CHAPTER XVI
STRUCTURAL STEEL PAINT TESTS
The Necessity of Protective Coatings. Most painters have in the past considered of minor importance the painting of iron and steel; any paint that would properly hide the surface of the metal being accepted without much question. The demand, however, for structural steel for office buildings, factories, steel cars, railroad equipment, etc., has doubled the output of structural paints, and created a demand for painters having a knowledge of the proper materials to use in the painting of steel, so that its life may be preserved, and its strength maintained. Such knowledge is as important to the painter as a knowledge of how to properly select materials for the painting of wood, and how to temper these materials to suit the various conditions met with.
The Cause of Rust. Everyone is familiar with the appearance of rust, but few actually understand what causes rust. No attempt will be made here to present even an outline of the many theories advanced to explain the phenomenon of the rusting of iron, for the subject is as diverse as it is interesting. A brief résumé, however, will be given of the now generally accepted theory that explains the subject. This theory is called the electrolytic theory. “Auto-electrolysis” is the term used to define the peculiar tendency of iron to be transformed from a metal possessing a hard lustrous surface, high tensile strength, and other useful properties, to a crumbling oxide that falls to the ground and again becomes part of the earth from which it was originally taken by man.
A Side View of Steel Test Fences
This “going back to nature” is more readily accomplished by most of the steel produced to-day than by the old hand-made irons produced many years ago. It seems to be a curious fact that the more quickly a product or an article is fashioned by man, the more quickly it tends to return again to its original oxidized condition. Some manufacturers of steel, however, through an understanding of the causes of rust, have progressed in the manufacture of slow rusting materials, either by the elimination, or by the proper distribution of impurities.