CAMOUFLAGE PAINT FROM WASTE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13770, 13 October 1942, Page 7

CAMOUFLAGE PAINT FROM WASTE

BRITAIN'S SLATE RUBBLE MILLIONS OF TONS USED Britain is turning into camouflage paint millions of tons of waste which have been piling up through the centuries around the slate quarries of Cornwall and Wales. In making tiles or plates, time is more costly than the raw material. If a piece of slate rock does not split easily into the shape required it is thrown aside. Huge slabs of rock, moreover, lie where they were thrown up at the dawn of time, in such a position that they cannot be worked. Colour fancies add to the heap of actual rubble; any slat with a pinkish tint is usually rejected. All told, for every ton of finished slate produced there may be anything from 6 cwt. to 7 tons of waste.

The resulting accumulation is enormous and for years it lias been worrying the mineral experts. The war has found seveal uses for it. Gound into a specially coarse powder of between 40 and 80 mesh, it goes to the making of camouflage paint. In finer form, up to 300 mesh, it is a useful filler in paint used as an undercoat for metallic surfaces. And it also appears, as a cheap distemper in roofing felt to take the place of tiles for the war factories.