Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1919-07-12
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
PIinys Day-Noah Prudently
Waterproofed the Ark.

meet a desire for beauty is question
fully as knotty as the ancient one abou
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 or an adopted sol
of beauty remains forever disputed
question.
The first men, covering under th'
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, Il 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 a desire to
initiate those wonders in their own
dwellings.
The earliest record of the applica-
tion of a preventative to a wooden
structure dates from the ark, which
was, according TO the Bible, ''pitchcd
within and without" The pitcL was II
triumph of preservation whatever ii
lacked as a thing of beauty.
Decoration applied to buildings first
comes to light with ancient Babylon,
sensations of hunting scenes end Of
combat. These were done in r.d and
the method followed was to pai1t the
scene on the bricks at the time of
manufacture, assuring permanence by
baking. Strictly speaking, this was
not painting so much as ii WIS the
earliest manifestation of our own IA
miliar kalSomining.
The first Hebrew to mention paint
ing Is Moses. In the thirty-third chap
ter of the book of Numbers he in
structs the Israelites, "When We have
of Canaan. then shall We drive out all
the inhabitants of the land from be-
fore you and destroy all ;her pic
lures. ~
At later periods the Jews adopted
many customs of the peoples who sue
and in the apocryphal book of The
Maccabees is found this allusion 10
the art of decorating, For as tine mas
ter builder of new house must care
for the whole building, but he that
to set it out and paint it,
thereof"
Although Homer gives credit to
Greek for the discovery of paint. the
illusions to it in the books of Moses.
the painted mummy cases of the Egyp-
tians and the decorated walls of Baby
period long antecedent to the Gre ian
era. The walls of Thebes were paint
ed 1000 years before the coming Of
Christ and 996 years before "'Ouer
smote his bloomin' Tyre"
The Greeks recognized the value of
OF something akin to it on their shiDS
Pliny writes of the mode of bOil,nc
wax and painting ships with il, af or
which, he continues, neither the saa
nor the wind, nor the sun can destroy
the wood thus protected"
the Romans, being essentially a
warlike people, never brought the dec
Grafton of buildings to the high plane
it had reached with the Greeks. .'Or
all that the ruins of Pompeii STOW
many structures whose mural deccra-
tons are in fair shape today. The
background was the usual one and 'he
combinations worked thereon red, yell
low and blue.
In the early Christian era the use of
mosaics for churches somewhat sip
planted mural painting. Still, during
the reign OF Justinian 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
have come to be as numerous as it,
myriad shades and tints. Paint Il
unique in that its name las no syno
nym and for It there is no substitute
material Bread is the staff of life, bu
paint is the life of the staff.
No one thinks of the exterior of 8
wooden building now except in terms
Of paint coated. Interiors, too, from
painted walls and stained furnitur,
down to the lowliest kitchen utensil
all receive their protective covering
| Steel, so often associated with cemen
reinforcing, is painted before it zoe
| to give solidity to the manufacture
stone. The huge Orders of the sky
scrapers are daubed an ugly but eff
cient red underneath the surface Goa
of black. Perhaps the best eXampl
OF the value of paint on steel is foun
in the venerable Brooklyn bridge, %
which a gang of painters is kept &c
ing continually. 1t is scarce pOssibl
10 think of single manufactured al
ticle which does not meet paint some
where in the course Of its com lru,
| It