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Comment by franciscop | Hacker News Reader

> The concept of using white paint to deflect heat isn’t new. As far back as the 1970s, scientists and manufacturers had been developing whiter and whiter paints

In the Mediterranean (at least, probably many other areas) this has been done for thousands of years by painting the houses white to keep the heat out as much as possible, as well as a variety of other techniques like smart air management. So I think "as far as the 70s" is fairly misleading, it should be more like "for thousands of years...".

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In Greece, the iconic whitewashed island house has a public health angle to it. "In 1938, a national order mandated the painting of island homes in blue and white. At the time, Greece was suffering an outbreak of cholera during the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas. In an effort to curb the disease, he ordered citizens to whitewash their homes. This might sound strange today, but the whitewash used to paint the houses contained limestone. Limestone is a powerful disinfectant, and not many others were in common use at the time. Greek citizens thus whitewashed their homes to help sanitize them and reduce the spread of cholera." and older

Was it at all effective in reducing cholera?

...and the 'paint' is made using basic ingredients: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewash

Easy to apply, long-lasting, biodegradable, and (from the linked article) it "produces a unique surface glow due to the double refraction of calcite crystals."

NEW RELEASE: bio natural organic paint made from seashells to cool down your house 2023 release innovation startup

Mediterraneans: get out of here

Edit: how to make lime/limestone in a low-tech way from Primitive Technology:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek3aeUhHaFY

And it's so fun to apply that people will pay to do it for you!

Is there any evidence they where developing whiter paints for this purpose?

> So I think "as far as the 70s" is fairly misleading

As far as the 70s refers to efforts to create whiter and more reflective paint.

This assumes that the white paint, used on those houses, had an unrelated use, and was never improved in the context of the purpose of why the paint was applied. This doesn’t seem like a safe assumption, with the intent required to keep it going for so long.

It only assumes that a new paint was never created in the context of the purpose of why paint was applied, more accurately, which is possible. The article doesn't know, and I don't think you know either out of hand. That's why it reads "as far back as the 1970s."

Yours is a bald-faced assumption that humans aren't constantly innovating on existing technologies. You demand evidence in place of such assumption.

Yours appears to me to be a view that is very strange not to extend back beyond the 1970s.

We know how people work, in societies, at this broad-stroke level. This level of pedantry gets us nowhere.

>Yours is a bald-faced assumption that humans aren't constantly innovating on existing technologies.

No it isn't. Mine is an asumption that "white" was just a color before we understood what light is, which doesn't happen until centuries later. Searching for ways to produce "the whitest paint" is unrealisric given that we are talking about objects that reflect invisible light here. Not "white" the color. And there is also a difference between using something and creating something for that purpose. Saying that scientists are now searching for the whitest paint does not imply that nobody was using white paint before.

>This level of pedantry gets us nowhere.

It gets us to the question of whether ancient societies looked for ways to produce paint that reflect more light in order to prevent heat absoption which is what has been hapening since at least 1970.

Paint as science, especially in the context of "we need a newer better paint with better reflective properties and whiter than white" is a very, very modern idea.

Light and color weren't scientific concepts until basically Newton. And then you needed significant advances in chemistry, optics etc. to even begin measuring and thinking about such mundane things as application of color to house exteriors.

> Light and color weren't scientific concepts until basically Newton.

Yet, any child knows that stepping on black asphalt burns your feet. The conclusion that "less dark means less heat" is trivial. I think it's odd that people think so little of the members past civilizations, with brains no different than ours.

In context it’s pretty clear they are talking about modern efforts rather than historical ones.

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