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REPOSITORY

OF

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

f’KO.VTISPIE ct2

THE

REPOSITORY

OP

ARTS AND SCIENCES;

OB,

CABINET OF VSEFUZ. KNOWLEDGE :

CONTAINING

PLAIN AND SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS

IN THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OP

ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND CHEMISTRY;

PARTICULARLY, ANGLING, BIRD CATCHING, BLACKING MAKING, BREWING, BRITISH WINES, CEMENTING, DISTILLING, DRAWING, DYETNG, FIRE-WORKS,

GILDING, INK MAKING, JAPANNING, PAINTING, PERFUMING, STAINING, SYMPATHETIC WRITING, VARNISHING, VERMIN KILLING,

&c. &c.

THE WHOLE COMPRISING SEVERAL HUNDRED

Valuable Receipts, Curious Experiments, fyc.

EDINBURGH:

PUBLISHED BY PETER BROWN, 59, SOUTH BRIDGE.

1838,

/ ^ kFfr /v q

°s 19 74 ? 0r'^

EDINBURGH : PRINTED BY ANDERSON & BRYCE.

CONTENTS

OF DRAWING, AND PAINTING IN OIL,

The introduction to the practice, with som< necessary to be provided for proceedin art,

Of colours useful in limning, painting, &c, Of mixing or tempering of colours, Of the first operation or sitting, Of the second sitting, The third sitting. Of drawing the complexion, Further directions for colouring drapery, Instructions how to paint landscapes,

> things g in the

Page

10 24 25 20 27 29 ib. 30 32

To lay mezzotinto prints on glass, - 33 To paint landscapes of mezzotinto, - 34 To make mezzotintos, - - 36 To extract lake from red roses, wild popp ies, red

violets, flower-de-luce, orange borage, ca rnation, or other flowers, - - . ib.

VI CONTENTS.

Yellow lake , extracted from broom buds, or other yellow fle wers, that have a good tincture, another way,| - - -

A lake to bn 3 drawn from cochineal, Lake of coc^ hineal, - - . The manner1 of painting on glass, To lay oil oj rlours on glass, To anneal c r burn colours on glass, To gild lett( rs on vellum or paper, To make poil rnce, Method of ol jtaining copies of inscriptions, To take oil instantly, a copy from a print or

picture, - - To varnish d rawings, paintings in water colours,

or any kin i of paper or card work, To clean or ' vhiten prints or engravings, To clean oil raintings, - - - Of colours tl at arise from mixture, A green pain ; for garden stands, Venetian blinds,

trellisses, 4 c. Method of p eparing a cheap substitute for oil

paint, as dt rable as that prepared with oil, and free from ai ly bad smell,

Cheap black j 'aint from earthy and mineral substances, - -

To make a br own paint, To prepare t he beautiful colour called Naples

yellow, - - Another meth od, To prepare ivi >ry leaves for miniature painters, To make wax or cement of a mahogany colour, Cheap and ex cellent composition for preserving

boarding, a> nd all other works liable to be injured by th« ; weather,

To make lead -coloured paint preserve iron. To judge of ti ransparent colours for painting, To make port able glue, (commonly known by the

name of bai ik note cement), To gild leathi ;r for listing doors, folding screens,

&c. - - - A cement to j oin broken glass,

Page

37 38 39 ib. ib. ib. 40 41 ib.

ib.

42 ib. 43 ib.

45

ib.

46 47

ib. ib. 48 ib.

49 ib. 50

ib.

ib. 51

CONTENTS.

OF VARNISHING AND JAPANNI SG. Page

Observations on varnishes, - 52 General rules for varnishing, - 55 Of black varnishing or japan, - 57 White varnishing or japan, -I ib. How to make isinglass size, - 59 How to make red japan, - - ib. Blue japan, - - 1 - ib. To make white varnish, - -60 Receipt to make turpentine varnish, - 61 Varnish to prevent the rays of the sun fr om pass-

ing through the glasses of windows, - ib. To make lacker for brass, - - ib.

TO OVERLAY WOOD WITH GOLD OR SILVER- GOLD AND SILVER SIZE, &c.

