this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
452 points (97.3% liked)
Asklemmy
43989 readers
1562 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Actual answer: back in the day the sealant that farmers coated barns with often had iron oxide in it because it helps prevent rot and mold, and the iron oxide would turn the sealant mixture red. Now people just do it because it's a tradition.
It also happens to be cheap. Other pigments are hard to manufacture. Rust is easy.
Even today red paint is sometimes cheaper, especially when ordered in bulk.
Wait really red pigment is mainly rust? I'd imagine that would turn a orangish brown. Or brownish orange.
Itβs not mainly rust any more, they figured out a way to replicate the effect without using actual rust. Itβs just pigment, and now red is probably cheaper because more people buy it because itβs traditional.
Also seems to be the color that degrades in the sun the fastest
I thought red faded the fastest? It's always the first color to dissappear from advertisements in store windows. Also I remember hearing about people needing to get the red ink on their tattoos touched up after so many years though I think newer ink has improved
Fascinating. The more ya know.