Part 3

_Mahogany Stain._--Break two ounces of dragon's blood in pieces, and put them in a quart of rectified spirits of wine; let the bottle stand in a warm place, and shake it frequently. When dissolved, it is fit for use, and will render common wood an excellent imitation of mahogany.

_Marine Glue._--Dissolve four parts of India-rubber in thirty-four parts of coal tar naptha, aiding the solution with heat and agitation. The solution is then thick as cream, and it should be added to sixty-four parts of powdered shellac, which must be heated in the mixture till all is dissolved. While the mixture is hot it is poured on plates of metal, in sheets like leather. It can be kept in that state, and when it is required to be used, it is put into a pot and heated till it is soft, and then applied with a brush to the surfaces to be joined. Two pieces of wood joined with this cement can scarcely be sundered.

_Parchment._--Paper parchment may be produced by immersing paper in a concentratic solution of chloride of zinc.

_Amalgam of Gold._--Place one part of gold in a small iron saucepan or ladle, perfectly clean, then add 8 parts of mercury, and apply a gentle heat, when the gold will dissolve; agitate the mixture for one minute, and pour it out on a clean plate or stone slab.

For gilding brass, copper etc. The metal to be gilded is first rubbed over with a solution of nitrate of mercury, and then covered with a very thin film of the amalgam. On heat being applied the mercury volatilizes, leaving the gold behind.

A much less proportion of gold is often employed than the above, where a very thin and cheap gilding is required, as by increasing the quantity of the mercury, the precious metal may be extended over a much larger surface. A similar amalgam prepared with silver is used for silvering.

_Amalgam for Mirrors._--Lead and tin, each 1 oz; bismuth, 2 oz; mercury, 4 oz.; melt as before, and add the mercury. These are used to silver mirrors, glass globes, etc., by warming the glass, melting the amalgam, and applying it.

_Annealing Steel._--1. For a small quantity. Heat the steel to a cherry red in a charcoal fire, then bury in sawdust, in an iron box, covering the sawdust with ashes. Let stay until cold.--2. For a larger quantity, and when it is required to be very "soft." Pack the steel with cast iron (lathe or planer) chips in an iron box, as follows: Having at least ½ or ¾ inch in depth of chips in the bottom of the box, put in a layer of steel, then more chips to fill spaces between the steel, and also the ½ or ¾ inch space between the sides of box and steel, then more steel; and lastly, at least 1 inch in depth of chips, well rammed down on top of steel. Heat to and keep at a red heat for from two to four hours. Do not disturb the box until cold.

_To make Bell Metal._--1. Melt together under powdered charcoal, 100 parts of pure copper, with 20 parts of tin, and unite the two metals by frequently stirring the mass. Product very fine.--2. Copper 3 parts; tin 1 part; as above. Some of the finest church bells in the world have this composition.--3. Copper 2 parts: tin 1 part; as above.--4. Copper 72 parts; tin 26½ parts; iron 1½ parts. The bells of small clocks or pendules are made of this alloy in Paris.

_Brass to Make._ 1. _Fine Brass._--2 parts of copper to 1 part of zinc. This is nearly one equivalent each of copper and zinc, if the equivalent of the former metal be taken at 63-2; or 2 equivalents of copper to 1 equivalent of zine, if it be taken with Liebig and Berzelius, at 31-6.

2. Copper 4 parts, zinc 1 part. An excellent and very useful brass.

_Cleansing Solution for Brass._--Put together two ounces sulphuric acid, an ounce and a half nitric acid, one dram saltpetre and two ounces rain water. Let stand for a few hours, and apply by passing the article in and out quickly, and then washing off thoroughly with clean rain water. Old, discolored brass chains treated in this way will look equally as well as when new. The usual method of drying as in sawdust.

_To Cover Brass with beautiful Luster Colors._--One ounce of cream of tartar is dissolved in one quart of hot water, to which is added half an ounce of tin salt (protochloride of tin) dissolved in four ounces of cold water. The whole is then heated to boiling, the clear solution decanted from a trifling precipitate, and poured under continual stirring into a solution of three ounces hyposulphite of soda in one-half a pint of water, whereupon it is again heated to boiling, and filtered from the separated sulphur. This solution produces on brass the various luster-colors, depending on the length of time during which the articles are allowed to remain in it. The colors at first will be light to dark, gold yellow, passing through all the tints of red to an irridescent brown. A similar series of colors is produced by sulphide of copper and lead, which, however, are not remarkable for their stability; whether this defect will be obviated by the use of the tin solution, experience and time alone can show.

