Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1919-11-20
Strange Sources From Which
Pigments Used by Modern
Painters Are Derived.
PRESERVATION OF SURFACES.
Crude but Effective Processes Employ
ed by the Egyptians and Greeks of
PIiny's Day-Noah Prudentiy
Waterproofed the Ark

meet desire for beauty is question
fully as knotty as the ancient one about
the relative time of arrival OF the
chicken or the egg 1t was invented.
though, and it serves both purposes
equally; SO whether it is an offspring
of mother necessity an adopted son
of beauty remains forever a disputed
question.
The first men, covering under the
fierce and glaring suns OF the biblical
countries, constructed rude huts OF
wood to shelter them The perishable
nature of these structures caused rapid
decay. and it Is probable that the oc-
| cupants. seeking some artificial means
of preservation, hit upon the pigments
| of the earth in their search 1t is per-
| haps natural to suppose that it was
| the instinct of preservation that led
men to the search, although the glories
| of the sunsets and the beauties of the
rainbow may have created desire to
| initiate those wonders in their own
| dwellings,.
| The earliest record of the applica-
| ton of preservatfve to a wooden
| structure dates from the ark, which
was, according to the Bible, pitched
| within and without" The pitch was
| triumph of preservation whatever it
| lacked as thing of beauty.
/ Decoration applied to buildings first
cores to light with ancient Babylon,
| whose walls were covered with repre-
| sensations Of hunting scenes and of
| combat. These were done In red and
| the method followed was to paint the
| scene on the bricks at the time OF
manufacture, assuring permanence by
baking. Strictly speaking, this was
not painting SO much as it was the
| earliest manifestation of our own Ia
| miIiar kalsomining.
The first Hebrew to mention paint
ing is Moses. In the thfrty-third chap
| ter of the book of Numbers he in
/ structs the Israe1ites, when We have
passed over the Jordan into the land
| of Canaan. then shall We drive out all
the inhabitants of the land from be-
fore you and destroy all their pic
At later periods the Jews adopted
many customs of the peoples who sue
cessively obtained power over them
and in the apocryphal book of the
Maccabees is found this a1lusion to
the art of decorating, For as the mas
ter builder of a new house must care
for the whole building, but he that
| undertaketh to set it out and paint it.
| must seek out things for the adjoining
| thereof
| Although Homer gives credit to q
Greek for the discovery of paint, the
| illusions to it in the books OF Moses,
the painted mummy cases of the Egyp-
tfans and the decorated walls of Baby
Ion and Thebes fix its origin at a
period long antecedent to the Grecian
era The walls of Thebes were paint
ed 1900 years before the coming OF
Christ and 996 years before "'Omer
smote his bloomin' Tyre.
The Greeks recognized the value OF
paint as a preventative and made use
of something akin to 1T on their ships
PIiny writes of the mode of boiling
wax and painting ships with it, after
which, he continues, neither the sea
nor the wind, nor the sun can destroy
the wood thus protected"
The Romans, being essentially
warlike people, never brought the dec
Grafton of buildings to the high plane
1T had reached with the Greeks Fol
| all that the ruins of Pompeif show
many structures whose mural decora
lions are in fair shape today The
coIors used were glaring. A BLACK
| background was the usual one and the
| combinations worked thereon red, vel
| low and blue
| mosafcs for churches somewhat sup
planted mural painting Still during
the reign Of Justinian the Church o
Saint Sophia was built at Constantine
pie and its walls were adorned witt
paintings.
have come to be numerous as it
myriad shades and unts- Paint l
unique in that Its name 1as no syno
nym and for 1t there is no substitute
material. Bread is the staff of life, blu
paint Is the life of the staff
No one thinks of the exterior OF
wooden building now except in term
of paint coated Interiors. too. fror
| painted walls and stained furnitur
| down to the lowIiest kitchen utensf
all receive their protective GOVERN,
Steel, so often associated with cemen
reinforcing, is painted before 1t goe
to give solidity to the manufacture
stone The huge Orders of the SIX,
.craDers are daubed an ugly but ef
Gent red underneath the surface Coz
| OF black Perhaps the best exampl
OF the value OF paint on steel is foun
In the venerable Brooklyn bridge, o
which q gang of painters is kept g
ing continually 1t Is scarce possfbl
to think of single manufactured q
dele which does not meet paint SOM
- where In the course OF its constru
k:I ff<n So has paint grown Into Il