Part 17

I.

Sturgeon’s bladder 600

II.

Gum-ammoniac 6 Mastic 60

The sturgeon’s bladder is dissolved in spirits of wine separately, the gum-ammoniac and mastic also, but with a minimum of spirit; the two are then combined.

A cement which will resist the action of spirits of wine will often be very valuable, as when large lids are to be fastened to jars containing anatomical preparations. One is made as follows:--

Cleaned manganese powder 20 Soluble silicate of soda 10

This must be freely used to make the cover adhere. When in time it shall become brittle, coat it over with a thick solution of asphaltum in turpentine or petroleum.

TO SEAL BOTTLES very securely, roughen the opening or mouth with a file or glass-paper, drive in a hard cork till half-an-inch below the top, and then seal it with silicate of soda mixed with marble-dust.

CHLORIDE OF ZINC added to silicate of soda and oxide of zinc forms a very good cement, which will resist most influences.

BREAD macerated with glue or gelatine, with a little glycerine, makes an admirable substance for artificial flowers, casts, medallions, &c. If worked with gum-arabic and a little alum, or dextrine, or common mucilage, we shall have the same result. It can also be worked with thin varnish or gutta-percha cement; also with diluted sulphuric or nitric acids to produce a hard substance. It may here be observed that _bread_ is for certain work far superior to flour or starch paste, since the combination with _yeast_ causes a development of cellular tissue, the result of which is a firmer and more wax-like substance. I was led to observe this at first, not from what I read of the action of acids on bread, but from observing the bread-flowers made by the Italian peasantry to adorn images of saints. I believe that in these there is a little vinegar mixed. They are quite wax-like. The bread used should be soft household bread, of course well kneaded with the acid and colours. Bread-paste would probably combine well with indiarubber in solution.

Of late, German illustrated newspapers have published patterns of small ornamental dishes made of dough or bread, intended to receive conserves of fruit and other edibles--the dishes themselves not being intended to be eaten.

Soft bread with a little varnish or any ordinary gum and a little glycerine, well worked, makes an admirable filler for cracks in wood. Combined with any gum, or even with tragacanth or peach or cherry gum, and lamp-black (or liquid Indian ink), it forms a cement which resembles ebony. The more thoroughly it is macerated the harder it will be. Casts of panels, &c., made with this are really beautiful. Rub with oil and the hand after it is quite dry. Add a few drops of glycerine and alum in solution to prevent cracking, or, better, a _little_ indiarubber. Soft rye bread hardens to a rather tougher cement than wheat. Bread cement makes an admirable ground for gilding or painting. Bread macerated with lime and white of egg forms a very hard composition like ivory. Bread, glue, and glycerine, _ditto_.

HORSE-CHESTNUT PASTE.--This is called a cement, but it is properly a paste like that of flour. Horse-chestnuts are generally neglected, but they can be profitably utilised for paste, which admits of the same combinations as flour.

WASTE TEA-LEAVES from which the tea has been extracted can be macerated with gum and treated as rose-leaves to form artificial ebony. Carefully separate all the hard portions.

GUM FOR GENERAL USE, like gum-arabic:--

Common sugar, by weight 12 Water 36 Slacked lime 3

Stir the lime into the warm solution of sugar and water. Keep it boiling and stir it often for one hour. Pour off the liquid from the lees of the lime. This gum also admits of modifications. One of these is the well-known SYNDETIKON, which is made as follows:--To fifteen parts of the sugar and lime solution add three of good glue, leaving them to soak for twenty-four hours; warm gradually, and frequently stir, till the glue is dissolved. Then let it boil for a few minutes. This makes a good plain cement, which serves to unite paper, leather, glass, or porcelain. It, however, spots or changes colour in paper, &c.