To overlay wood with gold or silver, - 62 The best gold size at present in use, - 63 The best silver size in use, -i ib. To size your frames, &c. ■> ib. To lay on gold in order for burnishing, - 64 To burnish the gold work, L ib. To lay on silver size, - - 65

OF GILDING METAL S To prepare the gold. To gild with gold, silver, copper, brass, prince’s

metal, &c. To heighten the colour of gold, Art of gilding iron or steel, Method of dry gilding, Composition for gilding brass or i To make shell-work. To clean gold and restore its lustre, To silver glass globes,

r silv er,

66

ib. 67 ib. 68 ib. ib. 69 ib.

CONTENTS. viii

OF DYEIN G AND STAINING BONE AND WOOD- PAPER-SKINS, &c.

Page To make liqui d for staining bone and wood of

different col ours, . . 69 To stain or dy e wood black, - 76 To dye or staii i wood for inlaying flowers or other

things, for ci tbinets, - - ib. To stain or dy( s ivory, bone, or horn, red, - 71 To stain horn, bone, wood, or ivory, green, - ib. To stain horn t o imitate tortoise-shell, - ib. To stain or dye horn, bone, or ivory, black, - 72 Another way to stain wood a black, - ib. To stain wood a beautiful red or mahogany

colour, - - 78 To stain wood gTeen, - - ib. The most modern methods of dyeing or stain-

paper : — Yellow—Green—Lilac, Olives of an y shade—Buff or leather colour

— Red or crimson, To stain skins green. An approved method to colour white leather. To colour a good black on leather, To colour leather a bright red, A rich French yellow for skins, A deep blue or putple for leather, To stain skins a fine crimson, To imitate Turkey' blue on skins, A light green for skins, To cover or dress skins with gold or silver, To make skins shine without gold or silver, To dye bristles a red colour. To dye feathers or bristles green. Art of dyeing or staining leather gloves, to re*

semble the beautiful York tan, Limerick dye, &c.

74

75 ib. 76 ib. ib. 77 ib. ib. ib. 78 ib. ib. 79 ib.

80

CONTENTS. ix

FOR DYEING SILKS, STUFFS, CLOTHS, THREADS, &c. OF VARIOUS COLOURS.

Page To dye silk a sanguine colour, - 80 To dye silk a deep carnation, - ib. To dye silk queen’s red, - 81 To dye a very fine yellow, - ib. To dye silk a rose red, - ib. A good black water for silk or cloth, - 82 To dye purple, - - ib. To dye a very fine blue, - - ib. Carnation, - - 83 For a pleasant light red, - - ib. Black for velvet, &c. - - ib. To make red water for silk or woollen, violet,

green, azure, or yellow, - - ib. To dye woollen yarn or wool, - 84 To make bran water, - - ib. To dye linen, thread, or cloth, a good red, - ib. To dye cotton a fine buff colour, - ib. To make Nankeen dye, - - 85 Easy method of dyeing yellow or green, - ib. Substitute for galls in dyeing, and also in making

ink, - - - ib. Substitute for verdigris in dyeing black, - ib.

J USEFUL PROCESSES RELATIVE TO IRON.

To braze or solder pieces of iron, - 86 Composition that will effectually prevent iron,

steel, &c. from rusting, - - 87 To prevent steel or iron from rust, - ib. To prevent polished hardware and cutlery from

taking rust, - - ib. To clear iron from rust, - - 88 To whiten linseed oil, - - ib. The German method of making elm and maple

wood resemble mahogany, - ib. Substitute for mahogany, - - 89

b

X CONTENTS.

STATIONERY. Fage

To clarify quills, - - 90 To harden quills, - - ib. Dutch method of preparing goose quills for

writing, - - - ib. To make wafers, - - 91

VALUABLE RECEIPTS FOR INKS, INK-POWDERS, &c. To make that which is called the London ink-

powder, - - - 91 To make what is commonly known by the name

of Stewart’s patent Dublin ink-powder, - 92 Black ink, - . - ib. To make black ink on a larger scale, - >b. To make excellent red ink, - 93 To make a beautiful blue writing ink, - ib. Substitute for Indian ink, - - ib. To make Indian ink, - - 94 A powder ink to rub on paper, and write on, ib. To make red sealing wax, - - ib. To make an ordinary sort of sealing wax, - ib. A black sealing wax, - - ib. To make fine sealing wax of all colours, - 95 To marble the edges of books or paper, - ib.

