Document pepLG8w7GzMkxrq1EyX2wG2Md

ABOUT COLORS. 33 The term vermiculus, used by the Moors, referred to the insect they called Kermes, and hence it seems the name Kermesino or Cremesino, which has in our time be come crimson. The following brilliant pigment from iodine has been improperly called ver massicot to the heat of a furnace with an expanded surface and free accession of air. It is of a scarlet color and fine hue, warmer than common vermilion; bright, but not so vivid as the bi-iodide of mercury; though it has the body and opacity of both these pigments, and has !>een confounded, even milion, and if it should be used to dress or in name, with vermilion, with which it was give unnatural vividness to true vermilion, formerly customary to mix it. When pure may again bring it into disrepute. When and alone, light does not affect its color; . red or orange lead has been substituted for but white lead or any oxide, or preparation or used in adulterating vermilion, muriatic of that metal mixed with it, soon deprives acid applied to such pigments will turn it of color, as acids do also; and impure them more or less white or gray; but pure air will blacken and ultimately metallize it vermillions will not be affected by the acid, On account of its extreme fugitiveness nor will they by pure or caustic alkalies, when mixed with white lead, it cannot be which change the color of the red. of used in tints; but employed, unmixed with iodine. By burning more or less, ver other pigments, in simple varnish or oil not milion may be brought to the color of most rendered drying by any metallic oxide, it of the red ochres. may, under favorable circumstances, stand IODINE SCARLET Is a new pigment of a vivid and beautiful scarlet color, exceeding the brilliancy of vermilion. It has received several false appellations, but is truly an iodide or bt-iodide of mercury, varying in degrees of intense redness. It has the body and opacity of vermilion, but should be used with an ivory palette knife, as iron and most metals change it to colors varying from yellow to black. Strong light rather a long time; hence red lead has had a variable character for durability. It is in itself, however, an excellent dryer in oil, and has in this view been employed with other {rigments; but, as regards color, it cannot be mixed safely with any other pigments than the ochres, earths, and blacks in general Used alone, it answers, however, as a good red paint for common purposes. RED OCHRE deepens and cools it, and impure air soon Is a name proper rather to a class than to utterly destroys its scarlet color, and even an individual pigment, and comprehends metallizes it in substance. The charms of Indian red, light red, Venetian red, scarlet beauty and novelty have recommended it, ochre, Indian ochre, redding, ruddle, bole, particularly to amateurs; and dazzling etc., besides other absurd appellations, such brilliancy might render it valuable for high as English vermilion, and Spanish brown, and fiery effects of color, if any mode of or majolica. r securing it from change should be devised; The red ochres are, for the most part, at any rate it should be used pure and rather hues and tints than definite colors, alone. By time alone these colors vanish or more properly classed with the tertiary, in a thin wash or glaze without apparent semi-neutral and broken colors; they are, cause, and they attack almost every metallic nevertheless, often very valuable pigments substance, and some of them even in a dry for their tints in dead coloring, and for state. When used in water, gum ammoniac their permanence, etc, in water, oil, cray seems to secure it from change; and it has ons, distempers and fresco, and in a low been observed that, whem gamboge is tone of coloring have the value of primaries. glazed over it, it preserves its hue with The greater part of them are native pig constancy. ments, found in most countries, and very RED LEAD. abundantly and fine in our own; but some Minium,* or saturine red,is an ancientpig are productions of manufacture, and we i ment, by some old writers confounded with have produced them in the variety of nature cinnabar, and called sinoperorsynoper, is a by art The following are the most im deutoxide of lead, prepared by subjecting portant of these pigments, most of which are available in.enamel painting; *The anifleiai vermilion used in early rnanuscripts was termed minium. The name is now, how ever, used to designate red lead only. INDIAN RED, According to its name, is brought from 0 0 0 7-SWP- 000007155 *3* SUBSTITUTES FOR WHITE LEAD. the effect of the pictures with a seeming augmented light. In hanging pictures much depends on taste; some will have the bottom edge of the frames round the room to range exactly, while others prefer to see the tine broken. Due care tpust also be exercised so that the shadows of a subject are not placed next to a window, as then the side needing most tight will not recieve it, and a good subject will be spoiled, the owner not knowing why. It is scarcely necessary to mention that small subjects should be hung down near er the eye than subjects with larger fig ures, which can be seen to advantage at a little distance. Pictures hung opposite windows are seldom seen to advantage, as the glass or the varnish reflects the light in an unpleasant manner, hiding the picture from the person standing in front of them. The light in some apartments, too, will suit some subjects better than others, as full light thrown on a picture will bring out its beauties, while a subject of a differ ent class will be better in