A GENERAL CEMENT, which may be used for joining metal and glass, stone, tiles, &c., is thus made:--

Plaster of Paris 21 Iron filings 3 Water 10 White of eggs 4

THE GENERAL MENDING CEMENT so commonly sold consists of nothing but--

Gum-arabic 1 Plaster of Paris 3

This must be mixed with water when used. It does not, however, resist the action of hot water.

A CEMENT WHICH RESISTS ACIDS is made as follows:--Indiarubber is dissolved in double its weight of linseed-oil, and kneaded to a dough with white bolus. Should the cement harden too quickly, add to it a little litharge.

INDIARUBBER CEMENT FOR CHEMICAL APPARATUS:--

Indiarubber 8 Tallow 2 Linseed-oil 16 White bolus 3

This does not resist high temperature, but is good against acids.

SCHEIBLER’S CEMENT FOR CHEMICAL APPARATUS:--

Gutta-percha 2 Wax 1 Shellac 3

SOREL’S CEMENT.--This consists of oxide of zinc combined with its chloride. The chloride of zinc is in a heavy, syrupy form, which, combined with the white oxide, sets very hard. It is chiefly used for filling teeth, but is also applicable to making medallions and other objects of art. For this latter purpose it is mixed with powdered chalk, pulverised glass, &c. The process of preparing and combining the ingredients of this cement is, however, so tedious that it is most unlikely that the ordinary repairer will care to attempt it; the more so as there are many preparations far superior to it.

GLUE FOR TAPESTRY, &c.:--

Flour-paste 100 Alum water 3 Dextrine-paste 5

This may also be applied in many ways.

TO LUTE STILLS, &c.:--

Glue in powder 20 Flour 10 Bran 5

To be well mixed with water.

As alum cannot be affected by petroleum, it is used to fasten rings to petroleum-lamp holders. These are lined with alum which has been melted by heat. Alum melted forms a strong cement for glass and metal.

PASTE FOR WALL-PAPER.--Ten parts of flour are made into common paste; add one of glue boiled in hot water; add to the whole one-twentieth part of white of egg. This holds very firmly. Paste made with flour and gum-arabic, &c., does not mould or turn sour if it be mixed with a few drops of oil of cloves or carbolic acid.

CLAY MORTAR.--Where lime cannot be had, a very good mortar for chimneys may be made by mixing clay with common molasses. This is said (LEHNER) to resist the action of heat when well dried.

Another fireproof cement is made as follows:--

Clay 40 Flint-sand 40 Slacked lime 4 Borax 2

This is mixed with a very little water. It is used as a wash, and should, when dry, be heated by fire.

LOG CABINS and houses built with wood are, in America, often swarming with vermin to a degree which would seem incredible. In all such cases the joints and cavities should be well packed and plastered with cement--lime if possible--and then whitewashed. Rat-holes should be plugged with stones or gravel and then cemented.

ZEIODELETH.--Vessels of wood, iron, stoneware, or of moulded cement, are often eaten away by the action of acids and alkalies. To prevent this they are in Germany coated with a composition called _Zeiodeleth_. In its simplest form this is simply sulphur mixed with _very finely_ sifted flint-sand, or else ground glass, chinaware, or stone. Of this thin plates are also made to coat such vessels, or even to form them.

MERRICK’S ZEIODELETH:--

Sulphur 20 Glass-powder 40

BÖTTGER’S ZEIODELETH (LEHNER):--

Powdered flint 90 Graphite 10 Sulphur 100

I.

A FLUID PASTE is made by pouring into a porcelain jar 5 kilogrammes of potato-starch with 6 kilogrammes of water and 250 grammes of white nitric acid. Keep the whole in a warm place for forty-eight hours, stirring it frequently, and then boil it till syrupy and transparent. Add a little water, or sufficient to make it fluid enough to be filtered through a closely woven towel.

II.

Dissolve 5 kilogrammes of gum-arabic to 1 of sugar in 5 quarts of water, adding 50 grammes of nitric acid; warm to boiling, and then add No. I. The result is a perfectly fluid adhesive, which will not mould, and dries on paper with a glaze. It is adapted for postage-stamps, marking over impressions, and fine stationery.

