The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-05-07

ably heraldic or symbolical, and the
colors were applied first to the human
body. Remnants of the practice are
still seen among savages who, on GER
emonious occasions of war, the chase,
| ETC., decorate their faces with con-
ventional signs and colors.
The second use of paint in cvolu-
| tion was decorative. The Egyptians,
thousands of years ago, used the sim
pie colors, both for broad effects and
for decorative design. The Greeks
are believed to have colored all their
marbles, whether statuary or carving,
and the Romans, who were initiative
| in their arts, carried the use OF colors
in architecture to the extreme, as
seen in the wall paintings of POM
peii.
The pigments used in these earlier
| days were generally Of the simplest
! type-usually natural colors found in
the earth and requiring only mechan-
! ical treatment to fit them for use. OF
these are the iron oxides, such as red
haematite, ochres, siennas, umbers,
etc, the natural salts of lead, cad
MUM and arsenic yellows and cinna-
bar, which are now produced arti-
ficially. these natural pigments are
still in use at the present day, the
chief Improvement being in the pro-
eesses of preparation.
A few of our artificial colors were
apparently known to the Romans, at
least, since Vetruvius and Pliny de-
scribe processes for the production of
several, including white lead and
lamp black. According to what can
be gathered from these writer's and
from examination of paints found in
Pompeii and Rome, the liquid me-
dium appears to have been some sort
of vegetable gum in solution
1t was not until comparatively re-
cent times that paint began to receive
attention as protective or preserva-
tive material. All Of the earlier allu-
sions to the subject were along decor
ative lines, and down to nearly the
beginning of the last century all in
formation on the subject was directed
to the requirements of artists or ar
chitects. The dwellings of the more
fortunately circumstanced classes
were built of stone, brick and hard
woods, on which paint, except for dec
oration, was but sparingly used;
while the shelters of the poorer
classes were generally of the flimsiest
character on which paint would have
been an unthinkable luxury.
AS the means of the common peo-
pie improved and the use OF wood for
permanent buildings became more
common, paint naturally suggested
itself as a preservative material, and
white lead, being the most generally
obtainable of the lighter colored pig
ments, its employment received an
impetus which it has scarcely yet lost.
OF all the artificial pigments, ex-
cepting, lamp black, this is probably
the oldest. The natural carbonate of
lead was well known among the
Greeks and Romans, and it is proba-
BILE, from some remarks of the writer's
OF the first century, that the prepara-
tion of the hydrocarbonate by the use
of vinegar was also understood. White
lead was at least manufactured for
their own use by the Italian artists of
the Middle Ages. 1t is probable that
the Dutch acquired the art of making
white lead from Venice, but in Hol-
land the industry received such an
impetus that the process still in use
with some notifications, is known
to this day as the "Old Dutch Pro-
cess
The Dutch corroded lead by expos
ing it to the fumes of vinegar in por-
celain pots buried under fermenting
manure in a trench excavated in the
earth. The industry was brought
| from Holland to England, where
eventually certain improvements
brought it finally to its present form,
wherein the process is conducted in
wooden stacks" or bins by means of
termenting spent tan bark.
For many years white lead re-
mained' the only available white base
for house paints, and so long as the
pigments used with 1t to produce tints
were the-stable earth colors and such
unalterable artificial products as lamp
black, 1t answered the general re-
quirements quite satisfactorily. Two
defects were, however, noted very
early-the first, its tendency to dark
en- from exposure from sulphuretted
hydrogen gas, and second, its disas-
trous effect upon the health of those
working with it.
The last mentioned property led to
increasing agitation against its use,
as the practice of house painting
spread, and the history of the paint
Industry from late in the eighteenth
century to the middle of the nine
teenth is full of attempts to replace
II with something else This agita-
tion led on the one hand to the sub
stitution of white lead ground in oil
by the manufacturer for the old form
of dry lead ground by the painter
himself, and on the other hand re-
suited in the addition of zinc oxide,
sublimed lead, llthopone, blanc fxe,
ETC., to the list OF available white
pigments.
1t was also recognized quite early
that there are certain colors which
cannot be mixed, with white lead with
out destruction. Artificial ultrama-
rine. for example, which, after its
production by Guimet and Others