WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER '2, 1940

ABBOTSFORD, SUMAS & MATSQUI NEWS

PAGE SEVENTEEN

Contest for MSA School Children

Abbotsford......Hub of the Fraser Valley

Interesting History of Paint;

forms Basis of Prize Contest

Someone has said of Paint Making that it was ‘‘first an art, then a trick, and now it has become a science.’’ We speak of the war paint of the Indian, and yet we find that the col- ors and patterns employed in decorating his person and his wigwam possessed a serious symbolism.

Present-day science was wun- known to the early savage races, and consequently, they called up- on Nature to provide the colors they used in painting. The abun- dant out-crop of iron oxides gave them red and yellow, while other colors were obtained from the juices of plants, the black soot from smoking fires and colored earths, etc. The caves of Europe have revealed historical records in color of the life of ancient peo- ples, while excavations in Eygpt ‘have uncovered numerous relics showing that color played an im- portant role in the civilization of centuries ago. Many such facts Might be supplied to show that paint has been closely associated with the progress of human civil- ization.

History tells us that of the white pigments used in the mak- ing of paint, the oldest and best known is white lead. Records show here “Theophrastus” (373- 287 B.C.) quoted as follows: “Lead is placed in earthern vessels over sharp vinegar, and boiled.”

One often hears reference made in regard to inventions of the last two or three decades, such as the telephone, automobile, elec- tricity or locomotives, etc., of the amazing progress made; and it is truly wonderful, the manner in which they have been perfected from the crude form at the time of invention.

Paint manuacturing can claim its place in the Hall of Science, as it is today in its modern form.

If it were possible to make a comparative test of ready-mixed paint as it was when first market-

|, and prepared paint, as it is today, it would prove that there has been a wonderful advance to- wards perfection, as with the tele- phone or automobile.

The manufacture of mixed paint has been accredited to some en- terprising New Englanders, who observed that. when a linseed oil

aint was mixed with a solution of Silicate of Soda (water glass), an emulsion was formed, and the paint so made showed very little tendency to harden in a package.

Several lay claim to this discov- ery. The first mixed paint was k in small for home consumption, and made its appearance about 1860.

The general use of Zinc Oxide has had much to do with the pro- gress of mixed paint, for it is well known that corroded white lead and linseed oil settle quickly

keeps the heavier lead longer in suspension.

It ig not likely that the manu- facturer responsible for the intro- duction of mixed paints had any conception of the important place it would hold in the manufactur- ing world, or of the tremendous volume of business created by ed- ucating the consumer to its uses, as has been done during the past few decades especially.

Paint manufacturing is scien- tific in every sense of the word. The quality in the can is only equal to that of the skill in the laboratory, therefore, it is as ne- cessary to have learned men as- sociated in the manufacture of paint, as it is in any other indus- try where chemistry plays a part.

Ready-mixed paint since its in- ception has had many ‘prejudices to contend with. Hand-mixed lead and oil paints made a determined stand against the adoption of the new idea, practically all paint us- ers in the past holding to the theory that pure paint could only be produced by the hand and pad- dle process. But through the «con- stant research work carried on and the addition of new pigments and other materials, the quality of ready-mixed paint, or what is known today as prepared paint, became so apparent as to succeed, in a large measure, in overcoming the competition of its old style hand-mixed rival. Research work is still pare and parce! of the pre- pared paint industry. Ever seeking to produce better quality products, the modern paint manufacturer keeps moving forward and the paint-buying public, realizing the greater durability, economy, con- venience and common sense of Prepared paint, will not willingly return to the antiquated hand and paddle method.

Years of practical demonstra- tion of superior durability, econo- my and convenience has caused the consumption of prepared paint to expand from the humble be- ginnings to its vast proportion of the present day.

Some, indeed, there are, who actually tell their patrons that the paint industry of today is pretty much whe same as it was in the days

in the package, while Zinc Oxide

(Continued on Fourth Column)

TWO PRIZES OF $5 and $2.50 VALUE OFFERED

In connection with the opening of his new store, Mr. Daly offers school children of the MSA Area two prizes, a first prize of a War Saving Certificate of $4 valueand a second prize of War Savings Stamps equal to half a $5 value certificate. Contest is to write the b&st article on the subject “Home- Mixed Paint vs Ready-Mixed Paint” based on the accompanying article from “Paint Truths.”

Essays must be endorsed by an MSA public or high school teacher as the work of the entrant and should be submitted to the A. S. & M. NEWS, Abbotsford, on or before Thursday, October 31,

§

DURING - - -

J. S. DALY’ OPENING

PAINT SALE

Our Conégratulations are : extended to Mr. Daly on his new enterprise.

MARTIN-SENOUR CO. LTD.

1505 POWELL STREET

MARTIN SENOUR ia PAINTS AND VARNISHES

VANCOUVER, B.C.

of their great-grandfathers.