_Bronzing Gun-Barrels._--The so-called butter of zinc used for bronzing gun-barrels is made by dissolving zinc in hydrochloric acid till no more free acid is left; which is secured by placing zinc in the acid until it ceases to be dissolved. The liquid is then evaporated until a drop taken out and placed on a piece of glass solidifies in cooling, when it is mixed with 2 parts of olive oil for every three parts of the liquid. The barrels must be cleansed and warmed before applying the so-called butter, which put on with a piece of linen rag.

_Bronzing Fluid._--For brown: Iron filings, or scales, 1 lb.; arsenic, 1 oz.; hydrochloric acid, 1 lb.; metallic zinc, 1 oz. The article to be bronzed is to be dipped in this solution till the desired effect be produced.

_Bronze, Green._--Acetic acid, diluted, 4 lbs; green veriter, 2 oz.; muriate of ammonia, 1 oz.; common salt, 2 oz.; alum, ½ oz.; French berries, ½ lb.; boil them together till the berries have yielded their color, and strain. Olive bronze, for brass or copper.--Nitric acid, 1 oz.; hydrochloric acid, 2 oz.; titanium or palladium, as much as will dissolve, and add three pints of distilled water.

_To Soften Cast-Iron, for Drilling._--Heat to a cherry red, having it lie level in the fire, then with a pair of cold tongs put on a piece of brimstone, a little less in size than you wish the hole to be when drilled, and it softens entirely through the piece; let it lie in the fire until a little cool, when it is ready to drill.

_To Weld Cast-Iron._--Take of good clear white sand, three parts; refined solton, one part; fosterine, one part; rock-salt, one part; mix all together. Take 2 pieces of cast-iron, heat them in a moderate charcoal-fire, occasionally taking them out while heating, and dipping them into the composition, until they are of a proper heat to weld; then at once lay them on the anvil, and gently hammer them together, and, if done carefully by one who understands welding iron, you will have them nicely welded together. One man prefers heating the metal, then cooling it in the water of common beans, and heat it again for welding.

_To recut old Files and Rasps._--Dissolve 4 oz. of saleratus in 1 quart of water, and boil the files in it for half an hour; then remove, wash and dry them. Now have ready, in a glass or stoneware vessel, 1 quart of rain water, into which you have slowly added 4 oz. of best sulphuric acid, and keep the proportions for any amount used. Immerse the files in this preparation for from six to twelve hours, according to fineness or coarseness of the files; then remove, wash them clean, dry quickly, and put a little sweet oil on them to cover the surface. If the files are coarse, they will need to remain in about twelve hours, but for fine files six to eight hours is sufficient. This plan is applicable to blacksmiths', gunsmiths', tinners', coppersmiths' and machinists' files. Copper and tin workers will only require a short time to take the articles out of their files, as the soft metals with which they become filled are soon dissolved. Blacksmiths' and saw-mill files require full time. Files may be recut three times by this process. The liquid may be used at different times if required. Keep away from children, as it is poisonous.

_Twist, Browning for Gun-Barrels._--Take spirits of nitre ¾ oz.; tincture of steel, ¾ oz.: (if the tincture of steel cannot be obtained, the unmedicated tincture of iron may be used, but it is not so good) black brimstone, ¼ oz.; blue vitriol, ½ oz.; corrosive sublimate, ¼ oz.; nitric acid, 1 dr. or 60 drops; copperas, ¼ oz.; mix with 1½ pts. of rain water, keep corked, also, as the other, and the process of applying is also the same.

_Gun Metal._--1. Melt together 112 lbs. of Bristol brass, 14 lbs. of spelter, and 7 lbs. of block tin.--2. Melt together 9 parts of copper and 1 part of tin; the above compounds are those used in the manufacture of small and great brass guns, swivels, etc.

_Chinese Method of Mending Holes in Iron._--The Chinese mend holes in cast-iron vessels as follows: They melt a small quantity of iron in a crucible the size of a thimble, and pour the molten metal on a piece of felt covered with wood-ashes. This is pressed inside the vessel against the hole, and as it exudes on the other side it is struck by a small roll of felt covered with ashes. The new iron then adheres to the old.

_Common Pewter._--Melt in a crucible 7 lbs. of tin, and when fused throw in 1 lb. of lead, 6 oz. of copper and 2 oz. of zinc. This combination of metal will form an alloy of great durability and tenacity; also of considerable luster.

