Stanley Doble
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,808
- Location
- Cobourg
filthy, poorly maintained, run down, unpainted hovels. I remember a short story from the twenties about a paint salesman. His business card bore the motto "Hire a good painter - good painters use white lead - white lead lasts".
Even then, lead was not used in all paints. The more lead, the more expensive the paint. Cheaper houses, or the kitchens and back rooms of expensive houses, would be painted with calcimine, a water based lead free paint.
The worst would be old houses, once the homes of the rich, that had been redecorated with lead paint several times before being converted to apartments or rooming houses and allowed to deteriorate, with peeling paint on the baseboards. You have to eat the stuff to get the lead. With gas, I thought breathing the exhaust was enough to pick up the lead.
Even then, lead was not used in all paints. The more lead, the more expensive the paint. Cheaper houses, or the kitchens and back rooms of expensive houses, would be painted with calcimine, a water based lead free paint.
The worst would be old houses, once the homes of the rich, that had been redecorated with lead paint several times before being converted to apartments or rooming houses and allowed to deteriorate, with peeling paint on the baseboards. You have to eat the stuff to get the lead. With gas, I thought breathing the exhaust was enough to pick up the lead.
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