It is reasonable to imagine that at the present time, when every other industrial and scientific pro- cess known to mankind has im- proved by great forward strides to higher and higher stages of efficiency and economy, the paint industry alone has stood still? Certainly not, and you have only to look into the matter of the manufacture of prepared paint on modern lines as carried out at the Martin-Senour plant to realize

that there are better, far and away better. and more scientifié methods of preparing paint for

ible purpose than were ible with the old-fashion- d paddle process. Hand- made paints are the products of by-gone days. Their worth is of the same relative value as the tal- low dip, the stage coach and the flintlock musket, all satisfactory enough in their time, until mo- dern inventive genius created things more suited to present-day requirements,

The paint industry is no excep- tion, and progressive painters everywhere recognize the fact.

They realize the better quality of present day paint, and they ap- preciate the time-saving advant- ages represented in modern meth- ods of paint manufacture. Such men know that the paint of to- day prevents the wasting of valu- able time which the practices of other days necessarily involved. While many painters advocate and prefer hand-mixed paints in their shops for ordinary purposes, they prefer the factory-made pro- duct when requiring paint for work on big contracts, thus testi- fying to the superiority and sav- ing represented in ready-mixed paint. Elbert Hubbard once said, “When the machine will do the work better than a man, let the

machine do it.” A machine will do mechanical work better than a man, will do more of it in a given time and at a lower cost.

In competition with machinery at mechanical labor, the machine always wins over the man. Pre- pared paint is mechanical” effici- ency plus concerted intelligence; hand-mixed paint is human brawn plus individual Juck.

Prepared paint is the product of exceptional facilities and com- lete organization, Accuracy and

tion of results are assured

at every stage of its production, While hand-mixed paint always in- volves a s i Fi little more-of-this, and little more-of- that attempts, and in the end an exact color match is not obtained. Prepared paint is made by form- ula from materials which have passed chemical inspection and been calculated to standard. The

paint manufacturer knows at

‘ Abbotsford in 1940

the main “street” of Abbotsford

via what is now Hazel street. botsford, top, the same building

The beau

its way west to the Coast. block on the west. Sylvan

tracks cross the main street a’

--- and 40 Years Aigo

The building just vacated by Daly’s stores is discernable in the pioneer scene, above, as the last on the left (oppesite the barn) of

as it appeared about 40 years ago.

The highway stopped there, and swung north and thence west again

In the most recent picture of Ab- is seen at the corner, one block

past the Hotel Atangard, with the broad payed Trans-Cahada high- way extending to the town limits and then angling to the right on

new “Daly's néighbors” the hotel ity of Abbotsford, nestling between

protective Sumas Mountain on the east and the Matsqui plateau on the west is seen to advantage in the top Prairie is to the north (right of picture) reclaimed lake area to the south and

picture, Fertile Matsqui and Sumas Prairie and east. C.P.R, and B.C.E.R. t centre of picture.

every moment, a@ per cent, exactly what is in the product and why.

Assurances as to the character and quality of raw materials is of the utmost importance in the character of the paint produced. Such assurance is impossible with- out the aid of chemical and physi- cal experts, who are not available to the painter who buys and mixes

his own materials, When a form- ula has been proved by test or experience to be right, it is im-

portant that it shall be duplicated, in order to duplicate results. Such duplication is impracticable in small quantities outside of the Ja- boratory, hence every lot of paint prepared for use by hand in the paint shop varies from the ac- cepted standard. In the paint fac- tory duplication is made possible.

longed by and electr gress ha Machinery production

only facilitated and improved manu- factured products, but by cheap- ening commodities, plated them within the reach of the common people and thus vastly broadened consumption. An unpainted build- ing is today, a reproach, simply

because mechanical progr has made paint plentiful and cheap

Take a power mixer for in- stance, it will tint to a uniform gray, in 8 or 10 minutes, 1000 gallons of white liquid paint. with lamp black. To obtain a uniform tint in one gallon of this mater- ial, by hand, would require hour on constant stirring,

Moreover, the machine-mixed paint is sold in pac

etly as much

n and no more, If he

e needs

to the fraction of

runs short, another can will make up the shortage without waste. Hand-mixed paint, on the other hand, cannot be made to the exact tint required without either short- age or excess occurring. Tinting colors ,vary in strength. If too much is used, more white must be added—and someone must pay for the excess of paint. If not enough is made, it is almost im- Possible to match exactly by mix-

‘ng a small additional quantity.

Any painter will admit that he can make better paint by stirring his ingredients together half an hour than by. stirring only fifteen minutes, or by stirring a full hour instead of only half an hour. But the mechanical efficiency of the Paint machine, working a few Minutes, is greater than that of @ man working a whole day. Con- Sequently, whatever virtue there is in uniformity of composition and thorough incorporation of materials always present in prepared and never in the hand-mixed product the prepared paints have all the advantages of durability, uniformity, economy and conyenience

In the making of hand-mixed lead and oil paint, the painter brings into the very best knowledge facilities at his

command. But the painter is a craftsman, not a technician, and

his business is painting, He is ex- pected only to know the correct method of application and proper treatment of surfaces, and not the chemistry and science of the manuacture of paint.

Good paint is the sum of good formula plus proper procedure. Bad paint may either be the re- sult of a bad formula or the sum of a good formula plus a bad pro- cedure,

Martin-Senour paint products are correctly and scientifically mad the result of a definite and a definite and unvarying formula.