The New Hampshire Gazette

From the Décade Philosophique.

MEMOIR of a METHOD of PAINTING
with MILK.
By A. A. Cadet-de-Vaux, Member of the Academic Society of Sciences.

I PUBLISHED in the "Feuille du Cultivateur," but at a time when the thoughts
of every one were absorbed by the public
misfortunes, a singular economical process
for painting, which the want of materials induced me to substitute instead of painting
in distemper.
Take skimmed milk, one quart (or one
Paris pint)—fresh slacked lime, six ounces
—oil of caraway, or linseed or nut, four
ounces—Spanish white, or whiting, five
pounds.
Put the lime into a vessel of stone ware,
and pour upon it a sufficient quantity of
milk to make a smooth mixture; then add
the oil by degrees, stirring the mixture
with a small wooden spatula, then add the
remainder of the milk, and finally, the
Spanish white. Skimmed milk in summer
is often curdled, but this is of no consequence, as its fluidity is soon restored by its
contact with the lime. It is however, absolutely necessary that it should not be sour,
for in that case it would form with lime a
kind of calcareous acetate, susceptible of attracting moisture.
The lime is slacked by plunging it into
water, drawing it out, and laying it to fall
to pieces in the air.
It is indifferent which of the three oils above mentioned we use; however, for painting white, the oil of caraways is to be preferred, as it is colorless. For painting with
the ochres, the commonest lamp-oil may be
used.
The oil, when mixed with the milk and
lime, disappears, being entirely dissolved by
the lime with which it forms a calcareous
soap.
The Spanish white must be crumbled,
and gently spread upon the surface of the
liquid, which it gradually imbibes, and at
last sinks: it must then be stirred with a
stick. This paint is colored like distemper
with charcoal levigated in water, yellow ochre, &c.
It is used in the same manner as distemper.
The quantity above mentioned is sufficient
for painting the first layer of six toises.
One of the properties of my paint which
we may term Milk Distemper Paint (Peinture au lait de temper,) is that it will keep
for whole months, and requires neither time
nor fire, nor even manipulation; in ten
minutes we may prepare enough of it to
paint a whole house.
One may sleep in a chamber the night after it has been painted.
A single coating is sufficient for places
that have already been painted. It is not
necessary to lay on two, unless where grease
spots repel the first coating: these should be
removed by washing them with strong lye
water, or a ley of soap, or scraped off.
New wood requires two coatings.—One
coating is sufficient for a staircase passage, or
ceiling.
I have since given a far greater degree of
solidity to this method of painting in distemper, but also of oil paint.
Resinous Milk Painting.
For work out of doors I add in the Milk
Distemper Painting, slacked lime, 6 ounces
—oil, 2 oz. white Burgundy pitch, 6 oz.
The pitch is to be melted in the oil by a
gentle heat and added to the smooth mixture
of milk and oil. In cold weather the mixture should be warmed, to prevent its cooling the pitch too suddenly, and to facilitate
its union with the milk and lime. This
painting has some analogy with that known
by the name of encaustic.
There appears to be a mistake respecting the quantity of Milk, occasioned, no
doubt, by the translator. Two quarts of
Milk are requisite for the materials mentioned, or they may be so far diluted as to
spread conveniently with a brush.
The cheapness of the articles for this
Paint, makes it an important object for those
people that have large wooden houses and
fences.
An experiment has been made with this
Paint in this country, and it, at present, appears to answer perfectly the description of
the inventor.