Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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Marcli 2, 1912 RECORD AND GUIDE 433 BUILDING SECTION VARNISH: A TROUBLE MAKER OR A PLEASURE GIVER. The Truth Aboul This Little Understood Building Material—The Story of a Ruined Building—Fearful Risks and How to Avoid Them. VARNISH applied is the outward visible sign of the inward degree of build¬ ing quality. Therefore it is necessary that the jjeauty of good wood be brought out in all it.^ pristine splendor or its de¬ fects be safely hidden and not be made worse by ugly white scars, scratches and abrasions, the sure result of using in¬ ferior varnishes. But Ihe average user of varnisli is not equipped to differentiate between good and inferior wood preservatives, and the onlv test he has is to apply the varnish first and then await results. In the case of the architecL, however, he, of course knows the value of varnishes and in spe¬ cifying them he insists upon using the varnish that positively will not check or crack or become streaky when moisture strikes it or scratch white when scraped. The best test of a varnish, no matter what the purpose to which it is applied, is the reputation of the manufacturer as shown by the stability of his name in the trade and the number of years he has been in business. Reliability is the speci¬ fier's surest safeguard. The architect in¬ sisting upon the use of a certain bi'and in effect guarantees satisfactory results to his client. Therefore he must know bis varnish. Varnish applied on the interior of a home is the basis upon which the owner or occupant fixe.s his pride and satisfac¬ tion. If there are blemishes on those parts of his home upon which his eye constantly rests no ainount of good basic, or rough construction, iflreproofing, or vista will appease his disappointment and disgust. Therefore it is of prime import¬ ance that the architect and owner give thoughtful consideration to the kind of vai-nish he specifies. The experience of a wealthy business man, whose name is known to almost every broker in Wall street, is illustrative He has just completed a palatial home in a suburban New Jersey town. In that home he put the very best wood he could find for trim. This wood was imported in some instances. In others, it was brought from California, from Oregon, from South America and from Africa. A large sum of money was spent in work¬ manship, to make the panels match in grain. Then he bought some varnish. When this varnish dried, a mere bump of an umbrella handle against the surface of that magnificent wood was sufficient to leave a scar that was not eraseable. The appearance of moisture tlirough an open door or window, changes the face of those costly panels a sickly white. A thumbnail pressure will leave a roslnous streak that cannot be effaced. The remedy? Absolutely none. It would cost as much as the repurchasing of a new ordinary hardwood trim throughout to escape ithose costly panels bare of varnish and apply good material, and even then the process would forever destroy the beauty of the wood. An expert carefully studied the varnish used, followed it up even back to the very varnish kettles where it was made and found that tlie failure was due to lack of personal professional supervision in its manufacture. Which leads us to the mysterious realm of varnish manufacture, of which no de¬ pendable instruction on how to make it ever has been put on the printed page. Three times the art of making varnish has been lost and even to this day the ! manufacture of varnish from amber is attended by so many fatal accidents that it has not been perfected except to the extent of producing it for exceedingly high-priced violins and similar musical instruments. The ancients knew this se¬ cret, but it died with them. WhHt is Varulali? Varnish is tbe product of a gum, found in New Zealand, Afrida, Batavia and Singapore, where the white damar gums come from, and a little from South America, Most of it conies from New Zealand today. This gum is of a resinous nature, and here i't should be stated clearly that there is a very great difference between the words "Resin" and "Rosin." The Cen¬ tury dictionary says "resin is a hardened By ALLEN E. BEALS. secretion found in many species of plants, or a substance produced by exposure of secretions to the air. It is allied to and probably is derived from a volatile oU. The typical resins are oxidized hydro¬ carbons, amorphous, brittle, liaving a vitrious fraccure insoluble in water, and freely soluble in alcohol, ether and vola- cile oil. They unite with alkalies to form soap." ■'Rosin, is obtained from turpentine by distillation. In this process the oil of the turpentine comes over and the rosin remains behind. Chemically it is the ■anbydrid of abietic acid, and has many of the physical and chemical properties of ■resins." It is the product of the Georgia pine tree in this country. Rosin is the name of a very low grade of resinous gums. Rosin costs 2 cents a pound, but resinous gums cost 3-5 to 40 cents and up. The resinous gum found today is of fossil character. Like cOal, it is the prod¬ uct of irees which lived and passed out ot existence ages before man began to tread the earth. Originally it was in the form of a sap which ran down the bark of prehistoric trees and was deposited in tbe sandy soil at their foot. Even now tbe gum is found within four feet of the surface of the earth and is sought by na¬ tives with sharp pointed sticks in the countries where- it grows. But unlike coal, there is only a limited supply of this gum left for the world's use and already this materia! is so scarce that had not a substitute for th's gum in the nature of China wood oil, been found in compara¬ tively recent years, it is not improbable that varnish would now be so valuable thai only the very wealthy could use it. Transportation costs are high and the expense of getting it into the country and shipped to various plants is a serious item, even with the use of this alterna¬ tive material. John' D. Rockefeller when upon the stand at the time the Standard Oil Com¬ pany was under investigation by the courts, stated that one reason why oil prices were maintained at the level com¬ plained of was because ne'ther he, nor any one else, could tell what morning he would wake up to find the supply of petroleum exhausied. So it is with varnish gums. There is no telling when the end of the visible supply will come. Every day it is harder to find and the natives who hold the secret of location of these gum mines, will not reveal it to those who would purchase it in larger quantities. This gum comes to manufacturers in 20n-pound boxes. When it arrives at the factory it is put into large copper kettles, where it is heated to about 500 degrees to fuse it. Pure linseed oil is then added according to the grade of finished var¬ nish required, more for outside than for inside varnishes. Turpentine is then added as a vehicle for holding the gum in solution and di-yers are supplemented according to the kind of varnish speci¬ fied. Foritiiilns TrnuMiiittfMl: iVe-ver P^iIlt(^a. Every manufacturei' lias his own form'ula for the manufacture of varnish. It is his stock in trade. It is equivalent to a college education because W'lien a fa.ther hands his varnish making foniiula to his son. that young man is as fully equipped to go out into the world to make his way as is the young man who spends four or five thousand dollars in a college education. He is able to command a salai-y of ¥-^,nOO a year if his formulaes are good ones. Expert varnish makers are scarce and for that reason a manufac¬ turer will hold on to a good varnish maker iis long as he can. There have been formulaes published, but without actual kettle experience they .are worthless. That was the trouble with the varnish used in the suburban home cited. The manufacturer tried to get along without the services of an expert varnish maker with whom he had been associated for a quarter of a century. The formulaes cover, roughly speaking. four grades of varnish; spar, for exterior work; rubbing, interior finish, railroad, carriage or automobile, furniture and lith¬ ographers' varnishes. I'riniary Reqiiiremcnts ot "Vnruish. The requirements of varnish are, (1) general wearing qualities; (2) they must be proof against moisture; (3) they must be proof against checking or cracking; (4) they must dry hard and stay hard; (5) they must have elasticity, that is, they must work out well under the brush; (6) they must be pale so as not to hide, but rather, to bring out the beauty of the woods they are designed to preserve; (7) tbey must be non-scratchable. Unlilve paints, varnishes arc never guaranteed to spread over a certain area per gallon. This is something that can¬ not be accurately estimated because of the character the surfaces to be covered are varied according to whether the sur¬ face is beaded or plain. The manner in which the flller has been applied aiso has much to do with this point. It is always safe, therefore, to discount the statement of any manufacturer,' salesman or dealer who makes unconservativc claims regard¬ ing the capacity of his varnish to spread. Few varnishes are guaranteed. Only those manufacturers who have facilities for adequately supervising their batches can afford to back up their varnishes with a guarantee. But in every case the guarantee has the provision that it must be used direct from manufacturer's can or barrel without adulteration by painter. SuliMtitiite.'^ ITsed in Vuriiish i>Iauutncture> Failures in varnishes are due to im¬ proper manufacture. When a painter thins down his product to make it cover more area, he is applying a varnish in which failure is almost sure to result. An¬ other reason why otherwise good var¬ nishes sometinies go wrong is because the painter has been careless about admit- iiing moisture or permitting the room to become too cool before the varnish dries. Sometinies a painter will have to wash off dirt and stains from wood. If he applies the varnish or the filler before the wood is perfectly dry, he is sure to have trouble. It is essential that rooms that are being varnished _should have a temperature of between (So and 70 degrees F. for perfect results. The same temperature is desira¬ ble for exterior w'ork. .Substitutes or "Dopes" are sometimes applied by painters. In such cases kero¬ sene or benzine is used. They sometinies will'tell the architect or the owner of a building that this does not harm the var¬ nish at'all. merely making it dry quicker. As a matter of fact, tbis adulteration is a prodLicer of larger profit for the painter if he buvs the varnish and, such adulter¬ ated varnish is sure to check or crack un¬ der exposure to the sun. quickly varying temperatures or it will abraise or bruise easily. The only way left to the archi¬ tect or the owner or the householder who uses varnish in small quantities is to sup¬ ply his painter or contractor with whole cans of the brand he wants used'and di¬ rect him to use it from the original pack¬ age. It is highly important that this reservation be made a part of the specifi¬ cations for painting and varnishing so that your instructions will have to be lived up to. Wliut the Cliinese War Hiis Done to Buiiacrs. There would seem to be a far cry be¬ tween the war in China and a New York householder who has occasion to use a half pint of varnish and the architect who would require a hundred barrels of it. yet every user of varnish is indirectly paying a tribute to the cause of the Chinese revolution. I have said that the supply of resinous s-ums is rapidly becoming exhausted. It it But way over in the thinly populated pl'ains of jSIongolia there grows a small nut not unlike the Brazil nut or Nig- substitute for these precious resinous -uut; which were constantly advancing fn price as its scarcity daily became more anoarent When science followed the fiaVs of all nations into this unknown lanci they discovered, what they supposed to be the secret of the manufacture of