Part 142

II.—Extract licorice 20 parts Sweet spirits niter 200 parts Acetic ether 30 parts Spirits ammonia 1 part Coumarin .12 parts Vanillin 1 part

III.—Oil lemon 3 drops Oil orange peel 3 drops Oil wormwood 2.5 drops Oil galanga 2 drops Oil ginger 1 drop Oil anise 15 drops Oil cascarilla 15 drops Oil bitter almond 12 drops Oil milfoil 10 drops Oil sassafras 7 drops Oil angelica 6 drops Oil hyssop 4 drops Oil cardamom 2 drops Oil hops 2 drops Oil juniper 1 drop Oil rosemary 1 drop

Mix A, B, and C.

NOTE.—This essence should stand 2 years before being used for liqueurs.

«Chartreuse.»—I.—Elixir végétal de la Grande Chartreuse.

Fresh balm mint herbs 64 parts Fresh hyssop herbs 64 parts Angelica herbs and root, fresh, together 32 parts Cinnamon 16 parts Saffron 4 parts Mace 4 parts

Subject the above ingredients to maceration for a week with alcohol (96 per cent), 1,000 parts, then squeeze off and distill the liquid obtained over a certain quantity of fresh herbs of balm and hyssop. After 125 parts of sugar have been added to the resultant liqueur, filter.

The genuine Chartreuse comes in three different colors, viz., green, white, and yellow. The coloration, however, is not artificial, but is determined by the addition of varying quantities of fresh herbs in the distillation. But since it would require long and tedious trials to produce the right color in a small manufacture, the yellow shade is best imparted by a little tincture of saffron, and the green one by the addition of a few drops of indigo solution.

II.—Eau des Carmes 3 1⁠/⁠2 ounces Alcohol 1 quart Distilled water 1 quart Sugar 1 1⁠/⁠2 pounds Tincture of saffron 1 ounce

Mix. Dissolve sugar in warm water, cool, strain, add remainder of ingredients, and filter. This is known as yellow Chartreuse. {770}

«Curaçao Liqueur.»—

A.—Oil lemon, q. s. 10 drops Oil bitter almond, q. s. 5 drops Oil curaçoa orange 15 parts Oil sweet orange 1 part Oil bitter orange 1 part Cochineal 1 part French brandy 50 parts

B.—Alcohol 4,500 parts

C.—Sugar 3,500 parts Water (distilled) 4,000 parts

Mix A, B, and C. Filter. Color with caramel.

«May Bowl or May Wine.»—The principal ingredient of May bowl, or that which gives it its flavor and bouquet, is fresh _Waldmeisterkraut_ (_Asperula odorata_), the “woodruff” or “sweet grass,” “star grass,” and a dozen other aliases, of a plant growing wild all over Europe, both continental and insular, and cultivated by some gardeners in this country. It is accredited with being a diuretic, deobstruent and hepatic stimulant, of no mean order, though it has long been banished from the pharmacopœia.

In Baden and in Bavaria in preparing _Maitrank_ the practice was formerly to first make an essence—_Maitrankessenz_, for the preparation of which every housewife had a formula of her own. The following was that generally used in the south of Germany:

I.—Fresh, budding woodruff, cut fine 500 parts Alcohol, commercial (90 per cent) 1,000 parts

Digest together for 14 days, then filter and press off. Many add to this some flavoring oil. As coumarin has been found to be the principle to which the Waldmeister owes its odor, many add to the above Tonka bean, chopped fine, 1 part to the thousand. From about 12 to 15 drachms of this essence is added to make a gallon of the wine, which has about the following formula:

French brandy, say 4 drachms Oil of unripe oranges 80 drops Sugar 4 to 8 ounces Essence 12 drachms Wine to make 1 gallon