a room where there is less light. Brass picture rods are usually placed round the top of a room, but in rooms where this is not the case they are secured by nails, cords or chains. In some rooms where the pictures are heavy, they are' secured by brass plates screwed on to the frame, and then screwed to the wall, and this method is preferable, as no cords or chains are seen. Care is required that nails, cords, chains and rings are strong enough, as if either gives way, much dam age is the result It is annoying to come down stain in the morning and find a heavy frame and picture damaged on the floor, and the remains of broken vases, etc., smashed in its descent There is to be had gilded wire cord of various thick nesses, that will not stretch like the usual cord employed for the purpose, but even this requires looking to at times, as the friction and strain on a hook or nail weak ens the wire. Where no brass rods are put up, the pictures must be hung on nails or hooks, and these should be well secured. It will sometimes be necessary to plug the wall, but a good hold for a nail is often found at the top of a room. Nails can be had with . brass heads, also with heads of white por celain to screw off and on; with these last care must be taken in driving them, or the bur caused by the blows will hinder the head from being screwed on. The color of the cord should correspond with the paper or paint in the room as much as possible, so as not to be notices, as it is no ornament to see cords on the wall. If two or three tiers have to be arranged, it is necessary sometimes for the top tier to lean forward to obtain a good view of them. This can easily be accomplished by putting in the rings about one third of the distance down the sides of the frame instead of in the top, and the lower the rings are put, the more forward it will hang. This method is advantageous where glazed pictures have to be placed opposite the light, as it helps to throw off the reflection. Where the usual picture cord is used, it should sometimes be looked to, as it is liable to break where it is in contact with the nails and rings, and is constantly get ting thinner by stretching from the weight of the picture. _ It wilt be seen from the foregoing re marks that the seemingly simple work of picture hanging requires taste and judg ment, and that due care must be exercised to make valuable pictures secure in their positions.--The Paper Hanger. SUBSTITUTES FOR WHITE LEAlfc' Th e attempt to introduce some other lead compound as a substitute for white lead appears to have a ceaseless charm for inventors, in spite of the very long list of complete and more or less costly -failures in that direction. One of the most perse vering laborers in this field appears to be Mr. A. French, who is the proprietor of several patents for obtaining the much de sired substitute by means of lead " fumes" from smelting furnaces. We recently noticed his proposal to make a black paint from the fume by converting it into lead sulphide. He has already patented the the qse of the fume, caught in a special' condenser of which he was joint patentee with Mr. Wilson, as a white paint. Hy a still later patent he proposes to make use of this fume by acting upon it with hydrochlbricacid,and thusproducing an oxychlor ide of lead, which isto give "an excellent white pigment requiring very little oil to form white paint, of the consistency of ordinary white tead." We may take it that the condensed fume of Mr. French's former patent has not been largely adopted THE PORTFOLIO. *33 as white paint, as he now proposes to further act upon it with hydrochloric acid. It is very curious how the same attempts axe made over and over again, and how little inventors trouble themselves to find out what has been done before them in the same direction. The preparation of a white paint from oxychloride of lead was proposed many years ago by Mr. Pattinson, inventor of the process for desilverizing lead which bean his name. He worked out a very beautiful and successful process for preparing the oxychloride direct from galena, and started a works to carry on the manufacture. The product was very beau tiful, but it did not succeed in displacing the white lead, nor even getting used to any extent alongside of it. The fact is, that notwithstanding the constant assertions of successive inventois that their particular preparation has the "consistency" and all the good qualities of white lead, it has so far invariably been found by the painters that such is not the case, and finally, after all the generations of experimenters, white lead and the old "Dutch" process for making it, still remain practically unaffect ed by their rivals.--Engineering. THE PORTFOLIO. Fries Usu far Painters. Sc v x r a l painters who have finished learning theirtrade, end have saved same money,are anxious to go into business for themselves, and have written to us for price lists and methods of estimating on jobs of decorative work. We presume, from the crude and imperfect character of the letters rereived, that the young men who wrote them have had very meager educational advantages, and that they expect to find a book which will tell them juri how much to charge for painting n building or a room of a given rise in order to secure a contract and be sure of a profit. We believe some enter prising publishers in England undertook to get up such a book, proceeding far enough with their work to gather considerable information--enough to sat isfy them of the futility of their project. In Eng land alone, a country smaller than one of our larger States, there