Chapter 8

CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT.

HOW TO IMITATE GOLD.--Take the following metals and melt them in a covered crucible; sixteen ounces Virgin Platina, twenty-four ounces pure copper.

SILVER.--Forty ounces Nickel, twenty ounces Copper, thirty ounces Block Tin.

ARTIFICIAL GOLD.--Sixteen parts of Virgin Platina and seven parts Copper and one of Zinc. Put these in a crucible with powdered charcoal, and melt them together till the whole forms a mass, and are thoroughly incorporated together. This also makes a gold of extraordinary beauty and value. It is not possible by any tests that chemists know of to distinguish it from pure virgin gold. All I ask of men is to use it for good and lawful purposes, for the knowledge that I here give you will bring you a rich and permanent reward without using it for unlawful purposes.

MANHEIM, OR JEWELER'S GOLD.--Three parts of Copper, one part of Zinc, and one part of Block Tin. If these are pure and melted in a covered crucible containing charcoal, the resemblance will be so good the best judges cannot tell it from pure gold without analyzing it.

BEST PINCHBACK GOLD.--Five ounces of pure Copper and one ounce of Zinc. This makes gold so good in appearance that a great deal of deception by its use in the way of watches and jewelry has been successfully practiced for several hundred years back.

SILVER FLUID.--For silvering brass and copper articles of every description.--Take an ounce of precipitated Silver to half an ounce of Cyanate of Potash and quarter of an ounce of Hyper Sulphate of Soda. Put all into a quart of water, add a little whitening and shake before using. Apply with a soft rag. This knowledge alone is worth one hundred dollars.

ORIGINAL AND GENUINE SILVER PLATING.--Galvanism Simplified.--Dissolve one ounce of Nitrate of Silver in Crystal in twelve ounces of soft water. Then dissolve in the water two ounces of Cyanate of Potash. Shake the whole together and let it stand until it becomes clear. Have ready some half-ounce vials, and fill them half full with Paris White or fine Whiting, then fill up the bottles with the liquid, and it is ready for use. The Whiting does not increase the coating power; it only helps to clean the articles and to save the silver fluid by half filling the bottles. The above quantity of materials will only cost about $1.50, so that the fluid will only cost about three cents a bottle.

POWDER FOR CLEANING AND POLISHING TIN, BRITANNIA AND BRASSWARE.--Take one-half pound ground Pumice Stone and one-quarter pound Red Chalk, mix them evenly together. This is for tin brass. For silver and fine ware, take one-half pound Red Chalk, and one-quarter pound Pumice Stone, mix evenly; use these articles dry with a piece of wash leather. It is one of the best cleaning powders ever invented, and very valuable.

SILVER POLISH FOR TIN, BRASS AND METALLIC ARTICLES.--Quicksilver, Tinfoil or Rottenstone, equal parts, all pulverized together. Roll up in balls, show as you go, and sell for 10 cents a ball.

ANOTHER.--Fine.--Four pounds Whiting, one-quarter ounce Oxalic Acid, one-half ounce Cream Tartar. Stir all together, then add slowly three ounces Mercury stirring briskly all the time so it will mix. This is good, 25 cents a ball.

KANGAROO CEMENT.--Rubber one ounce, pack tightly as possible in a bottle and cover it with Bi-Sulphate of Carbon. When the rubber is dissolved you will have the best cement in the world. There is a fortune in this to an energetic man, as it sells at 25 cents a drachm; and costs but little to make it. This is the cement used by shoemakers to put invisible patches on shoes.

HOW TO EAT FIRE.--Anoint your tongue with liquid Storax, and you may put hot iron or fire coals into your mouth, and without burning you. This is a very dangerous trick to be done, and those who practice it ought to use all means they can to prevent danger. We never saw one of those fire-eaters that had a good complexion.

IMITATION SILVER.--Eleven ounces refined Nickel, two ounces Metallic Bismuth. Melt the composition three times, and pour them out in ley. The third time, when melting, add two ounces of pure silver.

IMITATION GOLD.--Four ounces of Platina, three ounces of Silver, one ounce of Copper.

OROIDE GOLD.--The best article is made by compounding four parts pure Copper, one and three-fourths part pure Zinc, one-fourth part Magnesia, one-tenth part Sal-Ammoniac, one-twelfth part Quick Lime, and one part Cream Tartar. Melt the Copper first, then add as rapidly as possible the other articles in the order named.

HOW TO INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF GOLD.--Take your bar of Gold and rub it long and carefully with thin Silver, until the Gold absorbs the quantity of Silver that you require. Then prepare a strong solution of Brimstone and Quicklime. Now put the Gold into a vessel with a wide mouth. Now let them boil until the Gold attains the right color, and you have it, but do not use this knowledge for an ill purpose.

MASON'S FROZEN PERFUME.--This perfume is in a solid, transparent form, and by rubbing on the handkerchief it imparts an exquisite perfume; by carrying it in the pocket it perfumes the entire wearing apparel; by keeping it in a drawer or box all articles therein obtain the benefits of this perfume.

Solidified perfumes are superior to all liquid, as they cannot spill or waste in any manner, but will last for years. Perhaps no article of luxury had such a sale as this, and as the sales have steadily increased since its introduction, no other proof of its excellence is needed.

FREEZING MIXTURE.--Take four parts Nitric Acid, six parts Nitrate Ammonia, and nine parts phosphate of Soda. Having first prepared a vessel of galvanized iron four inches wide, twenty-four inches long, and twelve inches deep, have it a little wider at the top than at the bottom. Now make another vessel eight inches wide, twenty-eight inches long and fourteen inches high. Put the small vessel inside the larger one, fill the small one nearly full of as cool water as you can procure, put the freezing mixture in the large vessel around the smaller one, set this in as cool a place as possible. If you will have a faucet at the lower edge of the larger vessel and first fill the large vessel with the following it will greatly assist in freezing. Equal parts of Sal-Ammonia and Nitre dissolved in its own weight of water. In ten to fifteen minutes pour this off and put in the freezing mixture.

NOTE.--I have used the above description of a vessel to give you an idea of how to operate. Any sized vessel made in the same proportion will work as well.

IMPROVED TROY STARCH ENAMEL.--Melt five pounds of Refined Paraffine Wax in a tin boiler or pan over a slow fire; use care in melting. When melted remove the vessel from the fire and add 200 drops of Oil of Citronelli. Take some new round tin pie pans, and oil them with sweet oil as you would for pie baking, but do not use lard. Put these pans on a level table, and pour in enough of the hot wax to make a depth in each pan equal to about the thickness of one-eighth of an inch. While hot, glance over the pans to see that they are level. As this is very essential, please remember it. If the pans are not level, the cakes will be all thicknesses, which should not be so. Then let them cool, but not too fast. Watch them closely, and have a tin stamp ready to stamp the cakes out about the size of an ordinary candy lozenge. This stamp should be about eight inches long, larger at the top than at the bottom, so that the cakes can pass up through the stamp as you are cutting them out of the pans. Lay the cakes in another pan to cool. Before they become very hard, separate them from each other; if not, it will be difficult to do so when they become very hard. Do not neglect this. Have boxes made at any paper box maker's in any large city. They cost about from one to two cents each; sliding boxes are the best. Have your labels printed, and commence business at once. Put 24 to 30 cakes in each box, and retail for 25 cents.

Wholesale for $1.50 per dozen.

_Directions for Use._--To a pint of boiling starch stir in one cake or tablet. This gives an excellent lustre to linen or muslin, and imparts a splendid perfume to the clothes, and makes the iron pass very smoothly over the surface. It requires but half the ordinary labor to do an ironing. It is admired by every lady. It prevents the iron from adhering to the surface, and the clothes remain clean and neat much longer than by any other method.

BRILLIANT SELF-SHINING STOVE POLISH.--This is one of the greatest inventions of the age. It has been the result of a large amount of study on the part of the inventor to perfect a polish that would work easily and satisfactorily in a perfect dry state, thereby obviating the disagreeable task of mixing and preparing. A good stove polish is an absolute necessity in every family. It is only a question, then, of offering the best to make a sale. To prove that this polish is the best is an easy task. All you have to do is to have a box open and a piece of rag to begin operations. You now approach the stove and apply the polish. The result will be so startlingly beautiful that no further words will be necessary. If the stove is not convenient, anything will do to experiment with. You can produce on a piece of wood, a scrap of paper or a potato, a lustre equal to a burnished mirror.

Now make the following points just as strong as you can:

That this polish requires no water or mixing like the various cake or powder polishes. 2. That it is self-shining and no labor is required. 3. That no dust or smell of any kind rises from its use. And, lastly, that it has no equal in the world.

RECIPE.--Take Plumbago (Black Lead) finely pulverized, and put in two ounce wood boxes, nicely labeled, and sell for ten or fifteen cents a box. Wholesale to stores and agents at $6.00 a hundred. Costs less than three cents a box to manufacture.

_Directions for Use._--Use a damp woolen rag, dip in the box, and apply to the stove. Then polish with a dry cloth, and a most beautiful polish will appear.

TO FROST WINDOW PANES.--Take Epsom Salts and dissolve in beer. Apply with a brush and you have the finest window frosting known.

THE HOUSEKEEPER'S FRIEND, or ELECTRIC POWDER.--This is one of the most salable articles of the day and staple as flour--something that every housekeeper will buy. It is used for gold and silver plated ware, German silver, brass, copper, glass, tin, steel, or any material where a brilliant lustre is required. Is put up in two ounce wood boxes, costs three cents to manufacture, sells at retail for 25 cents, to agents and stores for $12.00 per 100 boxes.

RECIPE.--To four pounds best quality Whiting, add one-half pound Cream Tartar and three ounces Calcined Magnesia; mix thoroughly together, box and label.

_Directions._--Use the polish dry with a piece of chamois skin or Canton flannel, previously moistened with water or alcohol, and finish with the polish dry. A few moments' rubbing will develop a surprising lustre, different from the polish produced by any other substance.

RECIPE.--Follow the same directions as in "Starch Enamel," and perfume as follows: Take two ounces Oil Lemon Grass and one-half ounce Oil of Cloves, and one-fourth ounce Oil of Lavender flowers; mix them well together. For this amount of perfume you require about four quarts of the liquid paraffine. Pour the oils into the melted paraffine while warm, stirring it well while pouring. Stamp into square cakes and put into neatly printed envelopes. Sell for ten cents a cake, cost two cents. Agents can sell 100 cakes a day.

THE LIGHTNING INK ERASER.--The great Lightning Ink Eraser may be used instead of a knife or scraper for erasing in order to rectify a mistake or clean off a blot, without injury to the paper, leaving the paper as clean and good to write upon as it was before the blot or mistake was made, and without injury to the printer's ink upon any printed form or ruling upon any first-class paper. Take of Chloride of Lime one pound, thoroughly pulverized, and four quarts of Soft Water. The above must be thoroughly shaken when first put together. It is required to stand twenty-four hours to dissolve the Chloride of Lime. Then strain through a cotton cloth, after which add a teaspoonful of Acetic Acid (No. 8 commercial) to every ounce of Chloride of Lime Water. The eraser is used by reversing the penholder in the hand, dipping the end in the fluid, and applying it, without rubbing, to the blot to be erased. When the ink has disappeared, absorb the fluid into a blotter, and the paper is immediately ready to write upon. Put up in common ink bottles and retail for 25 cents each.

THE MAGIC ANNIHILATOR.--To make one gross eight-ounce bottles--aqua ammonia one gallon, soft water eight gallons, best white soap four pounds, saltpetre eight ounces. Shave the soap fine, add the water, boil until the soap is dissolved, let it get cold, then add the saltpetre, stirring until dissolved. Now strain, let the suds settle, skim off the dry suds, add the ammonia, bottle and cork at once. Cost about $7.25 per gross; sells for $72.00. It will do everything claimed for it and more, too. It is no mixture of soap suds as some may suppose, but a pure scientific, chemical preparation. If you wish to make a small quantity for trial, take aqua ammonia two ounces, soft water one quart, saltpetre one teaspoonful. Shave the soap fine, mix all, shake well, and let settle a day or two to dissolve the soap.

_What It Will Do._--It will remove all kinds of grease and oil spots from every variety of wearing apparel, such as coats, pants, vests, dress goods, carpets, etc., without injury to the finest silks or laces. It will shampoo like a charm, raising the lather in proportion to the amount of dandruff and grease in the hair. A cloth wet with it will remove all grease from door-knobs, window sills, etc., handled by kitchen domestics in their daily routine of kitchen work. It will remove paint from a board, I care not how hard or dry it is, if oil is used in the paint, yet it will not injure the finest textures. Its chemical action is such that it turns any oil or grease into soap, which is easily washed out with clear cold water. For cleaning silver, brass and copper ware it can't be beat. It is certain death to bed bugs, for they will never stop after they have encountered the Magic Annihilator.

_Directions for Use._--For grease spots, pour upon the article to be cleaned a sufficient quantity of the Magic Annihilator rubbing well with a clean sponge, and applying to both sides of the article you are cleaning. Upon carpets and coarse goods, where the grease is hard and dry, use a stiff brush and wash out with clear cold water. Apply again if necessary. One application is all that is needed for any fresh grease spots, but for old or dried a second may be required. For shampooing take a small quantity of the Magic Annihilator with an equal quantity of water, apply to the hair with a stiff brush, brushing into the pores of the scalp, and wash out with clear water. You will be surprised at the silk gloss of your hair. For cleaning silver ware, etc., buy five cents' worth of whitening, mix a small quantity with the magic annihilator, and apply with a rag, rubbing briskly. For killing bed bugs, apply to the places they frequent, and they will leave in short order. You will find it useful in many other ways. (See price list of labels.)