DURABLE FLOUR-PASTE FOR STATIONERS.--Take good flour-paste, adding to it while boiling one-tenth part of clear liquid glue, to be well stirred in. Add a few drops of carbolic acid or oil of cloves. Keep it corked in wide-mouthed, large vials.

DRY CEMENT, OR TRAVELLERS’ GLUE:--

Glue 600 grms. Sugar 250 ”

The glue must be of the best quality, and perfectly melted in water, as usual, and the sugar stirred in. It is then steamed away until it becomes hard when cold. To use, place it in hot water, when it at once liquefies. This is specially used for paper.

COATING TO PROTECT TREES FROM INSECTS:--

Colophonium (resin) 100 Common soap 100 Tar 50 Whale-oil 25

Smear the trunks of the trees with this. It may also be put on sheets of brown paper to catch flies.

CEMENT FOR FILLING.--Take fresh curd (caseine), and knead it with water to a putty. It can be used in this state for many purposes. To greatly harden it, add one-twentieth of its weight in lime, and more or less of some indifferent substance, such as chalk, calcined magnesia, oxide of zinc, and colouring matter. This sets so hard that it may be used to make casts or many small works of art.

FRENCH GLUES.--Two very excellent glues used in France are the _colle forte de Flandre_ and that of _Givet_. GOUPIL recommends as the best glue, where a very superior article is required, one made of equal parts of the two. Break them up, let the pieces remain fifteen hours in water, then boil for two hours in the _bain-marie_, or glue-kettle. After a time the glue will settle and become clear. Add, if needed, a little water from the _bain-marie_.

TO GIVE A SATIN GLOSS TO PAPER.--Paint with a broad, soft brush on the paper with a solution of hypo-sulphite of barium (chemically expressed by BaS_{2}O_{3}). It may be laid on by itself or mingled with a colour. It is used sometimes by bookbinders. This may be applied in water-colour pictures to the imitation of silk or satin.

GOMME LAQUE, or shellac, also gelatine glue, is sold in thin leaves. To prepare it, put into a _bain-marie_ twenty parts of the gum to one of flowers of sulphur, stir it well, and add a little lukewarm water. It may be made into little bars by hand; let them cool, and warm them when required for use.

A VERY GOOD CEMENT, which, according to FRED. DILLAYE, is both fire and water proof, is made as follows:--Take half-a-pint of milk, as much vinegar, mix them, and take away the whey. Add the white of five eggs to the curd, mix the whole well, and add so much finely sifted quicklime as will form a paste.

SNAIL CEMENT.--It is said that snails or slugs, mashed, form a strong and hard glue. This is probable; also, that it would combine with powdered quicklime, or carbonate of lime in powder, to set very hard.

TO MEND MARBLE use shellac in leaves, mixed with white wax.

TO MEND ALABASTER use gum-arabic mixed with powdered alabaster. This is also useful for many other purposes.

A CEMENT useful for many purposes, also as a ground for painting, is made as follows:--Take barley and soak it in six equivalents of water for several days, or till the barley expands or sprouts. Throw out the barley, after pressing it. This gives a glutinous liquid, which, combined with pipeclay and white soap, sets hard. It is improved by adding the powder of calcined bone. Barley water may also be used in many other combinations. Gum-arabic and thin glue, dextrine, and fish-glue may be used in its place.

A STRONG CEMENT FOR HORN OR TORTOISE-SHELL:--

Glue (fluid) 1½ Sugar-candy 3 Gum-arabic ¾

The two latter to be dissolved in six parts of water.

ANOTHER FOR THE SAME:--Take strong lime-water; combine it with new cheese. The latter is to be mixed with two parts of water, so as to form a soft mass. Pour into this the lime-water, but see that there is no solid cheese in it. This will form a liquid which can be used as a cement.

