Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/310

302 decays, and some places, such as stables, where sulphuretted hydrogen abounds, it is useless to paint with white lead, and if zinc is used these disadvantages are avoided.

Zinc white has a very good body, better, or as good as white lead. If a proper comparison be made, and if both be thinned out to a consistency suitable to be applied by brush, it is true that zinc white will apparently not have so good body as lead, but it will spread much farther. If an exactly equal quantity of lead and zinc are both painted on an exactly equal area, zinc will cover a little better than lead. In this state, however, the consistency of the zinc paint would be rather too thick. It is easily thinned, more so, comparatively, than the lead would be.

A consideration of these facts will show the practical painter that less zinc than lead will be required to perform a good job, and when the durability is also taken into consideration as well as the beauty, it will not take long for him to make up his mind as to the superiority of zinc.

There is one point, however, about its use which must be explained. Zinc white is, when compared with lead, quite light in weight, or, in other words, its volume is much greater than lead. Now, it being an entirely different product, it must not be treated in the same way as lead would be. The painter, perhaps, takes some zinc, mixes it with raw oil, with a liberal amount of patent driers and a more liberal dose of turpentine, and then he grumbles because it does not show up to advantage. What he does is to destroy its inherent good qualities. To repeat then, zinc white must not be treated in the same way as white lead.

The proper way to treat zinc white is to mix it with refined boiled oil, no driers should be used, and only just sufficient turpentine to bring it to the required consistency. Being pale, it does not destroy the whiteness of the zinc, while it certainly aids considerably in drying. In fact, it is the only practical drier for the zinc, far better than patent driers, or any other goods of the kind. It is paler than raw