_Best Pewter._--The best sort of pewter consists of 100 parts of tin, and 17 of regulus of antimony.

_Hard Pewter._--Melt together 12 lbs. of tin, 1 lb. of regulus of antimony, and 4 oz. of copper.

_To Mend Broken Saws._--Pure silver, 19 parts: pure copper, 1 part: pure brass, 2 parts; all are to be filed into powder and intimately mixed. Place the saw level upon the anvil, the broken edges in close contact, and hold them so: now put a small line of the mixture along the seam, covering it with a large bulk of powdered charcoal; now with a spirit lamp and a jeweler's blow-pipe, hold the coal-dust in place, and blow sufficient to melt the solder mixture: then with a hammer set the joint smooth, if not already so, and file away any superfluous solder; and you will be surprised at its strength.

_Solder, to Adhere to Brass or Copper._--Prepare a soldering solution in this way: Pour a small quantity of muriatic acid on some zinc filings, so as to completely cover the zinc. Let it stand about an hour, and then pour off the acid, to which add twice its amount of water. By first wetting the brass or copper with this preparation, the solder will readily adhere.

_Common Solder._--Put into a crucible 2 lbs. of lead, and when melted throw in 1 lb. of tin. This alloy is that generally known by the name of solder. When heated by a hot iron and applied to tinned iron with powdered rosin, it acts as a cement or solder.

_Tempering Steel._--For tempering many kinds of tools, the steel is first hardened by heating it to a cherry red, and plunging it into cold water. Afterward the temper is drawn by moderately heating the steel again. Different degrees of hardness are required for different purposes, and the degree of heat for each of these, with the corresponding color, will be found in the annexed table:

Very pale straw color, 430°--the temper required for lancets.

A shade of darker yellow, 450°--for razors and surgical instruments.

Darker straw-yellow, 470°--for penknives.

Still darker yellow, 490°--chisels for cutting iron.

A brown yellow, 500°--axes and plane-irons.

Yellow, slightly tinged with purple, 520°--table-knives and watch-springs.

_Tempering Liquid._--1. To 6 quarts of soft water put in corrosive sublimate, 1 oz.; common salt, 2 handfuls; when dissolved it is ready for use. The first gives toughness to the steel, while the latter gives the hardness. Be careful with this preparation, as it is a dangerous poison.--2. Salt, ½ teacup; saltpetre, ½ oz.; alum, pulverized, 1 tea-spoon; soft water, 1 gallon; never heat over a cherry red, nor draw any temper.--3. Saltpetre, sal-ammoniac, and alum, of each 2 oz.; salt, 1½ lbs.; water, 3 gallons, and draw no temper.--4. Saltpetre and alum, each 2 oz.; sal-ammoniac, ½ oz.; salt, 1½ lbs.; soft water, 2 gallons. Heat to a cherry red, and plunge in, drawing no temper.

_Bayberry, or Myrtle Soap._--Dissolve two and a quarter pounds of white potash in five quarts of water, then mix it with ten pounds of myrtle wax, or bayberry tallow. Boil the whole over a slow fire till it turns to soap, then add a teacup of cold water; let it boil ten minutes longer; at the end of that time turn it into tin molds or pans, and let them remain a week or ten days to dry; then turn them out of the molds. If you wish to have the soap scented, stir into it an essential oil that has an agreeable smell, just before you turn it into the molds. This kind of soap is excellent for shaving, and for chapped hands: it is also good for eruptions on the face. It will be fit for use in the course of three or four weeks after it is made, but it is better for being kept ten or twelve months.

_Chemical Soap_, (for taking Oil, Grease, etc., from Cloth).--Take five pounds castile soap, cut fine; one pint alcohol; one pint soft water; two ounces aquafortis; one and a half ounces lampblack; two ounces of saltpetre; three ounces potash; one ounce of camphor; and four ounces of cinnamon, in powder. First dissolve the soap, potash and saltpetre, by boiling; then add all the other articles, and continue to stir until it cools; then pour into a box and let it stand twenty-four hours and cut into cakes.

_Cold Soap._--Mix twenty-six pounds of melted and strained grease with four pailfuls of ley, made of twenty pounds of white potash. Let the whole stand in the sun, stirring it frequently. In the course of the week, fill the barrel with weak ley.