II.—Take enough good woodruff (_Waldmeister_) of fine aroma and flavor. Remove all parts that will not add to the excellence of the product, such as wilted, dead, or imperfect leaves, stems, etc., and wash the residue thoroughly in cold water, and with as little pressure as possible. Now choose a flask with a neck sufficiently wide to receive the stems without pressing or bruising them, and let the pieces fall into it. Pour in sufficient strong alcohol (96 per cent) to cover the herbs completely. In from 30 to 40 minutes the entire aroma is taken up by the alcohol, which takes on a beautiful green color, which, unfortunately, does not last, disappearing in a few days, but without affecting the aroma in the least. The alcohol should now be poured off, for if left to macerate longer, while it would gain in aroma, it will also take up a certain bitter principle that detracts from the delicacy of flavor and aroma. The extract is now poured on a fresh quantity of the herb, and continue proceeding in this manner until a sufficiently concentrated extract is obtained to give aroma to 100 times its weight of wine or cider.

III.—Fresh woodruff, in bloom or flower, is freed from the lower part of its stem and leaves, and also of all foreign or inert matter. The herb is then lightly stuck into a wide-mouth bottle, and covered with strong alcohol. After 30 minutes pour off the liquor on fresh woodruff. In another half hour the essence is ready, though it should not be used immediately. It should be kept at cellar heat (about 60° F.) for a few days, or until the green color vanishes. Any addition to the essence of aromatics, such as orange peel, lemons, spices, etc., is to be avoided. To prepare the Maitrank, add the essence to any good white wine, tasting and testing, until the flavor suits.

The following are other formulas for the drink:

IV.—Good white wine or cider 65 parts Alcohol, dilute 20 parts Sugar 10 parts Maitrankessenz 1 part

Mix.

«Maraschino Liqueur.»—

Oil bitter almonds 15 minims Essence vanilla 1 drachm Jasmine extract 2 drops Raspberry essence 10 drops Oil neroli 10 drops Oil lemon 15 minims Spirits nitrous ether 2 drachms Alcohol 6 pints Sugar 8 pounds Rose water 10 ounces Water sufficient to make 2 gallons

Make a liquor in the usual manner.

«To Clarify Liqueurs.»—For the clarification of turbid liqueurs, burnt {771} powdered alum is frequently employed. Make a trial with 200 parts of the dim liqueur, to which 1.5 parts of burnt powdered alum is added; shake well and let stand until the liquid is clear. Then decant and filter the last portion. If the trial is successful, the whole stock may be clarified in this manner.

«MEDICINAL WINES:»

«Beef and Iron.»—The following formula is recommended by the American Pharmaceutical Association:

I.—Extract of beef 35 grams Tincture of citro-chloride of iron 35 c.c. Compound spirit of orange 1 c.c. Hot water 60 c.c. Alcohol 125 c.c. Syrup 125 c.c. Sherry wine sufficient to make 1,000 c.c.

Rub the extract of beef with the hot water, and add, while stirring, the alcohol. Allow to stand 3 days or more, then filter and distill off the alcohol. Add to the residue 750 cubic centimeters of the wine, to which the compound spirit of orange has been previously added. Finally add the tincture of citro-chloride of iron, syrup, and enough wine to make 1,000 cubic centimeters. Filter if necessary.

II.—For Poultry and Stock.—A good formula for wine of beef and iron is as follows:

Beef extract 256 grains Tincture of iron citro-chloride 256 minims Hot water 1 fluidounce Sherry wine enough to make 1 pint

Pour the hot water in the beef extract and triturate until a smooth mixture is made. To this add, gradually and under constant stirring, 12 ounces of the wine. Add now, under same conditions, the iron, stir in well, and finally add the remainder of the wine.

«Cinchona.»—I.—Macerate 100 parts of cinchona succirubra in coarse powder for 30 minutes in 100 parts of boiling water. Strain off the liquor and set aside. Macerate the residuum in 1,000 parts of California Malaga for 24 hours, strain off the liquid and set aside. Finally macerate the magma in 500 parts of alcohol, of 50 per cent, for 1 hour, strain off and set aside. Wash the residue with a little water to recover all the alcoholic tincture; then unite all the liquids, let stand for 24 hours, and filter. To the filtrate add 800 parts loaf sugar and dissolve by the aid of gentle heat and again filter. The product is all that could be asked of a wine of cinchona. To make a ferrated wine of this, dissolve 1 part of citro-ammoniacal pyrophosphate of iron to every 1,000 parts of wine.

