In reply to a request for ruling, President Short decided that the New York City Council is automatically suspended, although its charter has not been revoked.

The convention urged that the law of the American Federation of Labor requiring local unions of Building Trades represented in Central Bodies to affiliate with Local Building Trades Councils and vice versa, be strictly enforced.

The Executive Council was structed to draw the attention of the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. to the withdrawal of the Plasterers' International Association and to ask that the law requiring it to be affiliated with the department, be enforced.

The action of the main convention regarding the settlement of the dispute between the two factions of the Electrical Workers' Organization was endorsed.

The dispute between the Hod Carriers and the Cement Workers was referred to the Executive Council of the A. F. of L.

Conferences were ordered between the International Association of Marble Workers and the Tile Layers' International Association and between the former and the United Association of Plumbers, to settle jurisdictional differences.

Applications for admission to the department from the Brotherhood of Boilermakers and from the Art Glass Workers' International Association were rejected.

Protests against the awarding of work on large buildings in different cities to unfair firms were referred to a committee consisting of the President and Secretary of the department and Delegate Duncan.

The following resolution, introduced by the delegates for the Brotherhood, was concurred in and the Executive Council instructed to do everything possible to assist in the establishment of the eight-hour day in the Long Island plant of the BrunswickBalke-Collander Company:

Whereas, The firm of Brunswick, Balke, Collander Company, of New York, Chicago and other cities, has refused to concede the eight-hour day and better working conditions, to the members of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America, employed in its Long Island City, N. Y., establishment, although it has granted such conditions to its employees in Chicago and San Francisco, and by its refusal has compelled the members employed in its Lorg Island City factory to cease work in order to secure proper consideration of their demands, and

Whereas, The representatives of the local union directly affected and the general officers of the Brotherhood, have endeavored to adjust the difficulty with the company without avail; therefore, be it

Resolved, That in refusing to grant the eight-hour day and union conditions to the members of the Brotherhood of Painters, etc., the company aforesaid has shown itself to be unfriendly to the principles of trade unionism and unfair to the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America; and be it further

Resolved, That the Executive Council of the Building Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor, be instructed to take such action as may be necessary to convince the Brunswick, Balke, Collander Co., that it is to ts interest to reconsider its action and grant the members of the Brotherhood aforesaid, the eight-hour day and union working conditions in its Long Island City establishment. The Elimination of Unnecessary Strikes.

To prevent the unnecessary loss of time by the members of the different unions and to avoid giving reasonable grounds for unfavorable criticism by employers and the public, the following resolution adopted and embodied in the proposed bylaws for local councils:

was

Whereas, As a number of trade disputes arise between the building trades organizations affiliated with this department, causing the withdrawal of workmen from buildings, thereby imposing great inconvenience upon employers, the punishing of innocent parties, and the organizations affected suffering loss of time and money; therefore, be it

Resolved, That in all cases of trade disputes between affiliated organizations on questions of jurisdiction, they should be referred to a committee composed of building tradesmen, one to be selected by each of the contending parties having the dispute and one by the President of the Building Trades Department. The decision rendered by this Board of Arbitration shall be binding on all parties concerned and no strike shall be ordered pending a decision of the Arbitration Board. But any organization shall have the right to appeal from any decision rendered to the Executive Council of the department or to the next Convention of the Building Trades Department. Ard it is understood that no agreement or decision entered into or rendered by the department or its affiliated internationals shall be abrogated or in any sense abridged.

Election of Officers.

The outgoing officers were re-elected to their respective positions, leaving the membership of the Executive Council as follows.

President, James Short, Stone Cutters. First Vice-President, Geo. F. Hedrick, Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America.

Second Vice-President, Frank M. Ryan, Bridge and Structural Iron Workers.

Third Vice-President, O. A. Tveitmoe, Cement Workers.

Fourth Vice-President, M. O. Sullivan, Sheet Metal Workers.

