NEW WHITES
WITHIN the past year White Pigments have made their appearance upon the market which bid fair to replace both Zinc and Lead Whites. All these new whites, which appear to be precipitated mixtures of Permanent White (Blanc Fixe) and Titanium,17 have nearly double the hiding power of Flake White, but what is of greater importance is that they are not affected by any ordinary chemicals and gases and are light-proof and sulphur-proof.
From the experiments made by the author it would appear that a White of this nature is absolutely safe to use, can be mixed with any other pigment without interaction, and while it dries slowly it does not dry with the brittleness of Zinc although when Zinc White is mixed with a heavy bodied Linseed Oil it does not become brittle.
Another new White is Lithopone, which is a Zinc Barium compound that was discovered about twenty-five years ago. When this white was first exploited prophecies were made that it would soon replace Flake White, White Lead, and Zinc White, and that it was the most remarkable White that could possibly be made. As a matter of fact it has never replaced anything because it has a pernicious habit of turning dark in the bright sunlight and turning white again in the dark, but within the last few years light-proof Lithopone has been manufactured and its principal use is for foundation whites and for interior flat wall decoration. It is a pigment that should never be used for landscape or portrait painting but may very safely be used for ground work.