Impact Report 21:22 - Flipbook - Page 9
2.
Paint – a story as old as time
From ancient, natural beauty
to a modern, plastic plague
There is evidence of humans
decorating their living spaces
with ‘paint’ as far back as the
palaeolithic period. Early paints
would be made with ash, chalk
and coloured earths simply
bound with water, primitive sizes
(rendered down animal remains)
or plant seed oils.
Though rudimentary, paint
making had been born and even
today’s paints still involve the
same basic mixture of colourant,
binder and solvent. Making
paint from natural materials
remained a similar process for
around 30,000 years, though
we discovered more and more
useable ingredients and became
more innovative in their use.
Pigments were increasingly
derived from mineral as well as
earth sources and techniques
were developed to process them
for use. Linseed oil became the
mainstay for binding paint as
we learnt how to ‘improve’ it
with heat and using turpentine
as a solvent. Artists and house
painters used the same paints
and varnishes for centuries and
the survival of their work proves
the durability of many of these
traditional finishes.
In the nineteenth century
chemists made discoveries that
allowed paint making to develop
as a modern industrial process.
With the discovery of the useable
properties of coal tar and later
crude oil, came the first ‘ready
mix’ paint, made in Ohio in 1866
by Sherwin Williams, today the
world’s largest paint maker.
The processing of crude oil to
make refined spirits to drive
internal combustion engines led
to the formation of the petrochemical industry. This allowed
the development of ‘plastics’ as
they became known; mouldable
materials (polymers) that could
be used in varying forms. In 1934
chemists at the German company
BASF developed acrylic resins
that could be used in paint.
This allowed the manufacture
of early ‘dispersion’ paints, the
forerunners of our modern
household emulsions.
edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk
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