Message text written by "BP - Dwell time 5 minutes."
>It is intriguing that, although factory-mixed paint was available, all
recommendations from this book (composed of published contractor magazine
questions and answers) explain how to mix the paint from scratch.  It seems
that, even in 1919, painters (probably, at least, the best of them) still
were quite verse in the properties of the components and mixed their own
coatings!<

Early and mid-20th century painters also dropped like flies from lead
poisoning, liver damage, lung cancer and dozens of other ailments related
to limited knowledge and limited respect for the consequences of their
practices. The red lead formula is, of course, completely illegal today and
rightly so. As a result of both environmental and health concerns paint
technology has had to evolve, and while the modern water-borne replacements
for some of the older coatings technologies have finally become both cost
and performance competitive, they are not simple formulations.

Acrylic sealers and lacquers which once simply consisted of an acrylic
resin in solution in an organic solvent, for example, may now have up to a
dozen or more components to achieve a similar film. These may include
co-solvents, to control drying rates and aid in film formation, defoamers
to prevent little bubbles from forming which may create pinholes in the
film, thickeners to control spreading, sagging and film build, surfactants
to improve surface wetting and penetration, microbicides to prevent the
stuff from going sour in the can and so on and so forth.

And all this formulation work has to go on in a state of ongoing change.
Although the Federal VOC standard is not yet a reality, it's day will
surely come. Companies whose complete efforts center around coatings
formulation have to develop the knowledge and expertise to navigate this
change. It would be a rare painter who is equipped to deal with any of
these issues.

Mike Edison
Edison Coatings, Inc.