From: Richard Sullivan FRPS (richsul@earthlink.net)
Date: 10/02/01-03:46:48 PM Z
I read a long essay many years ago about lampblack makers. It might have
been a reprint from Fortune Magazine.
This was a migrant industry -- sort of. Back in the 1930's there were gas
vents leaking natural gas out of the ground down in Lousiana. (Sheese,
think about that in today's world!) This was during the Great Depression
and out of work folks moved out to these gas fields and lived in tar paper
shacks. They lit the vents on fire. (I can see it now -- Phaaaalumph! Light
the match and duck and run.) They then fastened oil drums over the flaming
vents and rotated them. The gas mixed with oxygen produced a yellow flame
and lots of soot. The soot collected on the drums. The workers scraped off
the soot (lampblack or furnace black)and sold it.
Now if you've ever worked with lampblack you know this is messy work! The
writer of the article noted that all of the folks living down there were
stained a permanent black as lampblack is fine enough to penetrate the top
surface of the skin acting more as a dye than a pigment. After while it
doesn't wash off and like silver nitrate stains it has to "wear" off. As I
recall there was some anachronistic humor about the ethnicity of the workers.
Tales from the Alt.
--Dick Sullivan
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