CHAPTER XIII 

 TENNESSEE PAINT TESTS 



Location and Object of Tests. On September 15, 1910, the 

 erection of a wooden test fence was completed on the State Fair 

 Grounds at Nashville, Tenn. Upon this fence were exposed 

 forty-two samples of white paint, the object of the test being 

 to determine whether the combination type of formula is superior 

 to the single pigment type in the southern plateau, of which 

 Nashville is the centre. 



Construction of Tests. The construction and outline of these 

 tests differ somewhat from those conducted at Atlantic City 

 and elsewhere by the Scientific Section. The fence frame is 

 150 feet long, being made of 6-inch bevelled girders supported 

 three feet from the ground by 4-inch posts set six feet apart. 

 Upon this girder were placed a series of forty-two test panels 

 supported at top and bottom with weather strips and braces. 

 The test panels used were 40 inches high, 30 inches wide, and 

 one inch thick, being made of the highest grade white pine, 

 tongued and grooved together, and protected on the edges by 

 weather strips projecting from the surface of the panels. Each 

 panel was painted on both sides with the same paint, thus giving 

 an eastern and western exposure, the fence running north and 

 south. The formulas used in the test vary in their percentage 

 composition, being made up in some cases of single pigments, 

 and again with combinations of the opaque white pigments, with 

 and without certain percentages of the crystalline or inert pig- 

 ments. The paints were applied under the supervision of promi- 

 nent master painters and a committee representing the Scientific 

 Section and other technical organizations. 



Other field tests have shown that the sap and knots in hard- 

 grained woods, such as yellow pine, cypress, etc., have been the 

 cause of the failure of even the best paints, and that all tests should 

 be conducted upon soft woods, such as white pine and poplar, 

 if definite results are to be obtained. Paints tinted with ochre, 



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