CAT-GUT, which is, however, made from the intestines of sheep, &c., is of great service in some kinds of repairing, owing to its strength. It can be made into very small cord, which will sustain a man.

Very strong cords for fishermen are also said to be made by taking silkworms just before they spin, cutting them open, and using the silk, which is then found in a solid, longish lump, and which can be artificially drawn out into any shape. It is probable that the silk in this state could be thinned and applied in combination with fibre to produce useful results. It is also probable that this substance, or the silk _en masse_, could be used for mending silk fabrics in many ways. It could be produced very cheaply, because the greatest expense in manufacturing silk is the reeling, winding, and spinning the thread.

An incredibly strong and serviceable silk is spun by the _elm-worm_, which can be raised in any quantities wherever elm-trees abound. This is much cultivated in China, and it is said that garments made of its silk descend from father to son. It is several times larger than the silkworm, and survives even the severe winters of Canada. It would be much easier to raise than the delicate _bombyx_, or common silkworm. It is worth noting that a man can carry easily in his pocket fifty yards of cat-gut or elm worm silk cord strong enough to sustain his weight, which is very useful for travellers to know, since it is useful to mend harness or tether horses.

TO SOFTEN HORN.--This material can be softened so as to bend in hot water. It requires long boiling. According to Geissler, a horn can be moulded to shape by steeping the horn for two or three days in half a kilogramme of black alicant, 375 grammes of newly calcined lime, and 2 litres (two full quarts) of hot water. Should the mixture assume a reddish colour it is all right; if not, add more alicant and lime. After the horn has been moulded, dry it in well-dried common salt. Horn shavings and filings are made into a paste, which hardens by being in a strong solution of potash and slacked lime, in which it becomes jelly-like and can be moulded. This must be subjected to pressure to expel the moisture. By adding a little glycerine its brittleness is much diminished.

ARTIFICIAL BONEWORK.--Reduce the bone or ivory to a very fine, flour-like powder, mix it very thoroughly with the white of eggs, and a very hard and tough mass will be the result. This can be turned and highly polished. This is improved in hardness and quality by grinding the mass again and subjecting it to heat and pressure (_Die Verarbeitung Hornes, &c._, von Louis Edgar Andés; Vienna, 1892).

TO PROPERLY DUST CLOTHES.--The following extract on cleaning garments is taken from my forthcoming work, entitled _One Hundred Arts_:--

* * * * *

“The obvious way to remove dust from a coat--as some take evil out of children (_vide_ NORTHCOTE’S _Fables_)--is by whipping or beating with a stick. This, indeed, effects the purpose, but it speedily breaks the fibre of the cloth. Therefore in Germany, as in Italy, a little _bat_ plaited of split cane or reeds is employed to exorcise the demon of dust, known as _Pāpākeewis_ to the Chippeways. But better than this is a small _whisp-broom_. Half a century ago this simple contrivance was only known in the United States and in Poland.

“Whip the garment with the _side_ of the soft whisp, and as the dust rises to the surface brush it away. If the reader will try this on any coat, however clean it may be, he will be astonished to find how much dust he will extract or raise.

“All the dust which thus lies hidden in cloth, when it comes to the surface, acts as _grit_ or powder insensibly but certainly, and helps to wear away the surface whenever it is touched. That we take in dust every time we go out will appear from inspecting a silk hat. Again, the dust on a coat, &c., every time it is rubbed by the cleanest hand, takes in grease, which in time aids in spoiling the surface. In fact, half the wear-out of all cloth is due to dust alone.

“Therefore, if we _carefully_ dust our clothes with a whisp, every time we take them off, fold them with care, and lay them in a drawer, they will last much longer than they do. Pure air free from dust is as conducive to the well-being of coats as to that of their wearers, and Dominie Sampson uttered more truth than he imagined when he observed that the atmosphere of his patron’s dwelling was singularly preservative of broadcloth.”