TO TAKE SPOTS AND STAINS OUT OF SILKS, WOOLLEN, OR LINEN, Ac.

To take spots or stains out of silk, - 96 To make a soap that will take grease, spots, or

stains out of cloths, silks, or stuffs, - ibi To take spots out of linen, - - ib. The fumes of brimstone useful in removing spots

or stains from linen, &c. - - >b. A good ley to take out spots or stains, - 97 To take spots or stains out of coloured silks,

stuffs, linen, or woollen, - - ib.

CONTENTS. li

Page A way to take out tar, pitch, or rosin, - 97 To take out oil or grease - - ib. How to take spots or stains out of scarlet, silk,

or velvet, - - - 98 How to take iron moulds or rust out of linen, ib. Another, - - - ib.

BLEACHING.

Method of bleaching straw, - - 98 Efficacy of horse-chesnut in bleaching linen, and

clearing woollen stuffs, and as a ley for preparing hemp, - , - 99

To bleech bees’ wax, - - 100

ANGLING.

To preserve fishing rods, - - 100 Rules for fishing, - - ib. Sure method to know the state of the weather, 101

BIRD CATCHING. Method of making the best sort of bird lime, and

manner of using it, - - 102 Experienced method of catching larks, - 103

BOOKS. For taking grease out of the leaves of books, 104 Method of cleaning dirty prints or books, - 105

BUILDING. How to cure damp walls, - - 10G A preparation to preserve wood from catching fire,

and to preserve it from decay, - - ib.

CONTENTS. xii

CEMENTS.

Roman cement or mortar, for outside plastering or brick work, now much used on old houses, &c. in imitation of stone work,

Useful property of common glue, To make size from potatoes, A most excellent glue, Parchment glue, Strong cement, Fire lute, Cold lute, Another, - Blood cement for repairing copper boilers, &c. To restore cast iron furnaces, and soap pans, that

through accident or mismanagement, may be cracked, -

Composition of a cement to resist the action of fire and water,

Turkey cement for joining metals, glass, &c. Excellent cement for broken china, To make red coral branches for embellishing

grottoes, and the method of building a grotto at a very small expense,

To make patent paste, To make strong paste,

Page

108 ib.

109 ib.

110 ib. ib. ib. Ill ib.

ib.

112 ib.

113

ib. 114 ib.

RECEIPTS FOR BLACKING.

To make a good black, Another, - Another, - Another, - Another, Blacking ball for shoes, A celebrated blacking cake for boots and shoes, A black varnish for gentlemen’s old straw or

chip hats,

114 ib. ib. ib. ib.

116 ib.

ib.

CONTENTS. xiii

, * "S'- How to make oil cloth; very necessary for

country people, or any that travel in wet weather, - - 117

PLEASING EXPERIMENTS.

To make the phosphoric match bottle, - 117 To make an illuminated or phosphoric bottle,

which will preserve its light for several months, - - 118

The phosphoric pencil, - - ib. The fire bottle, - - ib. To make a fire balloon, - - ib. To make an air balloon, - - 119 A cheap and simple process for painting on glass,

sufficient for the purpose of making a magic lantern, - - - 120

To make transparent screens for the exhibition of the phantasmagoria, - - ib.

THE ART OF MAKING FIREWORKS, DETONATING BALLS. &c.

Of the several ingredients for making fireworks, 121 Touch paper, . . . ib. To preserve steel or iron filings, - 122 To meal gunpowder, brimstone, and charcoal, 123 Of mixing the several ingredients, - ib. Squibs and serpents, - 124 Crackers, - - . ~ ib. Sky rockets, - - - 125 Of marroons, ... 127 Water rockets, ... 129 Water squibs, . . •■ ib. Water crackers which turn in the water, - 130 Wildfire which burns under water, - ib. To make a whale, a mermaid, &c. to play and

swim upon the water, - . ib. b 2

XIV CONTENTS.

To prepare a globe which burns like a star, and leaps about both on land and in the water, ...

