Editing Varnish (section)

==History==
The word "varnish" comes from Mediaeval [[Latin]] ''vernix'', meaning odorous resin, perhaps derived from Middle Greek ''berōnikón'' or ''beroníkē'', meaning amber or amber-colored glass.<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/varnish Merriam-Webster dictionary entry.]</ref> A false etymology traces the word to the Greek ''[[Berenice]]'', the ancient name of modern [[Benghazi]] in Libya, where the first varnishes in the Mediterranean area were supposedly used and where resins from the trees of now-vanished forests were sold.

Early varnishes were developed by mixing [[resin]]—pine [[Pitch (resin)|pitch]], for example—with a [[solvent]] and applying them with a brush to get the golden and hardened effect one sees in today's varnishes. Varnishing was a technique well known in [[ancient Egypt]].

Varnishing is also recorded in the history of East and South Asia;  in [[ancient India|India]], [[History of China#Ancient China|China]] and [[ancient Japan|Japan]], where the practice of [[lacquer]] work, a species of varnish application, was known at a very early date. The [[Tang dynasty#Alchemy.2C gas cylinders.2C and air conditioning|Tang Chinese]] used medieval chemistry experiments to produce a varnish for clothes and weapons, employing complex chemical formulas applied to silk clothes of [[underwater diving|underwater divers]], a cream designated for polishing bronze mirrors, and other formulas.<ref name="Needham1986">Joseph Needham, ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 4, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts'' (Taipei: Caves Books Ltd., 1986), pp. 452.</ref>