* * * * *

In proof of this it may be observed, that as a sandblast attacks some substances exclusively, so dust or grit injures certain fabrics and not others, and that the latter are all known as the more lasting fabrics.

INDEX

Accuracy and care required in making cements, 28

Adding art to arts, 47

Alabaster, to mend, 249

ALLSTON, the painter, 123

Alum as a base, 6

Amber, repairing and imitating, 156-158; carving amber, 158

American cement, 240

American glaze for postage-stamps, 113, 114

ANDÉS, LOUIS EDGAR, 207, 252; varnishes, 4; on ivory and bone, 144, 155; on working horn, 149

Arabic, gum, cement of, with vinegar, 37

Avoiding excess in cementing, 31

Badly bound books, 108

BAER, J., catalogue on glass, 44

Bark, powdered, combined with glue, 82

Barley cement, 249, 250

Bases for beads, &c., 234

BAYARD, MISS CATHERINE L., 158

Bell made of a bottle, 49

Bent leaves in books, or dog’s ears, 89, 90

Benzoin, gum, or _lac virginis_, 236, 237

Binding books, 97-100 (_illustrations_), 97, 98

Blood in cements, 6

Blowpipe, the, 17, 36

Boats or canoes made from shavings, 52

Boiling china in milk, 19

Bone, calcined, 92; artificial, 251

Bookbinders’ varnish, 89; glue, 235

Books, repairing and restoring, 86-120

Book-worms, 115-120

BÖTTGER’S cement for pavements, stone slabs, &c., 29; acid-proof cement, 247

Bottles, cracked, how to mend, 26, 37; to close (a cement), 44; to cork or seal them firmly, 161; to seal, 241

Brass-ware, to look like gold, 234, 235

Bread cement, 241-243

Bread in cements, 8

BREWSTER, Sir D., 37

Brickwork tiles, how to repair, 28

Burnished steel or iron work, 234

Canes and bows made of shavings, 54

Caoutchouc, indiarubber, gutta-percha, 2, 4, 126, 127, 159

Cardboard or pasteboard as hard as wood, how to make, 124, 125

Carpenters’ cement, 79

_Carton-cuir_, 121

_Carton-pierre_, or “stone-paper,” to make, 128

Caseine or cheese in cements, 6, 27, 40, 41, 137, 138

CASTELLANI, Signore, 48

Cat-gut, 250

Cedar, to imitate, 83

Cellular tissue, cause of hardening in organic substances, 9, 10

Celluloid, or artificial ivory, its raw materials, manufacture, &c., by Dr. F. BOCKMANN, 9, 152, 153

Cellulose, 9; how discovered and made, 82; to prepare it with acid, 154

Cement, or adhesive, definition, 1; for broken glass or china, 23-49; for glass, china, leather, &c., 34; for wood, 76-83; for horses’ hoofs, 166, 167; to attach metal, 173, 174

Ceresa, or mosaic in powder, 29, 138

Chalk, 2

Chamois-leather in repairs, 203

Chemical apparatus, cement for, 244

Chestnut, horse, paste, 243

China, broken, porcelain, crockery, majolica, terra-cotta, brick and tile work, 12-32