A composition for stars, of a beautiful colour, to put in rockets, serpent's, blue candles, water rockets, or other sorts of fireworks,

To produce beautiful fireworks in miniature, Ingredients that make sparks when rammed in

cases, - - . A slow fire, ... Dead fire, Brilliant fire, . . - A blue flame, ... Port or wild fires, ... Illumination port fires, To make golden rain, To make a Catherine wheel, To make a flower pot, To make a Roman candle, To make a dragon, or any other animal, run on

a line, spitting fire, St George and the dragon, To make pulvus fulminans, or thunder, in a

room, ... Waterloo crackers, Fulminating balls, Drawers, ... Chairs, ... Boots and shoes, The girdle of safety, Tape or garters, Pins, ... Snuffers, ... Tobacco pipes, Spiders, - - To produce an explosion imitating gunpowder, An artificial earthquake,

Page

131

132 ib.

133 134 ib. ib. ib. ib. ib.

135 ib.

130 ib.

137 138

139 ib.

149 ib.

141 ib. ib.

142 ib. ib. ib.

143 ib.

144

CONTENTS. XT

BREWING, AND MANAGEMENT OF MALT LIQUORS. Page

t Niceties in malting, the observation of which will increase the profits of the maltster nearly ten per cent. - - - 144

Home-brewed beer, - - 146 Porter, - - - 149 Method of extracting the virtue of hops in brew-

ing, - - - ib. Cheap and easy method of brewing, - 150 To make excellent and wholesome table beer, ib. Uses of ground ivy in ale, &c. - ib. To make ginger beer, - - 151 To make good spruce beer, - - ib. To make yeast or barm, - - 152 Substitute for barm or yeast, - ib. To make yeast in the Turkish manner, - 153 To extract the essence of malt for brewing, - ib. To prevent beer from growing flat, - 154 To season new casks, - - ib. Table beer, - - - ib. To bottle ale, - - - ib.

DISTILLING.

Distilling on the most modern principles, - 154 Method practised in the North of Ireland, for

bringing round Spirits in a short period, by the illicit distillers ; knowm by the name of Inni- showen or Potteen Whisky, - 166

HOME-MADE WINES. Remarks on English Wine, - 167 A rich and pleasant wine, - ib. Another way, - - 168 Black currant wine, - - ib. Excellent ginger wine, • - ib. Raspberry wine, - ICO

IV1 CONTENTS.

P’ge Excellent cowslip wine, - - 170 Alder wine, - - - ib. White alder wine, very much like Frontiniac, ib. Excellent raisin wine, - - 171 Sack mead, - - - ib. Cowslip mead, - - 172 Imperial pop, - - ib. Ratafia, » - - ib. Raspberry brandy, - - 173 White currant shrub, - - ib. Method of making vinegar, - - ib.

TO DESTROY VERMIN.

To destroy rats, - . 174 Another method of destroying rats, - ib. To destroy rats or mice, - - 175 A mouse-trap, by which forty or fifty mice may

be caught in a night, - - ib. New, simple, and effectual method of destroying

rats, - - ib. Dr Taylor’s cheap and efficacious method of

destroying rats, - - 17f> A general poison for rats, - 178 How to draw rats to the places where the traps

or cages are laid, - - ib. To prevent the burrowing of rats in houses, ib. Description of the badger, and the manner of

taking it, ... 179 Wild cats, ... 18(1 Description of the weasel, and the manner of

taking it, - - - 181 How to destroy or drive away weasels, - ib. Description of the hedge-hog, and the manner

of taking it, - - tb. Description of the otter, and the manner of

taking it, - - 182 To kill caterpillars and other hurtful insects, 183 To destroy flies, - * 184 How to destroy moths, and keep them from

clothes, ... 185

CONTENTS. xYii

How to destroy kites, crows, ravens, &c. How to kill reptiles, The use of sulphur in destroying insects on

plants, and its benefit to vegetation, How to destroy bugs. Another method, Remedies against fleas, How to destroy fleas on dogs.

Page 185 188

ib. 187 188 ib.

189

THE ART OF PERFUMING.