was found to be so little uni formity in prices of labor and material and in the condition of buildings, that it would have been attpost impossible to apply the same prices 10 two different towns. If in England the variableneu of conditions was an obstacle to the issue of a price list which could not be overcome, how much more would it prove so in our larger and more varied country. Towns of wealth and culture require a different order of work from towns which era newer end less favored in this respect; wages of workmen will vary according to the character of work they do and the cost of living--a dollar being more powerful in some places than in others; the prices of material wilt vary according to quality and some whataccording to cost of transportation; the charge for work most depend largely on the strength of com petition between decorators; the condition of the building will affect tbc coat of painting. In order to issue a price list yhich would be of value to American painters there must be e uniformity of conditions throughout all the States which in the nature of things is never likely to exist. There are a few uneducated men of excellent judgment and long experience who succeed very well in business. They make some blunders, some failures, yet .win their way to success in time. Bat there is no certainty in making estimates without a knowledge of values of the material end labor involved end the ability to take accurate measure ments, nuke allowance for varying conditions, and determine the cost, and add to it the reasonable and necessary percentage of profit. There it no easy way to do away with the necessity of these qualifications. Education is s necessary basis for a successful business career. Lacking this, especially where then is competition, a man mutt succeed, if at all.bysuperior energy of will or by dishonesty. Presuming that the young painter has some edu cation, or at least knows how to figure simple arithmetical problems, his first step in dealing with a customer it to find out what kind of a job he wishes done--whether he takes pride in his build, ings end does not mindexpense if he is pleased,or whether he wants the best he can get for little money. Having ascertained about the sum which it is purposed to lay out in painting, the pointer will neat ascertain what colors are preferred by the customer, always taking care to inAucnee hie choice, so that the job when done will be an artistic one. The dimensions of the portions of the building should then be carefully uVen, making liberal allowance for all trimmings, projections, porous walls or lumber, brackets, scrolls etc, and meas urements taken in equal* litct. Find out neat how 266 MINERAL SUBSTITUTES. gray stone, which was met by shingles of the same soft color, and beyond that dark olive green weather boarding, which also covered portions ot the second-story, thus intermingling and harmonizing delightfully with the gray shingles. The chimneys, which were outside, of course, were elab orate in construction and afforded all the color effect needed, some black brick being used with the red. A few panels of terra cotta with designs in relief, completed this perfectly simple but quite faultless struct ure. Such a house is a silent teacher. It has purified and elevated public taste when it has shown how superior is the effect of color which is inherent in the structure, to that which is applied purely for decoration. The gray stone, the shingles and the red chimney are real; there is no pretence, no sham, but perfect truth and simplicity. Then, too, the pretty irregularities of sur face, the projections, gables and quaint corners were not intended to make a pic turesque surface on the outside, but to in crease the comfort of the interior. This projection is made by ah alcove, which gives so much more space in the library, that by a recess in the dining room into which the sideboard neatly fits. In other words, instead ofmaking the exterior walls of the house inflexible and compelling the interior to conform to them, (as used to be the custom), the interior is worked out with freedom, consulting convenience in placing windows or in shaping the rooms, and the exterior obliged to confront to it, thus greatljr enhancing both comfort and beauty. At this season, when with approaching winter the plants are being housed and window gardening coming into prominence, we wish to tell of a very happy experiment of our own with Coleus, Acaranthus and other colored foliage plants. By constant ly heading them down during the summer we had developed unusual beauty and healthfulness in the plants and could not bear to think of leaving them to perish miserably in the cold; so, contrary to. all advice and precedent, we selected the fin est and most shapely of the plants, potted them and placed them in a room with plen ty of sunlight They took the shock of re moval badly at first but after two or three days began to hold up their heads and were soon firm and beautiful as ever. They were then placed in the four windows of the library, the sunlight through the glass streaming full upon them. As seen from within they presented a gorgeous spectacle. In the usual war in foliage beds they had been dull and dead in comparison with the brilliant hues developed by the light shin ing through them. German ivy, on each side of the windows was trained over an arch which enclosed this mass of color like a cathedral window. The plants seemed to like this sheltered position and were soon leaning in with luxuriance toward the window panes, a joy to those within and without, and