Paint brightens up and beautifies spaces that would otherwise have been dull. This knowledge was discovered as early as ten thousand years ago. Paint was discovered about thirty thousand years ago when people still lived in caves. According to Web Exhibits, a history platform, a paint and coatings company, the cave dwellers, would grind coloured rocks and earth into powders and then add eggs and animal fat as binding agents to make paint for their caves. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, because ancient paints were made from rock, earth, bone and charcoal, the colours were limited to yellow, red, white and black. By 3000 BC, ancient Greeks and Egyptians were importing paint materials from Europe and Asia and by 1000BC, they had learnt to mix and heat sand, lime and copper ore to make paint known as Egyptian blue. In the early 15th Century, Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck invented a method that used oils instead of eggs and animal fat thus inventing oil paint. This is according to the Eclectic Light Company. Because of low technology and scarcity of materials to make paint, it was available to a select few. Some people disapproved of the act with the view that having a colourful home was a sign of vanity and in some places, laws were enacted to prohibit vain undertakings. For example, according to Shearer Paintings, a painting and coating company, there was a preacher in an American colony called Charleston town who painted the interior of his house in 1630 and was subsequently accused of sacrilege. Even then, people liked the idea of beautifying their homes with paint and would illegally produce paint. During this time, the process of mixing elements was done by hand which exposed people to lead poisoning. This is according to Wikipedia, an encyclopedia. In 1718, English entrepreneur Marshall Smith invented a machine for grinding colours. The health and environmental concerns associated with lead in paint became more commonplace until eventually lead was banned as an element of paint. According to the American Coatings Association, manufacturers replaced the dangerous elements with safer ones. It took two more centuries and the industrial revolution for paint to become a commercial and widely accessed good. One important contributor is Sherwin Williams, an American who made a paint that would be packaged in a tin and people could use it without preparing it first. This is according to the Cottage Painting Company. Technological advancements made it possible for paint factories to create a variety of colours and coatings. They also started manufacturing the chemicals required to make the product durable. Initially done to beautify, painting was now also done to protect and preserve places from harmful environmental elements.