Orange flower water, - - 189 The Queen of Hungary’s water, - ib. Honey water, - - 199 An excellent water to prevent hair from falling

off-, and to thicken it, - - ib. Lavender water, - - ib. Powder of musked roses, - - ib. To perfume gloves, fans, or skins, with flowers, ib. To make common wash-balls, - 191 Genuine Windsor soap, - - ib. To make soft pomatum, - - 192 Another way, - - ib. Hard pomatum, - - ib.

SYMPATHETIC INKS. &c.

Secret method of writing, - 193 Invisible inks, - - ib. Another, - - - ib. Another, - - - 194 Another, - - ib. Secret correspondence by means of invisible ink, ib. Secret correspondence by means of common ink, 195

USEFUL ARTS, Ac.

To bronze plaster figures, - 195 Composition to take off casts of metal, - 196

CONTENTS. xviii

Page To cut glass, - . 190 Indelible ink for marking linen, &c. - 197 To preserve meat by treacle, - 198 To preserve beef and mutton in a sound state, in

a voyage to the West Indies, - 199 The useful properties of charcoal for sweetening

the breath, cleaning the teeth, &c. - ib. To sweeten meat, fish, &c. that is tainted, - ib. To cure tainted fish, - - 200 To prevent water and meat from putrefaction in

long voyages, - - ib. To detect dampness in a bed, - ib. Improvement in the management of bees, - 201 Approved method of removing bees, - ib. Useful method of preserving bees, as lately

adopted in America, - - 202 Improved corks for preserving wine or chemical

liquors, - - - ib. New method of making flour without grain, ib. Method of curing bad tub butter, - 204 Method for taking the rankness and disagreeable

taste from Irish and English salt butter, - ib. The virtues of coffee, - - ib. Turkish or Arabian mode of preparing coffee, 205 To make British herb, - - 206 British substitute for foreign tea, - >b. The virtues of sage, - - 'b. Manner of preserving eggs perfectly fresh for

twelve months, - - 207 To preserve eggs sound for the space of two

years, - - - lb. Cream preserved in long voyages, - 208 To make artificial asses’ milk, - ib. Best method of cleaning fine block-tin, dish-

covers, patent pewter, &c. - tb- To clean mahogany furniture, - 209 To clean marble, - - jb. Easy method of cleaning paper hangings, - ib. To take the smell of paint from rooms, - 210 Method of expeditiously fattening chickens, ib.

CONTENTS. xix

Page To prevent excessive thirst in cases of emergency

at sea, in the summer time, - 211 Lithography; or the art of taking impressions

on paper from designs made on stone, - ib. The best method of extracting currant juice

without wasting spirits on them—a pleasant acid for punch, - - 212

To observe an eclipse of the sun, without injury to the eye, - - ib.

To construct the camera obscura, - ib. Receipt to avert contagion of typhus fever, or

any other of a similar kind, - 214

tHE

REPOSITORY

OF USEFUL

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

OF DRAWING AND PREPARING FOR PAINTING IN OIL.

The Introduction to the practice, with some things necessary to be provided for proceeding in the Art.

I he art of limning, or painting in oil, lias, in all ages, been wonderfully admired and approved, as the master-piece of other arts and sciences, wherein art so exactly imitates nature, that motion seems only to he wanting ; and many such rare pieces have been drawn, that they have at the first view, deceived the eye of the observer, who has taken them for real living beings; and though the eye and hand are required herein, the one to direct, and the other to operate, yet the mind or imagination must furnish a great part of the curiosity, having ideas of the true shape of things always in view.

This cannot he done hastily, but must be done by a steady practice, and attentive observation.

A

20 REPOSITORY OF

The first thing in this undertaking, is to furnish yourself with suitable materials, and, amongst others, French chalk, red and white, that it may be cut into taper pencils, to draw the out-strokes of any figure you design ; and if these strokes hit not at first in due proportion, they may be rubbed out with the feather of a mallard’s wing, and so till you find them right; then go over your strokes with a well-pointed pencil, either of red or black lead. To make the impression more even and regular, it will be proper to have pens, made of raven or crow quills, to finish the fine strokes, also a rule and compass with three feet, to take in and out at the points, as you have occasion ; the one of white or red chalk, the other of black lead; and a third of any other pastil ; and these in most drawings are proper to mark out equal distances after the drawing of the out-strokes. There are other things required, which, in their proper place, I shall speak of.

Being thus far entered, come a little nearer to the practice, and make your entrance on it with plain geometrical figures, such as the circle, square, oval, cone, triangle, cylinder; which at first use yourself to make out with your rule and compass till you can readily do it with your hand, and these will assist you much in the beginning. The circle, well made, will direct you in orbicular forms, as the globe of the earth, spherical world, moon, sun, &c. and is very proper in confining the picture you are to copy; the oval gives you directions for the mouth and face ; the cone as- sists in drawing columns, spires, tops of towers, steeples, &c. The triangle is of admirable use in

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 21

making the half face; the cylinder gives you assistance in drawing columns, pillars, pilasters, and other things belonging to architecture; the poly- gon may also be used for ground plats, fortifica- tion, &c.; and angles and arches, in perspective.

These things premised, try to (haw several sorts of fruits and flowers, as grapes, cherries, peaches, apples, apricots, tulips, pinks, &c.; also insects, trees, branches, and the like; and from these proceed to practice on birds, beasts, &c. Consider well their proportion, colour, slowntss, swiftness, fierceness, and many other things natural to them. And the better at first till your mind can well frame such ideas, it will be proper to have good drawings to imitate; and by no means mistake their suitable lively colours, nor proper form ; and then you may venture on hu- man faces, and bodies, wherein lies the chief ex- cellency of this art.

When you come to draw a face, you must well weigh and consider in what posture it must be done; whether sideways, upwards, forwards, or downwards, touching lightly the features, where the nose, eyes, mouth, and chin ought to stand ; then go more perfectly over them, for the circles, squares, and triangles used in this matter, may sufficiently guide you where the nose, eyes, mouth, and chin should stand ; but in taking the features, observe with a steadfast eye the principal muscles in the face, which in persons of years appear very much: and there is usually to be observed a threefold proportion in the face; as in the first place, from the top of the forehead to the eye-brows; in the second place, from thence to

92 REPOSITORY OF

liie bottom of the nose ; and, lastly, from thence to the bottom of the chin : observe in this case a due proportion in the length of the forehead and nose.

In a full face, the distance between the eye- brows consists of the length of one eye; but where there is a side, or three quarter face, the distance must be lessened, answerable to the proportion. The nostrils must be placed directly against the nether corner of the eyes. And if the face you draw be plump or fat, the cheeks must swell; but consider in a lean face, the jaw-bones stick out, and the cheeks fall somewhat in.

In a smiling countenance, the corners of the mouth turn somewhat upwards, and in a sour frowning countenance, the forehead is bending, and wrinkles appear on the upper part of the nose.

In drawing a fore right face, you must make a perfect oval, divided by two lines into three equal proportions ; in the first part, place the eyes, in the second, the nostrils, and in the third, the mouth, keeping the eyes an equal distance from each other.

As for the nose, you must, among other things particularly observe the roundness, hollowness, and indentings of the nostrils.

As for the hands, their postures are various; but a true measure must be observed in it, according to the proportion of the drawing; likewise, the arms as far as they appear bare. Then proceed to draw the feet, &c.: but for these it will be requisite to get drawings to practise on at first. Then practise drawing feet and legs, conjunct or


separate; and proceeding from the members, draw the other parts of the body : and practise first on a child, wherein there is more ease, because they are of a fatter and plumper face and body, the sinews, lines, and muscles, not appearing as iu men or women.

In drawing, begin at the head, and so proceed by degrees to the feet, running it lightly over at first, and as you see occasion, increase the ful- ness : let the parallel joints and sinews be equally proportioned, as also the muscles and their attend- ants, and exactly opposite, and the motions of the body be answerable to each other, and the limbs of a true symmetry, one not being larger than the other, nor larger where nature requires it not.

In shadowing, observe to cast them over one way, as in the figure of a woman ; if you begin the shadow at the left cheek, you must continue the like on the left side of the neck, body, and all the other parts, unless the light of it requires it to be dark, by reason of some other body standing between the light and it; as put the case, three men standing together, the middle figure must be darkened by the foremost, unless the light by facing it comes between them.