producing more effect than we have ever before or since seen in window gardening. Mas. t . w . p a r me l e . MINERAL SUBSTITUTES. A r e c e h t article in Th e Fa in t e r on "Substitutes for White Lead" reasons that became many attempts to introduce substi tutes having been made without securing for them a permanent sale and use, there fore they could not have been of much value. That does not always follow. How many people will believe that mixed "pre pared paints" will wear as long as white lead--not all mixed paints, but some of them? Time proves these assertions to be facts, yet very few outside of practical painters will believe it. I am hot writing this to puff anyone's goods. When engaged in the business I nev er used mixed paints that I did not prepare myself. - I cannot even say a good word for any special brand, but wish to call at tention to a few facts as they came under my observation, and the result after five years of trial in this changeable, severe climate. After repeated experiments extending over a period of about fifteen years, j be came satisfied that white lead was not the most durable of all materials used in house painting. Yankee like, I was always ready to try an experiment I knew that yellow ochre was a most durable paint; then why not any other earthy paints of the same firmness, weight and bulk? A certain dry color was offered me (I do not care to do any free advertising, but withhold the name) and I tried it It worked nicely; in fact I MINERAL SUBSTITUTES.. *67 was more than pleased with it, because I became convinced that it would spread well and wear well, and that the owners of the building, (a modest frame church) could not fail in being pleased with the work and the small amount of lead which was used. More of it could be added to a given amount of mixed paint, without materially changing the color than any other color I ever saw, and it seemed to possess the natural qualities of a covering paint to a re markable degree. It worked best with any shade of gray, and it was almost equal to Paris green for spreading; and, as it was a natural, positive color it did not fade. There was a some thing about its "feel** which impressed me with the belief that if there was anything in paint materials that would equal white lead for durability this article would very near ly, ifnot quite, fill the bill. I put it upon that church, doing a part of the work my self, because I wanted to see it have a fair trial, and every year I go past that building and it remains to-day as bright as ever. What more does anyone want? If it had been painted white or almost any color, it would have wanted painting again by this time, or before. Now it is a pretty safe rule that no one man or set of men can have a monopoly of all the good things of this world, and there are undoubtedly many good substitutes for white lead. If a man with a wooden pad dle whittled out with a jack-knife can mix a paint of more than one material that will stand a test like that, how much more ought machinery to do under the guidance of skilled workmen who have made a study of this work for years ? Without entering into the relative merits of white lead against cheap mineral paints, the thought has often occurred,is it not just "possible that there has crept into this ques tion of white lead as the only thing for a perfect protection from weather, more or less old fashioned humbug. If white lead really formed a sheeting ofuncorroded lead or its equivalent, then we should all be readyto admit that as a protection from the weather sheet lead is the very best thing to be used. But it is not lead. It is only a dry powder mixed with oiL The com pound becomes very hard and very adhe sive, but does chemistry show that a per fect sheet of lead is formed ? Iam not a chemist and can not answer the question only in a commonsense way, and common sense says. No. Some old painter will no doubt stand up and tell us that he has seen a building that was painted with white lead and appeared bright after ten or even fifteen years. Yes, so have we all, but it was when all the con ditions were favorable, and not the least of the conditions was that an honest workman stood behind the brush. But even that does not prove that white lead will outwear all other colors. The color mentioned upon the little church is apparently as bright to day as when put on five and a halfyean ago. What it may be at the end of ten years we can only judge by present appear ances--the probabilities are that the build ing will neither suffer in appearance nor from the weather in that time. And finally, without entering into this question chemically, why should the sub stance called lead, which is not lead, out wear some other substance which is noth ing but what it looks like--chemical paint or dry, powdered earth. We know that from day a mineral sub stance (aluminum) is produced which is more valuable for all mechanical purposes than gold; then why should we give way to any one material and allow prejudice to dic tate to us what material we should use. It is clear that custom has controlled this mat ter for years, and the only reliefwe have is from people who do not care what the ma terial uso that it looks well for four or five years, when they get tired of it and want a new color. In condusion, permit me tossy that it is my opinion that there are many articles which enter into various colored paints which may be used with confidence in the hope that time and the elements will prove equal to white lead, and that experience will beat chemistry at least half the time. K. P. THATCHER.