Tea Tray Company Horns & Arsenic-Based Paint

[HisMastersVoice]

Does anyone know if TTCo used any Paris Green / Emerald Green / Scheele's Green / Copper Acetate Triarsenate / Cu(C2H3O2)2·3Cu(AsO2)2 / Copper Arsenite / AsCuHO3 / etc. on their green horns? I've always sort of wondered because the color is very distinct and the horn on my Vic III looks awfully similar to examples I've seen of arsenic-based pigments. I'm not overly worried since I don't drink tea out of it, but it would be nice to know if I should be washing my hands after handling it. Is there a chemist in the house?

[brianu]

even if it did, you'd probably have to start regularly chewing on the thing to achieve any real or lasting effect... what's with the photo of the house though?

[HisMastersVoice]

even if it did, you'd probably have to start regularly chewing on the thing to achieve any real or lasting effect... what's with the photo of the house though?

That's "White Haven", Ulysses S. Grant's former home which is painted in Paris Green.

[Curt A]

I always liked the Tea Tray green horns... unique color as you mentioned. I think the hazard was to the people who painted them, like potters using lead glazes, mad hat makers and luminescent watch dial painters who "sharpened" the points of their brushes by licking them and died from radiation related cancer. Just don't leave food or other edibles sitting on your horn...

[HisMastersVoice]

Well, allegedly...Napoleon died from just being in a room wallpapered with the stuff. Again - not that worried, I was just curious. The 1926 Craftsman I currently live in is sided with asbestos.

[Curt A]

The 1926 Craftsman I currently live in is sided with asbestos.

Not a problem either, unless you decide to saw or drill into it and don't have a HazMat suit...

[CarlosV]

Well, allegedly...Napoleon died from just being in a room wallpapered with the stuff. Again - not that worried, I was just curious. The 1926 Craftsman I currently live in is sided with asbestos.

You are correct in not taking it lightly: a typical Victorian room was loaded with around 40 lbs of arsenic, most of it on the wallpaper, but also in books, furniture upholstering and toys. Combined with the humidity of non-heated houses, it penetrated regularly in the lungs of the residents (or were chewed by children) and helped to abbreviate the lives of a good chunk of the bourgeoisie of the time. The reports of diseases and deaths associated to arsenic exposure were abundant in the English press through the XiXth and early XXth century, but the products kept being sold due to powerful lobbying of the arsenic mine owners (not unlike the asbestos, which is still legal in countries like Canada, not coincidentally the largest producer of asbestos in the world). Just in case, I would not keep the horn in areas where humidity is high or people spend long times near it.

[Victor A]

Miramont, the mansion of a French Jesuit priest in Colorado Springs, has a small room that they didn't remove the Paris Green wallpaper from, and you can still go and see it (albeit through thick glass!)

Coincidentally, they also have an Edison Standard A with a seamless brass horn, a VV-VI, and a diamond disc machine on display. It's really a neat place to visit, if you ever have the chance.

[Django]

I love the green horns, but maybe it is just as well that I never found the right one.

I would think that lots of paints and finishes from that period, (maybe now too), would contain harmful ingredients. I do not have a chemistry background, so please excuse my ignorance on the subject. Are there other colors that are of concern?

[HisMastersVoice]

The other common pigment that was used on just about everything back then - lead white. In fact, it wasn’t banned until 1978!!