Mythbusters

[Jim Baird]

To avoid threadjacking I am posting here instead of the Exteriors section re the old brick walls.

Now that the red barn paint from old brick and skim milk story is debunked, have you all heard the one about the origin of Dutch boy paint (once a brand if not still one), and by extension leaded paint in general?

Story I have is that a cpl of centuries ago there was a big leather tanning business in the Netherlands. The process involved treating hides in big vats, the sides of which would be coated after some time with a thick accretion that was high in lead content.

Tanners would hire little boys to climb into the vats to scrape off the goo, which someone eventually realized made excellent paint. The boys who did the dirty work tended not to live very long, however.