Vera Symes age 13, of Lowell, Mass., for her question:
WHEN WAS PAINT FIRST MADE?
Man's u8e of paint goes back to prehistoric times. Early man made paints by grinding colored materials, such as plants and clay, into powder. He then added water and used his new paint for decoration in his caves and tombs and on his body.
Historians tell us that 8,000 years ago the Egyptians were the first people to paint with a wide variety of colors. They made their paints from materials found 1n the earth of their own country and in neighboring areas. The Egyptians also learned to make crude brushes with which to apply the paint.
By 1500 B.C., the Egyptians were importing indigo and madder plants from India to make additional colors. A deep blue color can be made from indigo and shades of red, violet and brown from madder.
Painting and paint making had also become known in Crete and Greece by 1500 B.C.
The Romans learned the skills of making paint from the Egyptians. The Romans, in 400 B.C., were also probably the first to use white lead as a pigment.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the A.D. 400s, the art of making paints become lost until the English began making paints near the end of the Middle Ages. The English used the paints chiefly on churches at first, then later on public buildings and the homes of wealthy persons.
During the 1400s and 1500s, Italian artists made pigments and vehicles for paints. Each artist or craftsman devloped his own paint making process. Unfortunately they kept the formulas for the paints a secret. The formula used to produce a paint died with its inventor.
A few persons went into the business of making paints in the United States and Europe in the 1700s. These early manufacturers ground their pigments and oils on a stone tablet with a round stone. American colonists used materials such as eggs, coffee grounds and skimmed milk.
In 1867, manufacturers put the first prepared paints on the market. Prior to this, manufacturers only made the materials for paint. They supplied the materials to the painter, who had to do his own mixing.
The development of new machines to grind and mix paints in the late 1800s also enabled paint manufacturers to produce large amounts of paint.
Chemists developed new pigments and synthetic resins during World Wars I and II. These pigments and vehicles replaced many ingredients of paints, such as linseed oil, which was needed for military purposes.
Research projects conducted by chemists and engineers have become a major activity of paint manufacturing. During the late 1950s chemists developed better finishes for outside house paints, new types of enamels for automobile finishes and drip proof paints for inside and outside surfaces.