CAMOUFLAGE

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8838, 30 October 1942, Page 1

CAMOUFLAGE

QUARRY WASTE FOR PAINT 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 slates, time is more costly than the raw material. If a piece of slate rock docs not split easily into the shape required, it is thrown aside. Huge slabs of rock, moreover, lies where they wore thrown at the dawn of time, in such n. position that they cannot he worked. Colour fancies add to the heap of actual l-uhhle; any slate with a pinkish tint is usually rejected. All told, for every ton of finished slate produced there may he anything from fiewt to 7 tons of waste.

The resulting accumulation is enormous and for years it has been worrying tlio mineral experts. The war has found several uses for it. Ground 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.