JOHN GOFFE RAND’S INCREDIBLE INVENTION
“A metallic vessel so constructed, as to collapse with slight pressure and thus force out the paint or fluid confined therein through proper openings for that purpose and which openings may be afterward closed air-tight, and thus preserving the paint or other fluid remaining in the vessel from being injuriously acted on by the atmosphere.”
This rather quaint description of an everyday item that we have come to take for granted was on the patent application for the humble tube we have come to associate with toothpaste and artist paint.
When John Goffe Rand applied for his patent in 1841 little did he know his idea would change how people painted and eventually the course of art itself.
He was an American portrait painter and like so many artists of his time began his career as an artist’s apprentice. His daily duties in his master’s studio consisted mainly of grinding pigments and combining them with oil for use that day. It was common practise for artists to mix paint as it was needed, as there was no reliable way of storing paint without it drying out. At that time pig’s bladders and glass tubes were used to store the paint, but neither were entirely satisfactory.
It was while living in England that Rand came up with the idea of constructing a tube from thin metal which could be filled with paint and sealed at both ends. He applied for a patent in March 1841 in England and in September of that year in the United States. He soon amended his patents to include a nozzle with a screw-on cap at one end of the tube.
The tubes went into production and for the first time suppliers and manufacturers of art materials were able to reliably store ready-made paints. Winsor and Newton were amongst the first companies to use his tubes. The tubes were originally made from lead and tin and it was only after the Second World War that aluminium was used and in the 1960’s plastic was also used.
Until Rand’s tube came into use artists were restricted to their studios where their paints were being prepared. His invention came at just the right time for the impressionist painters and their passion for painting nature could be realized. Some historians suggest that without Rand’s humble invention Impressionism might have been delayed.
Although Rand had invented the tube specifically as a paint container, the pharmaceutical industry were quick to see advantages of his invention. In the mid 19th Century people bought a container of tooth cleaning powder into which the brush was dipped. Toothpaste as we know it was developed as a paste which could be packaged in a tube. Ointments and creams soon followed and the tube became a household product.
So next time you reach for a tube and squeeze some paint on to your palette, or brush your teeth, give some thought to John Goffe Rand who changed our lives in so many ways.