Fifth Vice-President, Frank J. McNulty, Electrical Workers.

Secretary-Treasurer, Wm. J. Spencer, United Association of Plumbers, etc.

The next convention will be held in Rochester, New York.

The members of the Executive Council were instructed to meet in New York City to deal with the various matters referred to them by the convention.

GEO. F. HEDRICK,
THOS. MCMURRAY,
JAMES LUCAS,
WM. KEMP,

THOS. J. MORAN,

P. J. DOHERTY.

a

S already stated, the French process starts with metallic zinc as its raw material, but the American process begins with the ore, and as the best oxide in the world is produced in the Franklin mine, we shall consider for a moment this mine and its history.

The first paint made from the Franklin ore was an orange-colored deck paint. The red zincite, which probably owes its color to manganese, was ground in oil and sold is a mineral paint.

The mine itself (though brass was made from its ores as early as 1812-1814) was for many years regarded chiefly as an iron mine, since the mineral Franklinite contains sixty-six per cent. of iron oxide. Zinc, however, was also produced here at an early date and in 1835, Dr. Fowler, a member of congress, who at that time owned the mine, made a special opening (since known as the "Weights and Measures Opening") from which he took the ore which was used for making the brass for the standard weights and measures of the United States, as provided by Act of Congress.

Unsuccessful early attempts were made to utilize these ores for the manufacture of spelter, but sometime before 1860, those interested in the property succeeded in perfecting a furnace in which the ores of zinc could be simultaneously volatilized and oxidized, and from that time forward the manufacture of oxide of zinc in America developed rapidly.

So much for history. The deposit is remarkable and of great interest both geologically and mineralogically.

The dip of the vein is about 75 degrees and a shaft has been run beneath it to a depth of 1100 feet. Four tracks have been built on this almost vertical shaft, and on these tracks "skips" or dumping cars run up and down on a rope cable. The loaded cars run to the top of a tall "head house" where they dump themselves automatically and return to be reloaded.

The dumped ore falls by gravity on an immense circular picking table, in the form of a broad flat ring. On this the ore is mechanically spread out, and as the table slowly revolves, sharp-eyed "sorters" seated on both sides, remove the waste rock, which is used for filling the worked out parts of the mine.

From this table, after it has passed all the "sorters," the ore is automatically discharged to the breakers and crushers from which it finally emerges reduced to about the size of coarse sand. This material contains the several ores of zinc, besides the calcite and other waste materials. The problem is to separate the ores from the waste and from one another, since the different ores are used for different purposes.

As Franklinite is the chief source of the pure American process zinc oxides, we shall not follow the remaining materials through the further separations except to note a few interesting details. The calcite and other worthless materials are separated from the ores by their difference in gravity. Willemite, the anhydrous silicate, appears under many disguises, and in some cases, might easily be overlooked. Its familiar color is green, but white, brown, grey, and flesh colored varieties also occur, which might readily be mistaken for other minerals. A few years since it was discovered that a few minerals, willemite among them, phosphoresce under the ultra-violet rays of light, and it was well known that an arc light formed between iron electrodes is rich in these rays. All the tailings from the final separation are now subjected to examination under this light and the completeness of the separation is thus checked up.

The Franklinite and other ores intended for the manufacture of oxide are shipped from Franklin, to the oxide plant at Hazard, Penna., near Lehigh Gap, where the largest plant in the world is located.

These ores are mixed with a certain percentage of powdered anthracite and charged into furnaces, especially designed for the purpose. It all looks very simple now, but many years and many minds were required to bring the process to its present state of automatic efficiency. The furnaces are provided with air-tight doors, but the grate bars are perforated to admit air from beneath.

After firing the charge a blast is directed through the grate bars, and the heated air combining with the volatilized zinc, produces zinc oxide. This intensely hot oxide is drawn and driven by fans through cooling flues which open into hanging fabric bags, through which the gases of combustion filter out, while the oxide is retained.

