Лако-красочные материалы — производство

In prehistoric times, the hunter-gatherer tribes, in their explorations of nature, found many wonderful substances of extensive use in everyday living. Animal products in great variety, by-products of the hunt, were employed for clothing, shelter and tools, as well as for food. Similarly, the collection of herbs, spices and grasses unearthed familiar and fragrant compounds that were put to good use by the clans. An elite few appear to have been given special reverence to hold in trust the lore of the tribe. These sorcerers, or medicine men, knew the power, use and misuse of nature’s pharmacopoeia, and over the centuries, by word of mouth, their store of wisdom increased. Craftsmen and artisans developed new and varied uses for materials as the human drive to extend and expand knowledge knew no bounds.

Eventually, a drift and concentration of tribes founded the great civilizations of the Nile in Egypt, Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates) in modern-day Iraq, the Hwang-Ho valley in China and the Indus of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, all of which came into their own between 4000 and 2000bc. Within these civilizations, over the centuries, knowledge of glass, alcohol and aroma chemicals was developed. Mesopotamians and Egyptians discovered that, when sand and ashes were heated together, a hard, brittle, transparent substance was produced. The addition of limestone hardened the glass and gave it more durability. Thus, from Si02, Na2C03 and CaC03, was formed the vessel to hold a yet greater chemistry.

The first alcoholic wines were most likely an accidental discovery from fermented grapes. Most fruits are contaminated with microbes that form the surface bloom, which results in a natural alcoholic fermentation when given the right climatic environment. Earliest references to the production of distilled spirits appear to have origi­nated in China around ЮООвс, and it is believed that the production of beer developed in Egypt some 7000 years ago, involving the hydrolytic breakdown of starch in cereal extracts. Thus, with the earliest produc­tion of ethanol, we have another key compound in our fragrant mix.

Meanwhile a myriad of fragmented clues hint of ancient olfactory indulgence. Incense statuettes thousands of years old have been unearthed in the ruins of the Indus civilization, which was known to trade with both Egypt and Mesopotamia, while in China, around 500bc, Confucius proclaimed that both incense and perfume mitigate bad smells. Herbs, spices and flowers were used to ward off evil spirits, and flower-strewn graves over 5000 years old have been discovered in Iraq. In Mesopotamia, the fabled ‘Garden of Eden’ fragrant wood was used to build temples, and the fine smelling essences of cedarwood, myrtle and calamus reeds (sweet flag) were offered up for the pleasure of the Gods. It was here that the classic techniques of pressing, maceration and enfleurage, discussed in detail in Chapter 3, were developed. In supplication to the God Marduk, Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Chaldea, announced: