• 12 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



market price of white lead and linseed oil the buyer should be able to 

 calculate the maximum price for a mixed paint. 



Two samples of rtady-mixed white paints which were bought at the 

 same time, at practically the same price, will give an illustration of the 

 difl'erence in price of such materials. No. 3361, a white paint, weighed 12.4 

 pounds to the gallon. The total paint consisted of 63 per cent pigment and 

 37 per cent vehicle. The pigment contained 30 per cent zinc lead, 13 per 

 cent white lead, 7 per cent whiting, and 50 per cent barium sulphate. As- 

 suming the value of the zinc lead to be the same as that of the white lead, 

 43 per cent of the pigment was worth 7 cents a pound, and assuming the 

 value of the whiting and barium sulphate to be 1 cent a pound, 57 per 

 cent of the pigment was worth 1 cent a pound. The average price per 

 pound of the pigment would, therefore, be 3.58 cents. A gallon of the painv 

 weighs 12.4 pounds, of which 63 per cent, or 7.812 pounds, is pigment; 

 this, at 3.58 cents a pound, would cost 28 cents. Thirty-seven per cent of 

 vehicle in the gallon of paint will weigh 4.588 pounds. In this paint it 

 consisted of linseed oil and a cheap benzin drier costing about 11 cents a 

 pound, or 50 cents for the vehicle. The total cost of the material in the 

 paint, then, would be 78 cents per gallon. 



Another paint. No. 3864, weighed 14.8 pounds per gallon and consisted 

 of 58 per cent of pigment and 42 per cent of vehicle. The pigment was 

 55 per cent white lead and 45 per cent zinc white. If the price of these 

 two pigments was 8 and 7 cents, respectively, the average price of the 

 pigment in this paint would be 7.55 cents per pound. Since the gallon 

 of paint weighed 14.8 poun^is and contained 58 per cent of pigment, a gal- 

 lon contained 8.584 pounds of pigment and 6.216 pounds of vehicle. The 

 vehicle in this case was linseed oil and a good grade of turpentine drier. 

 The pigment in this gallon of paint would be worth 65 cents (8.584x7.55) 

 and the vehicle 76 cents (6.216x12.25). The total cost of the materials 

 in this paint, therefore, would be $1.41, 



These two paints, as before stated, were bought at the same time and at 

 practically the same price. The prices paid would not be indicative 

 of their value at the present day, since they were bought several years 

 ago, when paint materials were considerably cheaper then they are nov/; 

 but it is obvious that the margin of profit was very much greater on 

 paint No. 3361 than on No. 3864, 



ESTIMATED COST OF COLORED PAINTS, 



Tinted paints, at least those of light tint, consist practically of white 

 paint with the addition of a small amount of coloring matter. The color- 

 ing materials used in tinting are not uniform, and it is not possible, there- 

 fore, to give exact directions for producing a particular shade, since the 

 amount of color used will depend upon the individual characteristics of 

 the particular lot on hand. In general, gray tints are made from white 

 paints by the addition of a black pigment, such as lampblack or bone 

 black, and sometimes a small amount of red or blue is used also. The 

 total amount of coloring matter employed varies, but rarely amounts to 

 as much as 5 per cent. Buff may be made by the addition of mixtures of 



