The Patterson-Sargent Company
IN connection with every kind of building work, and especially of those kinds in which iron and steel are. The chief materials, the question of preservation of the structure after it is built is only second to that of its original strength and stability. This brings up the question of paints and varnishes, which are the media through which the structure is to receive its protection, not only from exposure to atmospheric air and to storms, but also from the many and varied causes that may create rust and corrosion from the surroundings amid which the structure is placed.
The Patterson-Sargent Company, of Cleveland, Chicago, New York and Kansas City, is an organization which has successfully endeavored from its inception not only to make paints of the highest intrinsic quality, but also to see to it that in each application of their paints a formula shall be followed especially adapting the paint used to conform to the special difficulties of the structure and to secure the best and most permanent pro-tection that can possibly be given to the surface that is to be painted.
The Patterson-Sargent Company was established twenty-five years ago by Ben Patterson and Winthrop Sargent at Erie, Pennsylvania, the headquarters later being removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where the executive offices and principal plant are still located, and the company now has another factory in New York. The company has long specialized in marine paints and varnishes, railroad paints, industrial paints and paints especially made and prepared for export trade. The paints produced by the company cover in fact the widest range, from paints suited to the covering and finishing of a modern dwelling to special paints adapted for buildings and structures subjected to fumes of sulphur, ammonia and other chemical exhalations destructive to any surface not covered by a paint of a specially resistant composition. In a word, the aim of the company is in every case to furnish the most appropriate paint, plus service.
A very large number of cases might be cited where the company has been called upon to pro-duce a paint of special adaptability, a few of which may be generalized by saying that they make special paints for oil producers and refiners, paints especially applicable for shipbuilding and repair yards, for packing houses, refrigerators, cold storage houses, the dyehouses of textile plants, bleacheries and numerous other places where varying conditions call for special treatment in order not only to supply ample protection, but also to provide a protection that shall be especially notable for its lasting qualities.
In no department has The Patterson-Sargent Company applied itself with greater or more suc-cessful results than that in the protection of steel structures. In this connection the organization has made special exhaustive research into the measures necessary to insure the metal against the insidious action of rust and to give to the structure not only adequate initial protection but also the constant maintenance of that protection. This research has not only led it to consider the ordinary dangers of rust through exposure to natural elements, but also those arising from mechanical injuries from the corrosion developing from deleterious gases, and also has recognized the necessity of manufacturing a paint the pigments of which have no tendency to oxidize or induce chemical action between the paint and the metal.
Out of these considerations the company has evolved its famous paint, B. P. S. Nobrac, which in the test of a quarter of a century of use has proven its excellence as an efficient and economic protection for steel structures. The supreme value of Nobrac arises from the fact that the nature of the ingredients has taken into consideration the necessity of the use of pigments that do not tend to oxidize or that are antagonistic to each other, or to the metal itself, and these pigments, thoroughly ground and accurately compounded with vehicle, constitute a paint of perfect body or covering quality.
A peculiar quality of Nobrac is its close adhesion to the metal. So close is its adhesion that in case of mechanical injury only the exposed surface is open to the action of rust, which will not extend beyond the limits of the abrasion. Because of this close adhesion, Nobrac offers great resistance to the adverse conditions likely to cause mechanical injuries; in some cases has withstood twelve years before repainting became necessary.
Nobrac is unusually elastic, retaining its elas-ticity for years and thus withstanding expansion and contraction from extremes of temperature, re-sisting frictional injuries to the fullest degree, and in places exposed to cinder-blasts from locomotives withstands it better than any other paint in the market.
Nobrac has a smaller proportion of dryer than any other paint, yet the dryer is so thoroughly incorporated that Nobrac dries in a reasonable time, with a tough, elastic film, under almost any atmospheric condition or temperature, and holds its surface unimpaired for a time much longer than ordinary paints.
Repeated tests by disinterested parties has shown Nobrac to be the most durable protective coating made; so easy working that the painter can cover 25 per cent more surface with Nobrac in a given time than with any other paint, and it has a spreading capacity so superior that, on ordinary surfaces, one coat will cover 800 to 1,000 square feet per gallon, while on structural work r the ordinary type a gallon of Nobrac will paint r.ve tons one coat.
While the cost of Nobrac per gallon is higher than most other paints, its cost per ton per year
much less than other paints used for steel pro-tection, because of its better spreading quality and its unequalled permanence.
During the last few years the Patterson-Sargent paints, specialized for marine use, have iormed a steadily increasing branch of the business, and in this particular department the company makes a red lead paint called "Hullead," which has become the standard for shipyards throughout the country, including those which nave been building ships under contract for the L r.ired States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation.
For the ship and repair yards their marine t a.nts are made with the same degree of care t" at they have adapted their other paints to specialized use. Naval architects and marine engineers have found it to their interest when building or repainting ships designed for voyages where they will be subject to special atmospheric conditions or for cargoes of a special kind likely to react upon ordinary paints to secure from The Patterson-Sargent Company a paint especially manufactured to meet the needs of that particular job.
The officers of The Patterson-Sargent Company are Ben Patterson, president, who has from the first maintained the closest executive supervision over the business, formulating the policies, the adherence to which have made the company known as the exemplar of sound and conservative business principles as well as of the highest standard in its products. The other officers are Joseph K. Patterson, first vice-president; William H. McBride, second vice-president; F. B. Stevens, treasurer, and F. E. Perkins, secretary. D. B. Dennis is the manager of the export department and John N. Moore is manager of the marine department, with offices at the New York branch, which has its office and warehouse at 10 Jay Street. Besides the headquarters at Cleveland, the factories there and in New York, the company maintains warehouses in Cleveland, New York, Chicago and Kansas City, and the sales managers at these cities are N. A. Ross, in Cleveland; J. C. Sheaff, New York; A. E. Fenn, at Chicago; and G. B. Wagner at Kansas City. All of the department heads are specialists in their particular lines, and the company, which is constantly called upon for large undertakings in the providing of material for preservative painting work, for which their Nobrac is pre-eminent, are constantly called upon for advice as to special work, and pride themselves upon their abso- solute reliability in this service. The company's experts will advise exactly the composition of paint which is needed for any consumer customer, and will as readily advise where conditions make painting protection impossible as in the others and vast majority where they are able to adapt the product to the needs of the job. There is no part of the company's operations of more value than this service feature.
