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Airbrush Workshops

History of the Airbrush

Part 3 - The Internal Mix Airbrush

Around 1891, the dominance of the Liberty Walkup external mix airbrush came to an end when Charles L. Burdick, an American artist living in Chicago, invented the internal mix airbrush. Not long afterward he moved to England, and in 1893, he established the Fountain Brush Company in Clerkenwell Green, London, England, which was renowned for the manufacturing of clockwork parts. Unique about this new airbrush was its centralized fluid tip, needle, and air cap that produced an atomized spray that was softer and more controllable than the external mix airbrushes that came before. Precise machining was required to build such a tool, and this was available in Clerkenwell Green.

These airbrushes were first called Aerographs, and the process was called aerographing. The first Aerograph was the Model A, and from the very beginning, dual action triggering and interchangeable paint tips were the norm. In 1900, Burdick formed the Aerograph Company, Ltd., which today is a renowned airbrush manufacturer in England.

Controversy has existed as to when the first internal mix airbrush was produced. Some believe that Thayer & Chandler in the U.S. either bought the rights or obtained usage of the Burdick patent in order to produce internal mix airbrushes in Chicago in 1891. Thayer & Chandler is listed as a supplier of artist materials at 46 Madison Avenue from 1881 to 1891 in the Chicago city directory under the heading "Airbrushes and Artist Materials."The foreman for the Thayer & Chandler Company was O. C. Wold, who later founded the Wold Airbrush Company. An employee of Wold was Jens A. Paasche, who in 1904 split and created the Paasche Airbrush Company. So up until this point, except for Burdick who originated in Chicago and went to England, all of the airbrush activity from its conception to the beginning of World War I took place in the Chicago/Rockford, IL, area. Considering the fact that there were three major producers of airbrushes in the U.S. and another in England (all of whom thrived), the popularity of airbrush use became tremendous.In a 1915 list of airbrush applications, the following were included: "Artists commercial retouching, magazine covers, heraldry, colouring of prints, engravings, etchings, etc., portraits, miniatures, artificial flowers; Architects Colouring maps, bird's-eye views; Book binding tinting, varnishing; China decorators Backgrounds, designs; Campaign buttons Tinting; Decorators Interiors, mural and otherwise; Dyers For applying dyes to fabric without affecting the rest of the cloth; Engravers; Enameling Wood or iron products; Fancy goods Tinting or spraying on designs; Feathers Tinting or dyeing; Fans Tinting or dyeing; Frame makers Staining moulding, gilding frames, colouring or gilding mats; Jewelry manufacturers Tinting, lacquering; Leather Dyeing, enameling, gilding, finishing; Laces Colouring; Miniatures; Picture mats; Photo colouring; Portrait finishing; Parchment shades; Slippers; Toys; Vases and pottery.

It was only natural that, through this widespread exposure of airbrushed products to consumers, popularity of the internal mix airbrush skyrocketed. Airbrush techniques were being taught in both private and public schools, making it inevitable that the future generation of artists, particularly those who would become the avant-garde, would be exposed to the airbrush and its distinctive effects.By the end of the First World War, when modern art movements (e.g., Dada) and schools (e.g., Bauhaus) influenced the art world, the airbrush was a tool that was commonly employed.

(See the History of Airbrush Parts 1 and 2 online at http://www.arttalk.com/arthistory.htm.)

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 11 No. 4 -- February 2001