Why are barns on farms always the color red?
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dear monie
years ago they just couldn't go out and by paint.they had to use what they had on the farm. this was a mixture of linseed oil, milk and rust.which believe it or not actually was pretty good not like the glidden of now a days. but it was effective and helped prolong the wood. and this color just stuck with other farmers and has now came to be the only right color for barns. by the way my barns are red to hope this helped.
They used to make paint from pigments that were found in nature. I am assuming that iron produced a nice red and the color just stuck.
red paint thins down and will keep a good color there for cheaper thinner cost a lot less than paint
Camouflage.
Of course I'm not certain this is true, but I have heard that farmers used to paint their barns red because it is the opposite of green. Since all the fields surrounding them are covered with green...it's kind of a rest for the eyes. Sounds somewhat logical. All I know is they are so picturesque!
in the old days planes flew very low so the farmers would paint their barns a bright red so the planes didn't hit them. easier to see.
When farmers used to use to be far from home and on foot they could see the bright red barn towering over the crops. It worked as a beacon. The bright red could be seen from all directions and would guide them home...from a field of corn that was higher than their heads..or from several feet of snow...that other wise obscured everything.
Hope this helps. :)
because iron oxide was the cheapest pigment to use back in the day...
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