_Genuine Erasive Soap._--Two pounds of good castile soap; half a pound of carbonate of potash; dissolve in half a pint of hot water. Cut the soap in thin slices, and boil the soap with the potash until it is thick enough to mould in cakes; also add alcohol, half an ounce; camphor, half an ounce; hartshorn, half an ounce; color with half an ounce of pulverized charcoal.

_Hard White Soap._--To fifteen pounds of lard or suet, made boiling hot, add slowly six gallons of hot ley, or solution of potash, that will bear up an egg high enough to leave a piece big as a shilling bare. Take out a little, and cool it. If no grease rise it is done. If any grease appears, add ley, and boil till no grease rises. Add three quarts of fine salt, and boil up again. If this does not harden well on cooling, add more salt. If it is to be perfumed, melt it next day, add the perfume, and run it in molds or cut in cakes.

_Labor-Saving Soap._--Take two pounds of sal-soda, two pounds of yellow bar soap, and ten quarts of water. Cut the soap in thin slices, and boil together for two hours; strain, and it will be fit for use. Put the clothes in soak the night before you wash, and to every pail of water in which you boil them, add a pound of soap. They will need no rubbing; merely rinse them out, and they will be perfectly clean and white.

_To Make Good Soap._--To make matchless soap, take one gallon of soft soap, to which add a gill of common salt, and boil an hour. When cold, separate the ley from the crude. Add to the crude two pounds of sal-soda, and boil in two gallons of soft water till dissolved. If you wish it better, slice two pounds of common bar soap and dissolve in the above. If the soft soap makes more than three pounds of crude, add in proportion to the sal-soda and water.

_To Make Hard Soap from Soft._--Take seven pounds of good soft soap; four pounds sal-soda; two ounces borax; one ounce hartshorn; half a pound of resin; to be dissolved in twenty-two quarts of water, and boiled about twenty minutes.

_Whale Oil Soap_ (for the destruction of Insects.)--Render common ley caustic, by boiling it at full strength on quicklime; then take the ley and boil it with as much whale oil foot as it will saponify (change to soap), pour off into molds, and, when cold, it is tolerably hard. Whale oil foot is the sediment produced in refining whale oil, and is worth two dollars per barrel.

_Soluble Glass._--Mix ten parts of carbonate of potash, fifteen parts of powdered quartz, and one pound of charcoal. Fuse well together. The mass is soluble in four or five parts of boiling water, and the filtered solution, evaporated to dryness, yields a transparent glass, permanent in the air.

_To Make Eggs of Pharaoh's Serpents._--Take mercury and dissolve it in moderately diluted nitric acid by means of heat, taking care, however, that there be always an excess of metallic mercury remaining; decant the solution and pour it into a solution of sulpho-cyanide of ammonium or potassium, which may be bought at a good drug store, or of a dealer in chemicals. Equal weights of both will answer. A precipitate will fall to the bottom of the beaker or jar, which is to be collected on a filter and washed two or three times with water, when it is put in a warm place to dry. Take for every pound of this material one ounce of gum tragacanth which has been soaked in hot water. When the gum is completely softened it is to be transferred to a mortar, and the pulverized and dried precipitate gradually mixed with it by means of a little water, so as to present a somewhat dry pill mass, from which by hand pellets of the desired size are formed, put on a piece of glass, and dried again; they are then ready for use.

_Tracing Paper._--In order to prepare a beautiful transparent, colorless paper, it is best to employ the varnish formed with Demarara resin in the following way: The sheets intended for this purpose are laid flat on each other, and the varnish spread over the uppermost sheet with a brush, until the paper appears perfectly colorless, without, however, the liquid thereon being visible. The first sheet is then removed, hung up for drying, and the second treated in the same manner. After being dried, this paper is capable of being written on, either with chalk or pencil, or steel pens. It preserves its colorless transparency without becoming yellow, as is frequently the case with that prepared in any other way.

_Unsurpassable Blacking._--Put one gallon of vinegar into a stone jug, and one pound of ivory-black well pulverized, half a pound of loaf sugar, half an ounce of oil of vitriol, and seven ounces of sweet oil. Incorporate the whole by stirring.

2. Take twelve ounces each of ivory-black and molasses; spermaceti oil, four ounces; and white wine vinegar, two quarts. Mix thoroughly. This contains no vitriol, and therefore will not injure the leather. The trouble of making it is very little, and it would be well to prepare it for one's self, were it only to be assured that it is not injurious.