The collected oxide is removed and packed into barrels containing 300 pounds each, the product being graded as to color. Chemical analysis shows but little difference between the several grades, all of which run about 99% pure oxide of zinc. The residues left in the furnace contain the iron and the manganese of the original Franklinite. These are further treated in a cupola to remove the remaining zinc and the resultant product, spiegeleisen, is sold to steel manufacturers.

This is, in brief outline, the American Zinc Oxide Process. The same method is used at the western oxide plants, but as the raw materials are different, the products differ to some extent. The oxides of zinc manufactured from western ores are not like those made from Franklin ores, pure oxides of zinc. This difference is due to the fact that the ores available invariably contain some galena (or lead sulphide) and often cerussite (lead carbonate). As a consequence, the resultant oxides carry from three to thirty per cent. of sublimated sulphate (with which you are familiar as sublimed white lead.) These oxides containing less than sixteen per cent. are sold as zinc oxides, and are graded according to the percentage of lead they contain.

Those containing over sixteen per cent. of sulphide are sold as "leaded zincs" and are similarly graded.

Whether this lead content is a detriment or the reverse depends upon the use to which the material is to be put. None of these oxides are quite as white as the oxides from the Franklin ores, but where absolute purity of color is not essential, I can see no possible objection to them. is just a little ridiculous, is it not, to advocate with one breath the use of sublimed white lead and other pigments with zinc oxide, and with the next breath to object to their presence?

It

Personally, I am inclined to think that the oxides containing lead sulphate have just a little the better of the argument, when considered for pigments for outside

use.

LITTLE BROTHERS OF THE GROUND.

Bound by gentle brotherhood,
While we gally gather spoil,
Men are ground by the wheels of toll;
While ye follow blessed fates,
Men are shriveled up with hates;
Or they lie with sheeted lust,
And they eat the bitter dust.

Ye are fraters in your hall,

Gay and chainless, great and small,
All are toilers in the field,
All are sharers in the yield.
But we mortals plot and plan
How to grind the fellow man;
Glad to find him in a pit,
If we get some gain of it.
So with us, the sons of Time,
Labor is a kind of crime,
For the toilers have the least
While the idlers lord the feast,
Yes, our workers they are bound,
Pallid captives of the ground;
Jeered by traitors, fooled by knaves,
Till they stumble into graves.

How appears to tiny eyes
All this wisdom of the wise?

-Edwin Markham.

This is the king of all colors. It is the most durable, having more wearing qualitie.. and a greater tinting range than any color in the paint shop. By range, I will here in a word explain that one pound of lamp black in oil, as an illustration, mixed with ten pounds of white pigment, will carry the white farther away from its original color than can any other tinting color.

The requisites of a good lamp black first is strength, then tinting tone, as it must produce in the tint a bluish slate tint, and not a gray, in which latter event a muddy gray would be the result.

Lamp black is the slowest drying color we have, being a lazy oxidizer, and for this reason as well as its color, should never be used by itself.

Genuine lamp black in oil to the knowing ones, as taken from the can, is not a jet black, and if spread under the brush in the solid, and not as a tinter, is not a dense but a gray black.

I stated lamp black was the king of all colors. It is also the King's Jester, as gas black is often sold as lamp black, and costs less to manufacture, is less valuable to the painter, and consequently a spurious article. Drop Black.

We often find manufacturers use the word "ivory" in connection with drop black. This is misleading, as there is no ivory drop black today. In the first production of drop black, ivory was burned, but in the progress

of events bone was substituted. I need not call your attention to the possible cost of drop black were it made of ivory. This color is used as a solid or to produce a jet black coating. The requisite is density or depth of color, covering properties and fineness. Tinting strength is not considered for the reason that it should not be used as a tinting color. In other words, drop black is used where lamp black should not be used, for the reasons stated.

Umbers and Siennas.

