Document Rpqrr88q42vMw99109BE28Zpa

THE CHAMELEON A magazine for employees of The Sherwin-Williams Company. Published at Cleveland headquarters since January, 1898 601 Canal Road, Cleveland, Ohio VOLUME 25, NUMBER 9 Edited by E. W. Garfield j u in e.--JU-Lr, A BUSY SUMMER PRING has come and gone. Some insist there wasn't any. And we can't argue with them. "Babe" Ruth says there were only five days in May fit to play ball. The same applied to paint ing weather, only more so. And June hasn't been much better so far. But we aren't making alibis and are busy in all depart ments trying to make up for the delayed sunshine. It looks now as though the Summer would be very active for painting in all sections. There is every evidence that July and August will be real painting months, with splendid prospects for a genuine Fall painting festival. In the Sales Departments there may be some delayed vacations, as our big Sales Chief has asked all the sales force to be ready to take advantage of Summer painting activity by being on the job. Others will be taking the usual and customary recreation periods to refresh themselves for the months ahead. Headquarters has been busy planning ahead for the coming year. District Managers will confer in Cleveland the latter part of June and between then and September 1st, everything will be put into shape for a flying start Sept ember 1st. Unusual plans, new and distinctive, will be ready and carried to the front line trenches before September 1st. The Chameleon has been delayed, not because the Editor has Spring fever, but because there have been few fires, deaths, or important events of a news nature. We are putting out this June number because we feel we have suffi cient news of interest to the staff, to make the issue welcome. Our policy will be to publish the Chameleon whenever we feel this way. Our best efforts will be put into these pages, so that when we do publish a magazine, it will be 'interesting, instructive, readable, welcome. While most of you will be resting up some time during the Summer, the Editor will be on the job, keeping his eyes open for the sort of happenings that have made this magazine what it is. Take the camera along and let us in on your plans, whether a real vacation or just a "week-end." It looks as though there will be a beehive of activity all Summer, as America paints up with our products. And those who may be called upon to work a little harder than usual will share in the satisfaction, when they do get their vacation, of feeling that they had a part in closing the fiscal year of 1923-24 in an avalanche of business. After all, we enjoy the things we work for the hardest. "A real Summer to all!" is the Editor's wish. Vs*: 14 THE CHAMELEON June-July, History of Sherwin-Williams Products No t e: Tlv, is the second part, the first part having appeared in the March issue. The earliest mention of drying oils as a paint vehicle is by Aetius, a Greek physician, in the beginning of the sixth century. This may have been Linseed Oil. Heraclius in the seventh century A field of flax in bloom is a beautiful sight. first mentions the mixing of oxide of lead with oil to make it dry quicker. In the library at Lucca is a manuscript of the eighth or ninth century giving a recipe for a transparent varnish composed of linseed oil and varnish gum, probably amber. Oil painting had been definitely established as early as A. D. 1100, though in an unsatisfactory form. In fact the art of painting was very crude until the fifteenth or sixteenth century when it un derwent a transition from ancient to A primitive, crude method of crushing the Tongnut. modern art. About this time other oils such as poppy seed oil and walnut oil came to be much favored. In a turpentine grove. By W. R. SlEPLEIN China Wood Oil or Tung Oil though employed by the Chinese for centuries in finishing their junks and for lacquers, was introduced into the manufacture of varnishes only about 25 years ago. Fish Oils have evidently been used for many years and other seed oils and petroleum have also been widely used. But during all these centuries. Linseed Oil has been, by far, the chief oil for the paint industry. Turpentine from European pine trees dates back for many centuries, but Ameri can turpentine that we know today was first developed by the early settlers in the southern states about 300 years ago. Naphtha, of course, followed the dis covery of petroleum in the United States when Col. Drake sunk his first oil well in Titusville, Pa., in 1859. The varnish gum first used, no doubt, was amber, as it is found quite generally throughout Europe and beads made from it were found in the early British graves and Etruscan tombs. Other varnish gums such as Zanzibar, Sierra Leone, Benguela, Mastic, Sandarac. no doubt, preceded the modern Kauri and later Manilla, Brazilian and Congo gums. Shellac has been known to the natives in India for several thou sand years and used as a varnish gum for some centuries, as a manuscript issued bv Akbar, emperor of Hindustan in 1590, mentions the proportion of Shellac gum to be emploved in varnish used for the woodwork of public buildings. (This seems to be the first definite reference to specifications for paints or varnish materials.) This background of ancient history brings paint and varnish products through centuries of slow progress down to 186(5 when Henry Sherwin entered the busi ness as a dealer in paints, oils, varnishes, etc... with Truman-Dunham & Co. In 1870 Mr. Williams came into the firm, the former partners retired and a new partnership was formed under the name Sherwin-Williams & Co. Mr. Fenn also entered the service during this year. In 1871 the partnership of Murphy-Sherwin 8: Co. was formed for the manufacture of varnishes. This connection continued for a number of years until in 1S88 the interests were merged with the SherwinWilliams Co. The manufacture of paint was first undertaken in 1873 when a building on the site of the present Cleve land plant was bought. No authentic record of details exist prior to a small book started in Mr. Sherwin's own handwriting, October 25th. 1873. The first formula recorded is for Guaranteed Strictly Pure Raw Umber in Oil. the product being the highest.quality it is possible to make. It is particularly interesting to note that this first formula Method of locating deposits of varnish gi shows a complete system of code ni bers for raw materials and formi practically the same as that in use toe The numbers (21) Raw Turkey Uml (2) Raw Linseed Oil and (7) Jap specified in this formula today carry j the same meaning. Chrome Greens first used in l-'ranee in lS$ The cost was figured by a method f: in advance of the time and applied tl same fundamental principles as are us( for the basis of our present very contple cost