_Varnish for Iron Work._--To make a good black varnish for iron work, take eight pounds of asphaltum and fuse it in an iron kettle; then add five gallons of boiled linseed oil, one pound of litharge, half a pound of sulphate of zinc (add these slowly, or it will fume over), and boil them for about three hours. Now add one and a half pounds of dark gum amber, and boil for two hours longer, or until the mass will become quite thick when cool, after which it should be thinned with turpentine to due consistency.

THE TOILET, PERFUMERY, ETC.

_Hair Restorers and Invigorators._--There are hundreds; Lyon's, Wood's, Barry's, Bogle's, Jayne's, Storr's, Baker's, Driscol's, Phalon's, Haskel's, Allen's, Spaulding's, etc. But, though all under different names, are similar in principle, being vegetable oils dissolved in alcohol, with the addition of spirit of soap, and an astringent material, such as tincture of catechu, or infusion of bark. The best is to dissolve one ounce of castor oil in one quart of 95 alcohol, and add one ounce of tincture of cantharides, two ounces of tincture of catechu, two ounces of lemon juice, two ounces of tincture of cinchona; and to scent it, add oil of cinnamon, or oil of rosemary, or both.

_To Make the Hair Soft and Glossy._--Put one ounce of castor oil in one pint of bay rum or alcohol, and color it with a little of the tincture of alkanet root. Apply a little every morning.

_Instantaneous Hair Dye._--Take one drachm of nitrate of silver, and add to it just sufficient rain water to dissolve it, _and no more_; then take strong spirit of ammonia, and gradually pour on the solution of silver, until it becomes as clear as water, (_the addition of the ammonia at first makes it brown_); then wrap round the bottle two or three covers of blue paper, to exclude the light--otherwise it will spoil. Having made this, obtain two drachms of gallic acid; put this into another bottle which will contain one-half pint; pour upon it hot water, and let it stand until cold--when it is fit for use.

_Directions to Dye the Hair._--First wash the head, beard, or moustaches with soap and water; afterwards with clean water. Dry, and apply the gallic acid solution, with a clean brush. When it is almost dry, take a small tooth comb, and with a fine brush, put on the teeth of the comb a little of the silver solution, and comb it through the hair, when it will become a brilliant jet black. Wait a few hours; then wash the head again with clean water. If you want to make a brown dye, add double or treble the quantity of water to the silver solution, and you can obtain any shade of color you choose.

_To Prevent Gray Hair._--When the hair begins to change color, the use of the following pomade has a beneficial effect in preventing the disease extending, and has the character of even restoring the color of the hair in many instances: Lard, 4 ounces: spermaceti, 4 drachms: oxide of bismuth, 4 drachms. Melt the lard and spermaceti together, and when getting cold stir in the bismuth; to this can be added any kind of perfume, according to choice. It should be used whenever the hair requires dressing. It must not be imagined that any good effect speedily results; it is, in general, a long time taking place, the change being very gradual.

_Liquid Rouge for the Complexion._--Four ounces of alcohol, two ounces of water, twenty grains of carmine; twenty grains of ammonia, six grains of oxalic acid, six grains of alum--mix.

_Vinegar Rouge._--Cochineal, three drachms; carmine lake, three drachms; alcohol, six drachms; mix, and then put into one pint of vinegar, perfumed with lavender; let it stand a fortnight, then strain for use.

_Pearl Powder for Complexion._--Take white bismuth, one pound; starch powder, one ounce; orris powder, one ounce. Mix and sift through lawn. Add a drop of otto of roses or neroli.

_Pearl Water for the Complexion._--Castile soap, one pound; water, one gallon. Dissolve, then add alcohol, one quart; oil of rosemary and oil of lavender, each two drachms. Mix well.

_Complexion Pomatum._--Mutton grease, one pound; oxide of bismuth, four ounces; powdered French chalk, two ounces; mix.

_Feuchtwanger's Tooth Paste._--Powdered myrrh, two ounces; burnt alum, one ounce; cream tartar, one ounce; cuttlefish bone, four ounces: drop lake, two ounces; honey, half a gallon; mix.

_Spanish Vermilion for the Toilette._--Take an alkine solution of bastard saffron, and precipitate the color with lemon juice; mix the precipitate with a sufficient quantity of finely powdered French chalk and lemon juice, then add a little perfume.

_Fine Tooth Powder._--Powdered orris root, one ounce; peruvian bark, one ounce; prepared chalk, one ounce; myrrh, one-half ounce.