PAINT THAT MAY SAVE MILLIONS

Evening Star, Issue 19019, 14 August 1925, Page 3

PAINT THAT MAY SAVE MILLIONS

A problem that has been for many years the subject of investigation by Government committees would eecm to havo boon solved —almost accidentally—by a chemist, in tlio service of one of the companies controlled by Sir Alfred Mond (says the ‘Weekly Scotsman’). Industry in tins country is estimated to suffer a drain of something like a hundred millions a year owing to the corrosion of metal and wood fittings and apparatus by fume-laden atmosphere. .Sir .Robert Hadfield has paired the annual cost to the world of wantage due to corrosion at i £/tKJ,OOO,OOO. | The proolem had presem-ed itself in im- ! mediately praclioal form to a manufacturing tirm in the Midlands, to whom it was , a matter of life and death. Day by day the works buildings and plant, of Uio com- , pany were being eaten away by the fumes j oi their own products. I Many preservative paints were tried, but ! without avail, finally a chemist was spednay detailed to investigate means of preventing the damage, and alter years of patient, research and experiment a formula lor a bituminous paint was evolved, winch iteoiued premising. When tested it exceeded thy mo-.t sanguine expectations, it is being put on the market in two forms—one for metal and one tor wood. The o-M.’iiiial principle of the paint is : bitumen m various lands to combined as to make tin m extrunely “colloidal” or I adhe.-.ive 'l'iio discovery has significance for the houselioldur as well as for the engineer and the industrialist. I ;