accounting systems. Harvesting branches inenisted :eith crude shellac. Insert, the malelae bug greatly enlarged. i SUP 652264 June-July, 1924 THE CHAMELEON 15 The line of Guaranteed Strictly Pure The Company soon found that paint time is particularly interesting, as it rep Oil Colors was found to be much too good grinding machinery available was far resents the first high grade prepared paint for" the trade and cheaper lines of Oil from what was required and concluded ever produced and to quote from Mr. Colors were produced shortly afterward, the only way to get a mill that was de Sherwin's Golden Jubi sold under the labels Standard Color pendable for the high quality of product lee Message: Works, Imperial Color Works and Cam to which we aspired, was to design one "There had come to bridge Color Co., Colors in Oil. for our own use. Accordingly about be a well-founded pre The labeling and branding of products 1875 a great deal of study and engineer judice against prepared from the very first has been most con ing skill was devoted to the problem and paints, but the way had scientious, great the present type of standard S-W mill been opened to fill a care being used was the result. Many refinements have long felt want, and to make no mis statements as to the quality of the been added since but the. fundamental idea was so far in advance of the time that the mills used by S-\V today are our gradually the larger and older manufacturers be-' The first can of SWP Jan. 14, i88r gan to turn their atten product. Sher- own manufacture and are far more tion to the production of paints in liquid win - Williams efficient than any offered on the market. form of reputable quality. Co.'s name was used only on goods of the highest quality The original paint factory for the purpose on the Cuyahoga Rher, intended, any Cleveland, O., 1873 other quality made did not show S-W name on the label. First Quality Colors under this label were first produced in July, 1876. These goods were not then strictly pure, but represented a better quality than any other offered on the market, except the Guar anteed Strictly Pure Oil Colors which had been struggling along for the three years previous. It is very gratifying to "With this handicap of prejudice and failure before us, we put all of our energy into experiments to see if we could make a really good paint in liquid form. I need not tell you the results. Sherwin-Wil liams Paint was put on the market as the best paint that had ever been made. This claim has had abundant proof for over a During this first year 83 different note that this effort to supply the trade third of a century and today Sherwin- formulas were made, a total of 450,000 with the best possible quality bore fruit, Williams Paints are the widest known, the pounds. All this tonnage was oil paste as shortly afterward First Quality Oil best liked, and by far the most largely paint and graded leads. Co'ors were improved to he strictly distributed of any in the world." The earliest formula record ed and still in use without ma terial change is Rex 8, Ameri can White, which was origin ally brought out under the label of Navy or Eagle White, Oc tober 31st, 1873. pure, using the same formula as the Guaranteed Strictly Pure Col ors, and all other brands were dis continued. In March, 1877, there was an attempt to market Strictly Pure Lead Tinted. There were ten col ors and the goods were There has been a constant improvement in quality since the original manufacture of SWP and it is quite evident that the Company's policy to manufacture the best possible paint for the purpose has been a very great force in uplifting the character and quality of paint making generally. At this time a line of Lead and Zinc tinted paints was pro duced under the label Cottage Colors, this later developed into the present PCP line. Henry Alden Shcrwin- Special paint for agricul About 1866 tural implements, is first recorded No cold guaranteed to contain SWP was originally offered for prac nothing but Strictly tically any kind of painting but later as Pure Lead and Oil and the uses became more specialized, other coloring pigments. lines were produced. The first SWP color For eighteen months card refers to its use for floors, making this met reception with a and in very 1880 S. P. Penn, 1870 special mention that several days must be allowed between coats and a week' or two vember, 1873. French Zinc in Varnish, was discontinued and the manufacture to dry hard before the China Gloss, was first made January, 1874, and has been continued under this same name and Rex number 24, unchanged to the present day. French Crown Green was first made in March, 1874. on the same formula and number as at the present time. Distemper Colors and Q. D. Colors were first made in May, 1874, and in October of the same year Graining Colors were produced, the formulas being practi- of a lead and zinc colored paint was again resumed, then under the name of Pure Colored Paint. In December, 1878, Osborn Family Paint was made, this being the first com plete line of tinted prepared paints pro duced. It was a very good paint, the white being equal parts of lead and zinc, and the thinner, equal parts of pure boiled oil and turpentine, with a small proportion of turpentine drier. after the last coat for it floor could be used. The public apparently were not willing to stand for this and in April, 1S84, Special Floor Paint to dry over night was put on the market. Wood Stains and Paste Wood Fillers followed in 1885 E. P. Williams and Creosote Paint was an ` lS' made as the most satisfactory paint for cally the We began our own printing in 1876 in farm buildings, and in 1886 Roof and same a s one room with two small job presses and Bridge Paint was first made. $ those now in use. The first liquid paint: on record was a B 1: u e Enamel made 0n Marc h 5, 1875. The man ufacture of tin c;ans Standard S-IV Paint Mill designed about 1S73 was taken up during 1S75 and a special type of press can was patented in 1877. one Globe press, shortly after another Globe press was added. Mr. Beardslee joined the Company in 1880 and shortly after became head of the Manufacturing Department. It was under his direction that the paint and varnish production gr r to its present proportions. SWP was first produced September 30. 1880, and originally was known as "Painters Prepared Paint." A few months later. Tanuary 14. 1881. the name Sher win-Williams Paint was first used. A studv of the literature brought out at the 1S80 The present cor poration--The Sh: rwin-Williams Co. was incorporated July It. 1884. In 188S the Company acquind the controlling inter est in the Calumet Paint Co., of Chicago, then manufacturing paints for the Pullman Co. Mr. Martin came into the organization at this time. 7 SUP 65226