b. HECKEL.

low and some other brilliant colors.
Old painters can still remember the
days when not only white lead but all
their colors came to them in the dry
form, to be laboriously worked up by
them with slab and muller into the
paste form. But finally the superior
economy, uniformity and wholesome
ness of the machine ground lead and
colors in oil prevailed over the preju-
dices of the most conservative paint
ers, and dry colors as practical
painters material fell into desue-
tude. 1t was a case of necessity-the
demand for paint, in the United
States at least, had outgrown the ca
pacity of the slab and muller, as we'll
as of their short lived successor, the
hand mill.
Painters continued, however, to
mix tints and to reduce paste paints
to consistency for application by man
ual labor.
About the time of the Civil War
certain Yankee genius, struck with
the growing demand for house paint,
conceived the idea that there would
be good market for paints ready for
application. He produced and pat
ented an emulsion" paint. Its sue
cess was phenomenal despite its de-
fects, and it was the forerunner of
host of so-called patented" paints,
which froze in the can, peeled off the
,,,,,ltitnIa Of th In, nc
they should not have done, but nev-
ertheless blazsd the way for one of
the most rapid industrial develop
ments of modern times.
The first ready mixed paint ap-
peared on the market some time in
1859 or 1860; it has been calculated
that the consumption of ready-for-use
paints for all purposes in 1905 ap-
preached 100,000,000 gallons, with
selling value of not much less than
$3.50, 100000.
Such a development indicates, first,
the meeting of we'll defined need,
and second, a long step in advance of
the earlier products. For, though the
prepared paint industry still suffers
from the effects of the moral law that
visits the sins of the parents upon
their children to the third and the
fourth generation, it is still steadily
growing. This must mean not only
that it meets need, but that it yields
on the average satisfactory results.
The rapid multiplication of beauti-
full chemical colors during the past
forty years and the improved taste of
the common people" has created
demand for a great variety of tints
and shades which can be met only by
the paint chemist who knows what
pigments can and what cannot be
safely combined AS noted above, the
colors which yield the tints of blue,
green, lavender, pink, the delicate
grays, etc., cannot be successfully
made with a white lead base. Here
chemical invention has come forward
with three or four other whites which
are available, for such tints. Again
white lead is apt to darken when used
in the interior of buildings, where
sulphurretted hydrogen is always
present. Oxide of zinc or one of the
other newer whites form the base for
interior paints. Furthermore the
content of sulphuretted hydrogen in
the atmosphere of towns is annually
increasing with the growth of manu-
factories throwing out furnace gases.
The sensibility of the white lead is
materially reduced by the addition of
zinc oxide, sublimed white lead, and
certain reinforcing inert pigments to
the paints for outside use.
The growth of the industry and the
increased complications of the re-
quirements has within a quarter of
century transformed paint making
from hit or miss, haphazard, rule
of thumb procedure to a systematized
matter of technical science, and in
the modern paint factory the practical
paint chemist rules supreme. He
knows the requirements, he UNDER
stands the limitations, and it is "up
to him" to produce practical results.
There is another phase of the prob
lem not generally appreciated. The
supply of practical painters-that is,
| of painters who understand the mix
ing of tints, the adaptations of paint
| to the requirements of the jobs
limited, and there is no source from
which a fresh supply can be drawn
when the present generation has
| passed away. At the present time
those of them that remain are found
principally in the large cities, where
they cling pretty generally to the old
methods of hand mixing lead, oil and
cHlors. But even they realize that
their methods are behind the age and
are drifting, one by one, to the use of
the prepared paints which, in their
view, leave something to be desired.
But in the country and in the coun-
try town ready mixed paint has come
to stay, and in the majority of cases
and in the hands of the average
painter, will be found to give better
service at less cost than the hand
mixed product.
Hardware dealers throughout the
country, who handle both ready
| nnived pointc apd 1aod Il, oil oon aoc