The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1919-07-17
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
Pliny's Osy-Nosh Prudenty
Wsterproofed the Ark.

or mother necessity or 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 1t Is probable that the Oe-
cupants, seeking some artificial means
OF preservation, hit upon the pigments
Of the earth in their search Ii is per-
haps natural TO suppose that it was
the instinct of preservation that led
men to tie search, although the glories
OF the sunsets and the beauties of the
rainbow may have created a desire TO
initiate those wonders in their own
dwellings
The earliest record Of the appllea-
tion Of preservatlye TO 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
comes to light with ancient Babylon,
whose walls We're covered with repre-
sentatons 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 1t was the
earliest manifestation of our own ia
mllar kalsominlng.
The first Hebrew to mention paint
Ing is Moses In the thirty third chap
ter Of the book of Numbers he in
structs the lsraeltes, "When ye have
passed over the Jordan into the land
OF Canaan. then shah Sc drive out all
the inhabitants of the land from be-
fore you and destroy all their pie
lures
many customs of the peoples who sue
cesslyey obtained power over them
and in the apocryphal book of the
Maccabees Is found this alluSlon 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 1t out and paint it,
must seek out things for the adorning
thereof"
Although Homer gives credit 70
Greek for the discovery of paint, the
allusions to it In the books of Moses.
the painted mummy cases of the Egyp-
tlans ana the decorated walls of Baby
Ion and Thebes fix Its origin at
period long antecedent to the Greclan
era The walls of rhcbes were paint
ed 1900 years before the coming of
Christ and 996 years before "'Omer
smote his bloomin' lyre."
The Greeks recognized the value Of
paint as preserratlve and made use
of something akin to it on their ships.
Pliny 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"
Tne Romans, being essentially
warlike people, never brought the dec
grafton of buildings to the high plane
it had reached with the Greeks. For
ali that the ruins Of Pompeil show
many structures whose mural decora-
tlons are In fair shape today. The
colors used were glaring A black
background was the usual one and the
combinations worked thereon red, yell
low and blue.
In the early Christian era the use Of
moSaiCs for churches somewhat sup
planted mural painting. sun, during
the reign OF Justnian the Church of
Saint Sophia was built at Constantine
pie and It's walls were adorned with
paintings
In modern times the uses of paint
myriad shades and tlnts. Paint is
unique in that Its name las no syno-
nym and for 1t there is no substitute
material. Bread Is the staff Of life, but
paint IS the life of the staff
No one thinks of the exterior OF a
wooden building now except In terms
of paint coated Interiors, too from
painted walls and stained furniture
down to the lowliest kitchen utcnsll,
all receive their protective covering.
Steel, SO often associated with cement
reinforcing, is painted before It goes
to give soIidity to the manufactured
stone. The huge gIrders OF the sky
scrapers are daubed an ugly but efii-
cient red underneath the sjrface coat
of black Perhaps the best example
of the value of paint on steel is found
in the venerable Brooklyn bridge, on
which gang Of painters is kept GO
Ing continually. 1t is scarce possible
to think of sNgI manufactured ar
ticle which does not meet paint some
where In the course Of its construc-
tion So has paint grown into the
very marrow of our lives.