II.—Yvon recommends the following formula:

Red cinchona, coarse powder 5 parts Alcohol, 60 per cent 10 parts Diluted hydrochloric acid 1 part Bordeaux wine 100 parts

Macerate the bark with the acid and alcohol for 6 days, shaking from time to time, add the wine, macerate for 24 hours, agitating frequently, then filter.

«Removal of Musty Taste and Smell from Wine.»—For the removal of this unpleasant quality, Kulisch recommends the use of a piece of charcoal of about the size of a hazel nut—5 to 10 parts per 1,000 parts of wine. After this has remained in the cask for 6 to 8 weeks, and during this time has been treated once a week with a chain or with a stirring rod, the wine can be racked off. Obstinate turbidness, as well as stalk taste and pot flavor, can also be obviated by the use of the remedy.

«WINTERGREEN, TO DISTINGUISH METHYL SALICYLATE FROM OIL OF.»

A quantity of the sample is mixed in a test tube with an equal volume of pure concentrated sulphuric acid. Under these conditions the artificial compound shows no rise in temperature and acquires only a slight yellowish tint, while with the natural oil there is a marked rise in temperature and the mixture assumes a rose-red color, gradually passing into darker shades.

«WIRE ROPE.»

See also Steel.

A valuable anti-friction and preservative compound for mine cables is as follows: Seven parts soft tallow and 3 parts plumbago, mixed thoroughly; make a long, hollow box or trough, gouge out a 4 by 6 piece of scantling about 2 feet long, sawing it down lengthwise and hollowing out the box or trough enough to hold several pounds of the compound, making also a hole lengthwise of the {772} trough for the cable to run through; then affix to rope and clamp securely, having the box or trough so fixed that it cannot play, and letting the cable pass through it while going up or down, so that it will get a thorough coating. This, it is found, will preserve a round cable very well, and can be used at least once a week. For a flat steel cable raw linseed oil can be used instead of the tallow, in about the proportion of 6 parts oil and 3 plumbago. If tar is used, linseed oil is to be added to keep the tar from adhering, both ingredients to be mixed while warm.

To preserve wire rope laid under ground, or under water, coat it with a mixture of mineral tar and fresh slaked lime in the proportion of 1 bushel of lime to 1 barrel of tar. The mixture is to be boiled, and the rope saturated with it while hot; sawdust is sometimes added to give the mixture body. Wire rope exposed to the weather is coated with raw linseed oil, or with a paint composed of equal parts of Spanish brown or lampblack with linseed oil.

WIRE HARDENING: See Steel.

WITCH-HAZEL JELLY: See Cosmetics.

«Wood»

«DECORATIVE WOOD-FINISH.»

Paint or stencil wood with white-lime paint. When it has dried slowly in the shade, brush it off and a handsome dark-brown tone will be imparted to the oakwood. Some portions which may be desired darker and redder are stained again with lime, whereby these places become deeper. It is essential that the lime be applied in even thickness and dried slowly, for only then the staining will be red and uniform.

After the staining saturate the wood with a mixture of varnish, 2 parts; oil of turpentine, 1 part; turpentine, 1⁠/⁠2 part. When the oil ground is dry apply 2 coatings of pale amber varnish.

Colored decorations on pinewood can be produced as follows:

The most difficult part of the work is to remove the rosin accumulations without causing a spot to appear. Burn out the places carefully with a red-hot iron. Great care is necessary to prevent the iron from setting the rosin on fire, thus causing black smoke clouds.

The resulting holes are filled up with plaster to which a little light ocher is added to imitate the shade of the wood as perfectly as possible. Plaster up no more than is necessary.

Rub the wood down with very fine sandpaper, taking especial care to rub only with the grain of the wood, since all cross scratches will remain permanently visible.

After this preliminary work cover the wood with a solution of white shellac, in order not to injure the handsome golden portions of the wood and to preserve the pure light tone of the wood in general.

On this shellac ground paint and stencil with glazing colors, ground with isinglass solution. The smaller, more delicate portions, such as flowers and figures, are simply worked out in wash style with water colors, using the tone of the wood to remain as high lights, surrounding the whole with a black contour.

After this treatment the panels and decorated parts are twice varnished with dammar varnish. The friezes and pilaster strips are glazed darker and set off with stripes; to varnish them use amber varnish.

The style just mentioned does not exclude any other. Thus, for instance, a very good effect is produced by decorating the panels only with a black covering color or with black and transparent red (burnt sienna and a little carmine) after the fashion of boule work in rich ornaments, in such a way that the natural wood forms the main part and yet quite a considerable portion of the ornament.

Intarsia imitation is likewise well adapted, since the use of variegated covering colors is in perfect keeping with the decoration of natural wood. How it should be applied, and how much of it, depends upon one’s taste, as well as the purpose and kind of the object.

It is a well-known fact that the large pores of oak always look rather smeary, according to whether the workshop is more or less dusty. If this is to be avoided, which is essential for neat work, take good wheat starch, pound it fine with a hammer and stir by means of a wooden spatula good strong polish with the wheat starch to a paste and work the paste into the pores by passing it cross-wise over the wood. After about 1⁠/⁠2 hour, rub down the wood thus treated in such a manner that the pores are filled. In case any open pores remain, repeat the process as before. After that, rub down, polish or deaden. If this operation is not performed, the pores will always look somewhat dirty, despite all {773} care. Every cabinetmaker will readily perceive that this filling of the pores will save both time and polish in the subsequent finishing.

«WOOD FILLERS.»

The novice in coach painting is quite as likely to get bewildered as to be aided by much of the information given about roughstuff, the more so as the methods differ so widely. One authority tells us to use a large proportion of lead ground in oil with the coarser pigment, while another says use dry lead and but a small percentage, and still another insists that lead must be tabooed altogether. There are withal a good many moss-grown superstitions associated with the subject. Not the least of these is the remarkably absorbent nature which the surface that has been roughstuffed and “scoured” is supposed to possess. By many this power of absorption is believed to be equal to swallowing up, not only all the color applied, but at least 3 coats of varnish, and none of these would think of applying a coat of color to a roughstuffed surface without first giving it a coat of liquid filler as a sort of sacrificial oblation in recognition of this absorbing propensity. Another authority on the subject has laid down the rule that in the process of scouring, the block of pumice stone must always be moved in one direction, presumably for the reason that some trace of the stone is likely to be visible after the surface is finished.

If the block of stone is scratching, perhaps the appearance of the finished panel may be less objectionable with the furrows in parallel lines than in what engravers call “cross-hatching,” but if the rubbing is properly done it is not easy to discover what difference it could make whether the stone is moved in a straight line or a circle. As to absorption, it cannot be distinguished in the finished panel between the surface that was coated with liquid filler and that to which the color was applied directly, except that cracking always occurs much sooner in the former, and this will be found to be the case with surfaces that have been coated with liquid filler and finished without roughstuff. Among the pigments that may be used for roughstuff, and there are half a dozen or more, any of which may be used with success, there is no doubt but that known as “English filler” is best, but it is not always to be had without delay and inconveniences.

Yellow ocher, Reno umber and Keystone filler are all suitable for roughstuff, the ocher having been used many years for the purpose, but, as already remarked, the English filler is best. This is the rule for mixing given by Nobles and Hoare: Four pounds filler, 1 pound ground white lead, 1 pint gold size, 1 pint varnish and 1 1⁠/⁠4 pints turpentine, or 3⁠/⁠4 pint good size and 1⁠/⁠2 pint boiled oil in lieu of the varnish. In regard to the use of white lead ground in oil, it makes the rubbing more laborious, increases the liability to scratching, and requires a much longer time to harden before the scouring can be done, without in any appreciable manner improving the quality of the surface when finished.

It may be remarked here that the addition of white lead, whether ground in oil or added dry to the coarser pigment, increases the labor of scouring just in proportion as it is used until sufficient may be used to render the scouring process impossible; hence, it follows that the mixing should be governed by the character of the job in hand. If the job is of a cheap class the use of very little or no lead at all is advisable, and the proportion of Japan and turpentine may also be increased, with the result that a fairly good surface may be obtained with much less labor than in the formula given.

The number of coats of filler required to effect the purpose in any given case must depend upon how well the builder has done his part of the work. If he has left the surface very uneven it follows, as a matter of course, that more coats will be required to make it level, and more of the roughstuff will remain after the leveling process than if the woodwork had been more perfectly done. While the merits of a system or method are not to be judged by its antiquity, there should be a good reason to justify the substitution of a new method for one that has given perfect satisfaction for generations and been used by the best coach painters who ever handled a brush.

A well-known writer on paints says that the effect of a varnish is usually attributed to the manner of its application and the quantity of thinners used for diluting the melted gums, with the prepared oils and the oxidizing agents used in its manufacture. While this has undoubtedly much to do with the successful application of varnish, there are other facts in this connection that should not be overlooked. For example, varnish is sometimes acted on by the breaking up, or the disintegration of the filling coats; which in turn is evidently acted on by the wood itself, according to its nature. {774}

With the aid of the microscope in examining the component parts of wood a cellular tissue is observed which varies in form according to the species and the parts which are inspected. This cellular tissue is made up of small cavities called pores or cells, which are filled with a widely diversified matter and are covered with a hard and usually brittle substance called _lignin_.

This diversified matter consists of mineral salts and various organic substances, gelatinous in their nature and held in solution by a viscous liquid and containing nitrogenous matter in different combinations, the whole being designated by the general name of albuminous substances. The older the wood the more viscous is the matter; while wood of recent growth (sapwood) contains less viscous matter holding these substances in solution. This albumen in wood acts on substances like filler and varnish in one way or the other, good or bad. The seasoning of wood does not dispose of these substances. The water evaporates, leaving them adhering to the sides of the cells. The drier these substances are the less action they exert on the filler or whatever substance is coated on the surface. If the filler disintegrates, it affects the varnish.

All albuminous substances, be they dry or in liquid form, are subject, more or less, according to the protein they contain—which seems, or rather is, the essential principle of all albuminous matter—to the influence of caustic potash and soda. Thus, the albumen of an egg is exactly like that contained in the composition of wood. As albumen in wood becomes solid by drying, it is easily dissolved again, and will then be acted on chemically by any extraneous substance with which it comes in contact.

Some of the shellacs, substitutes for shellacs, and some of the liquid fillers are manufactured from some of the following substances: Old linseed oil, old varnish, old and hard driers, turpentine, benzine, often gasoline, rosin, whiting, cornstarch flour, nulls, paint skins, silica, and so on. The list is long. To these must be added a large volume of potash, to bring it to and hold it in solution. There must be an excess of potash which is not combined into a chemical compound, which if it did, might mitigate its influence on the albumen of the wood. But as there is potash in its pure state remaining in the solution it necessarily attacks the albumen of the wood, causing disintegration, which releases it from the wood, causing white, grayish flakes, and the formation of a powder. This is not a conclusion drawn from an inference but an established scientific fact resulting from experiments with fillers the various compositions of which were known. All alkalies act on albumen. No one would knowingly varnish over a surface such as it would be were the white of an egg applied to it and then washed with an alkali solution; but that is just what is done when varnish is put over a wood surface filled with a filler which contains an alkali.

Most of the combinations of material used in the painting trade are mixtures; that is, each part remains the same—exerting the same chemical action on another substance, or any other substance coming in contact with a paint mixture will exert the same chemical action on any part, or on any ingredient it contains, the same as if that part was by itself.