Minerals paint a picture for our everyday lives

By Graham Ellicott

The origins of the quotation are confused. “One picture is worth ten thousand words” has been attributed to Confucius but a far more likely source is in fact the American Frederick R Barnard of the Street Railways Advertising Company. He used the phrase in the trade journal Printers' Ink in 1927 to describe an advertisement that his agency had designed as part of a promotional campaign.

To give the campaign more pizzazz Barnard is thought to have attributed the quote as a Chinese proverb. It was in truth a case of “Barnard he say” rather than “Confucius he say”.

With this phrase Barnard was trying to persuade his peers in the advertising industry that pictorial campaigns were more effective than those with words alone. Little did he know that the strength of his argument was due in part to the power of minerals.

How come? Well, many minerals are incorporated into the printing inks and paints that his company used for magazine adverts and on the sides of streetcars. Indeed, without minerals the effectiveness of these products is diminished: for example in printing inks very fine calcium carbonates are used to aid the dispersion of pigments which leads to stronger colours without affecting the gloss of the finished printed item.

From ordinary household paints to high tech products for the marine industry, all of these coatings avail themselves of the versatile properties of various minerals.

The usage of minerals in paints is affected by their availability and by the local fashion in interior decor. For example, in the UK at the moment there is a predilection, driven in part by television makeover shows, for solvent based high gloss paints for woodwork while there is no significant usage of this type of product in continental Europe.