Chinese transparent vases, a lost art rediscovered, 47, 48

Chloride of zinc cement, 241

Cholula, vase from, 13, 14

Chrome glue, 26, 34

_Chunam_, or Indian shell-lime, 24, 134

Circles, to draw, 103

Clamps, or strips of sheet-iron or wire, 67

CLAUDE and VANDERVELDE, 216, 217

CLAUS’S cement for metal and glass, 182

Clay and molasses mortar, 246

Closing wine-bottles, old method, 48, 49

Cloth-dust on gum in decoration, 236

Cloth, waterproofed, recipe for, 161; felt, how to make, 199, 200

Clothes, to properly dust and keep clean, 252, 253

Coarse cements for brick, &c., 139

Cobbling and shoemaking, 187, 188

Cologne, eau de, 237

Concrete, 140

Copal, gum, 157

Coral, imitation of, 209

Corks, to improve, 240

Cracking of seasoned wood in America, 50

Cracks in furniture, filling, 67

CRANE, WALTER, 24

Crockery, 17, 18

Crockery or china, mosaic made from broken fragments, 139

Cups and vases of _papier-maché_, how to make (_illustration_), 172

DAVIDOWSKY, F., on glue and gelatine, 4

Decayed wood, to restore, 63

_Decorator, The_, 73

Defacing books, 90

DELILLE, alleged inventor of wiring porcelain, 18

Deterioration in pictures, causes of, 214, 215

Dextrine, or _Leiokom_, 7; gum, 238

Diamond cement, 41. (_Vide_ Turkish)

DILLAYE, F., 32

DILLAYE’S cement, 249

Dirt in old pictures, its nature, 215

Domes or arched roofs, building, 64

DRAKE, Sir W., 47

Drawers, to put handles to, 62; shrinking of them, 62, 63

Dry cleaning, 220

DÜRER, ALBERT, 151

Dusting broken china, 31

Earthenware tubes, how to lute, 27

Ebonite, 160

Ebony, repairing or imitating, 66, 67

EDER’S gum for photographs, 114

Eggs in cements, 5

“Egyptian Sketch-Book,” 210

Elmworm silk, 250

Embossing leather, 100

Engraving and etching glass or china, 38

Erasures in paper, 103

Essential oils in cleaning pictures, 225

Etruscan vases repaired, 15

Excess of cleaning and ignorance as to effects by age, 214

Fastening broken furniture, 60, 61

Fictile or ceramic ware, 12

FIELD, “Chromatography” 210

Fillers for wood, 69

Fire-proof paper, 103

Floors laid with shavings, 53

Flour and starch paste, 4, 5

Flour-paste, to make a strong, 112

Flowers made from wood-shavings and plaster of Paris, glue, &c., 68

Fluid paste, 247

Flour spar cement, 237

Flux, vitreous or metallic, 17

Forgeries in antiques, 94, 149

French glue for wood, 80

French glues, 248

Furniture, cheap and bad, 58

Furniture-making, 72

GARMAN, SAMUEL, 116

Garments, invisible mending of, 202-205

Gelatine and vinegar cement for china, 25

General cements, 244

GERNER, RAIMUND, _Die Glas Fabrikation_, by, 34, 35

Gesso-painting, 24

Glass-mending, with allied processes, 33-49; old proverb on, 33

Glass-powder, 136; how to prepare, 27

Glass, to pulverise, 234

Glazed or patent leather, how to make, 193

Glaze-mediums, 228

Gloves, how cleaned, 238

Glue, 4; and lime cement, 41; for coarse work, 235; waterproof, 186

Glycerine, in cements, 6; with glue, 68

_Gomme laque_, or shellac, 249

GOUPIL, F., Manual of Mending, 32, 64, 218, 222, 225

Grease-spots, to remove, 92

GREEN, Dr. SAMUEL A., on book-worms, 115

Grinding off fractures in glass, 48

Ground for wax-painting, 228, 229

Grounds of pictures, 221

Guards for mending broken fictile wares, 31, 32

Gum for general use, 243

Gum-mastic, 16, 22

Gum (or starch), 2, 3

Gutta-percha and oil cement for mending soles, 192

Gutta-percha cement for leather, 189

Gypsum, 6

Hard cement for all wood, 80

Harness, saddle, and bridle repairing, 193

Hats, blankets, &c., to mend by felting, 199-201

Heating wood before glueing, 60

HEIGELIN, Professor, exhibition of flowers made from shavings, 68

Hide, raw, 189

HILDEBRAND, WOLFGANG, on liquid glass, 7, 35, 148

HOFER, JOHANNES, 142

HOFER, RAIMUND, on indiarubber, 159, 168