Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1919-07-10
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
interpreted the Ark


meet a desire for beauty is a 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 1t serves both purposes
equally; so whether it is offspring
OF mother necessity or an adopted son
OF beauty remains forever a disputed
question.
The first men, covering under the
fierce and glazing 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 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 1T 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 appIica-
ton of a preServative 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 a thing of beauty
Decoration applied to buildings first
COE1CS 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 the bricks at the time of
manufacture, assuring permanence by
baking. Strictly speaking, this was
not painting so much as it was the
earliest manifesto ton of our own ia
miliar ka1somining.
The first Hebrew to mention paint
@T,y ,s~.<1
ter of the book of Numbers he in
structs the IsraeIites, 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
lures -
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 allusion to
the art of decorating, For 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 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
lon and Thebes fix its origin at a
period long antecedent to the Grecfan
era. The walls of Thebes were paint
ed 1000 years before the coming of
Christ and oo6 years before "'Omer
smote his bIoomin' Tyre
The Greeks recognized the value OF
paint preventative and made
of something akin to 1t 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 destroy
the wood thus protected"
The Romans, being essentially q
warlIke people, never brought the dec
grafton of buildings to the high plane
it had reached with the Greeks. For
all that the ruins of Pompeii show
many structures whose mural decora-
tons are in fair shape today. The
coIors 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
mosafcs for churches somewhat sup
planted mural painting Still. during
the reign OF Justinian the Church OF
Saint Sophia was built at Constantine
pie and its walls were adorned with
| paintings
In modern times the uses of paint
have come to be as numerous as it's
myriad shades and unts- Paint is
| unique In that its name 1as no syno-
| nym and for 1t there is no substitute
1 material Bread is the staff of life, but
| paint is the life OF the staff
/ No one thinks OF the exterior of q
| wooden building now except in terms
/ of paint coated Interiors, too, from
painted walls and stained furniture
down to the lowliest kitchen utensfl,
/ all receive their protective covering
Steel so often associated with cement
reinforcing. Is painted before 1T goes
| TO give solidIty to- the manufa ctured
| stone The huge Orders of the sky
| scrapers are daubed an ugly but ef1-
| c1ent red underneath the surface coat
| OF black Perhaps the best example
| OF the value OF paint steel is found
| in the venerable Brooklyn bridge, on
| which a gang of painters ID kept GO
| ing continually 1t is scarce possible