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The Other White Paint
The Other White Paint
No one could have guessed that something as common and as simple as lead paint
constant migraines and sometimes even death. Paint was made this way for hundreds of
years, but Phillip Landrigan found that any levels above 0.06% (dry mass%) can cause
harm to anyone exposed, especially children who were still developing. This caused its
subsequent ban in 1978. Fortunately for the paint industry, other chemicals such as zinc,
had already been used for many years and was ready to become the replacement. A
Philadelphia man, Samuel Wetherill, had invented a process over 100 years before the
ban of lead paint that helped to create the zinc we still use in every day items, such as
rubber, ceramics, plastics, paints, and cosmetics. It is used to galvanize iron to prevent
rusting as well and these are just a few uses of zinc. And it all started, because Samuel
Wetherill was interested about a different paint, not even knowing what he’d be
impacting.
First a brief understanding is need of what Wetherill came up with. The ores used
are broken down into about 0.5 inch diameter, dried, and then pulverized more. The ore
rocks are separated into five grades. They are then placed on grate-bars inside the
Wetherill furnace. On top of the ores, a layer of anthracite coal about the size of a pea is
spread out. The reason for the smaller size is to maximize the area that the coal is
exposed. Anthracite coal is used also because it has the highest carbon count out of any
coal leading to a better reduction of the ore. The ratio of ore to coal is 2 to 1 by mass.
After “thorough ignition” of the furnace, zinc is reduced from the zinc oxide that was in
the ore to zinc vapor. Immediately after that, the metallic zinc vapor is oxidized back into
a zinc oxide vapor. Normally, other furnaces have trouble with this type of behavior.
They can’t generate enough heat and can’t separate the product from the waste. The
furnace process by Wetherill made the zinc and zinc oxide pure enough that it naturally
separated from the ash and floated up into a bag system for collection. This also helped to
separate out smaller impurities. Wetherill eventually added into the furnace, a thin film of
water that purified the zinc from the waste even more. The bags that collected the zinc
numbered over 70. Before long, the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc works became the
Samuel Wetherill was smart and already had experience in how to make paints.
His grandfather, also Samuel Wetherill, helped to establish the white lead paint business
in the U.S. and business was continued by his father, John Wetherill. Samuel Wetherill
worked for the family company but his innovation took place when he began work for the
New Jersey Zinc company in 1850. He was hired to figure out a way to make a more pure
zinc. However, Wetherill had already been investigating ways to purify zinc from ores,
and now he was given opportunity. After just two years of study and experimentation,
Wetherill had come up with a profitable process for making zinc oxide straight from the
ore. At the same time, another man within the company developed a way to capture the
zinc vapor. Wetherill would not stay employed much longer by the New Jersey Zinc
company. A man named Robert Earp owned a large amount of land in what is now
Bethlehem PA and contacted Wetherill about a possible purchase. This area was rich in
the red zinc ores Wetherill used in his purification process but couldn’t be used very well
in the other zinc purification processes that were currently around. In a fashion that
Wetherill became known for, he bought all of the land. Afterwards, he went back to the
NJZ Co. and offered the land as well as his process. According to a manuscript from one
of his sons, “The management told Wetherill that he will not get his asking price and
could even be sued. They offered $5,000, which he promptly rejected by handing in his
resignation.” Wetherill became known for this type of behavior. While it may seem short
sighted, Wetherill still set up the very first zinc purification process in 1853, very little
over a year after leaving his employ. With the help of a few New York stock investors
and his friend Charles Gilbert. Around 1857, Joseph Wharton took over the company but
Wetherill continued to stay employed at the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company.
When Wharton took over the Penn & Lehigh Zinc Co. Wetherill continually took
material out of the company pockets for experimentation without giving much results, or
even asking for that matter. Again though, Wetherill did achieve something. He actually
had the very first piece of zinc sheet metal made in 1859 after spending much time and
company money on making the zinc pure enough for the sheet. This led to an eventual
addition onto the Penn & Lehigh Zinc Co. building to fabricate the sheet metal in 1865.
Seen above is zinc sheet metal.
lab or otherwise and mostly kept to himself. He wed a Quaker, tolerated gambling, loved
horse-racing, and was involved in politics but only to a minor extent. He had enlisted in
the Civil war in 1861 and organized his own cavalry company which he became
commanding officer. In 1864 he was honorably discharged but not before achieving the
unpredictable but still very cheerful, cordial, and approachable. He did have a certain
way about that that continually got him into some kind of trouble. The experimentation
with making sheet metal was done with company money and time, and multiple failures
were had which was seen as a waste of time/money. Wetherill supervised an addition to
the Lehigh Zinc Co. building and was scolded by Wharton because it took a few months
too many and cost a lot more money than warranted. Wetherill had 7 children with his
first wife, and then three more with his second. He eventually died in Oxford, Maryland
This process effects our every day lives. Zinc is the third most used non-iron
containing metal on the planet. Zinc is used to make brass, an alloy of zinc and copper. It
highly used in pennies. Every penny since about 1983 is made with 97.5% zinc and only
2.5% copper. Iron is coated in zinc to protect it from rusting over and becoming nearly
useless. Though an odd man, Wetherill allowed for so much to happen without even
realizing it. Today we all owe thanks to him for saving countless lives, and improving
Samuel Wetherill, Joseph Wharton, and the Founding of the American Zinc
Industry, W. Ross Yates
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp.
469-514
(article consists of 46 pages)
Published by: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20090901
Handbook of Metallurgy, Carl Schnabel, Ver. 2 1898 Macmillan and Co. limited.
A history of American manufactures from 1608 to 1860 3d ed. / rev. and enl. With an
introd. by Louis M. Hacker. Bishop, J. Leander (John Leander), 1820-1868.