These colors are used to produce what the artists term "warm tints." A greater variety of soft, clear and deep tints can be produced with the use of umbers and siennas with white, than any combinations of colors known in the tinting arts. Strength in these colors has no influence with the critical user. The portrait and landscape artist uses more little dabs and touches of these colors than any pair of colors on his palette.

In the production of wood stains, graining colors, and in the art of finishing natural woods and producing imitations thereof, umbers and siennas are the colors principally used, as an artist once said, he could paint landscapes, omitting water, skies and atmosphere, with umbers and siennas alone. A master house painter can display more real artistic tinting with these colors than with any other colors.

Umbers and siennas are products of Old Mother Earth, and the finest grades are mined in Turkey and Italy, and no process is used to make them ready for the grinder other than calcining.

There is a demand for strong tinting umbers and siennas; then richness of tone

and brilliancy of color are sacrificed, and artificial means adopted for strength.

Prussian Blue.

Here is a royal tinter, and strength and brilliancy of color are the characteristics required.

This color for years caused the grinders more trouble in its peculiarities, being a complete chemical color, than all the other colors combined, but has been mastered. The master painters' demands upon the color are slight, and satisfaction is assurred if strength and clearness for tinting are produced.

Greens.

Volumes could be written and hours consumed upon this color, the chameleon of the color makers' production, and the woe and wail of the painters.

Chrome greens are so called from the fact that they contain chromate of lead. These greens are of a widely varying nature, ranging from the technically pure quality to as low as only 5 per cent. or 6 per cent. green, the balance being barytes, china clay, gypsum, whiting or some similar inert base. There is considerable popular misunderstanding as to the nature of this

color, for while it is manufactured or "struck" in a similar manner to other chemical colors, it is in effect a physical combination of Prussian blue and chromate of lead, and is essentially an intimate mechanical mixture rather than a chemi al combination.

Absolute permanency of color is a chemical impossibility in green, even though it is chemically pure, and the green that is perfectly balanced with the proper extender is more permanent than the chemically pure, which has no value other than strength and which can be so strong as to destroy, fade and bleach by chemical action, under the sun's rays, the tint originally produced, consequently a scientifically correct green is not only practical, but economical, and it need not contain over 25 per cent. chemcally pure green.

For an interior solid green, too much care cannot be exercised by the manufacturer in producing a color that is brilliant, and as nearly permanent as its chemical construction will permit. Shade with brilliancy, and the correction of the great evil of the blue separating from the yellow, and floating to the top, are the problems that the factory can control.

R

ENAISSANCE-During the Fifteenth Century religion, art and science expanded. Humanity broke the feudal fetters and a new social life prevailed, stimulated by the study of the ancient arts and sciences and wider propagation of the Christian religion. This period was the revival period.

Italian-Brunelleschi was the first artist to study the monuments of classic art. To his genius we owe the Early Renaissance in Florence. The labors of Brunelleschi and his followers were soon felt in other Italian art centers, Rome, Milan, Bologna and Venice. Its spirit was brought to Rome by Donato, the teacher of Raphael. It supplemented the brickwork architecture of Lombardi. It developed in Venice under Palladio. The student who understands his Greek and Roman will very readily recognize the Renaissance spirit, although outside of Italy the classic motifs were often

liberally interpreted in combination with cartouche, strap forms and shields; survival of Crusader motifs.

The centaur, showing the fore part of a man and the hind part of a horse, was frequently combined with a liberal system of scrolls. Masks, the female form, birds, animals and trophies were conspicuous.

In the Sixteenth Century Venice was renowed for its glass manufacture. Mirrors were invented in 1507, by two Murano glass makers, named Andrea and Dominico, who were given sole privilege to "make mirrors of crystal glass for a term of twenty years." Previous to this time mirrors were of polished metal. The frames of these Venetian mirrors were carved to represent doorways or windows, pilasters, friezes and cornices; sometimes all gilt.

Discoveries of the stuccoes of ancient Rome aroused the Italian architects to a spirit of emulation and the mural work be