Observe that all shadows, the farther off they are, grow fainter ; and circular bodies mut|t have a circular shadow, according to the light that makes it.

In drawing a figure standing, draw that leg the body stands firm upon, straight and steady, or else the figure will seem to decline, as if it were falling.

As in naked figures, the outlines are required a 2

24 REPOSITORY OF

to be drawn first, so to do it in drapery or cloth- ing, leave space within for your greater or lesser folds, and break them into lesser that it may be contained witbin them ; and the closser the garments fit to the body, the smaller and narrower must be the fold; and on shadowing the inner- most it must be the harder, and the outmost the softer. Continue the great folds, but as for the lesser, break them off where occasion requires it; and the finer the drapery is, the finer and sharper must the folds be ; and shadow the stronger and finer to the eye, always observing, that the garment that sits close, as the body-coat of a man, or breasts of a woman, and the like, represents that part of the body that the garment appears to cover, as woman’s breasts, with a sweet, round shadow, &c.

Of Colours useful in Limning, Painting, §c.

The next thing to be considered, the cloth primed and the drawing put on, is the preparing your colours, which in oil painting must be with linseed oil, unless for linen, and then walnut is a great deal better, for it will not turn yellow, as the other in time will, when mixed with white.

You must grind your colours on a stone with a muller, till they are as fine as butter, &c. 1 he colours proper to be used in limning are, the blacks; sea-coal black, ivory black, lamp black, and earth of collen : the white; white lead : the greens; tarravat, verditer, and verdigris: the yelloivs; spruce ochre, king or patent yellow, pink, orpiment, and masticot: the blues; smalt,


bice, indigo, Prussian, and ultramarine: the reds; red-lead, vermilion, lake, Indian red, carmine, and arnotta: the colours indifferent, are umber, Spa- nish brown, burnt spruce, &c.

These are the chief to be laid in oil; but ivory, spruce, ochre, and umber, must be burnt before they are ground ; and as for masticot, ultramarine, vermilion, smalt, and orpiment, you may temper them on your palette without grinding, though grinding is better, because it mixes them better with the oil, and makes them dilate and spread more easily; and what of these are to be burnt, perform it in a crucible, taking care that they be not over-burnt, to lose their tincture.

Take care in the next place, to get some good pencils of all sizes, proportionable to your work; a palette or board to lay colours on whilst you are raising them ; and an easel to place your cloth upon or against; a straining frame, to which it must be nailed; and a moll stick or stay, made of brazil, or some ponderous wood, not subject to bend, about a yard long: at one end tie a ball of ravelled cotton, with a leather over it, so. that, with your left hand holding it against the work, you may support your right arm with it whilst you are working.

Of Mixing or Tempering of Colours.

To make a violet colour, take indigo, white- lead, and lake ; mix them well, and the more or less quantity of each will make it deeper or lighter.

A lead colour, make of white lead and indigo, well mixed and tempered together.

26 REPOSITORY OF

For a scarlet colour, take lake, red-lead, and a small quantity of vermilion.

For a flame colour, take red-lead and masticot, heightened with white.

For a light green, take pink and smalt, and as you see occasion, lighten it with white.

For a purple colour, take Spanish brown, indigo, and white, well-tempered together.

For a bay colour, mix Spanish brown and white. For a marone colour, mix lake and white ; and

so by often tempering colours, and practice, you may find out the rest.

Of the first Operation or Sitting.

Having thus far proceeded, it will be time to begin your work, and having laid your ground for the general complexion, and drawn the outlines, which you must do with lake and white mingled, and drawing very faintly, that if there be any fault it may be rubbed out, and amended ; in the proportion of the face drawn, add to the former colour a small proportion of red-lead, tempering it faintly to the colour of the cheeks and lips, tip the chin and ears, about the eyes and roots of the hair, placing red shadows : the shadows must not be put in with the flat of the pencil, but with the small touching, after the manner of etching ; and in this way go over the face, and cover the ground-work with these and the like shadows ; but in the dead colours, your curiosity need not be great, only strive as near as you can to imitate nature ; for the roughness of the colours may be mended at the second operation.


Having duly placed and proportioned your red shadows, proceed to put you^ faint blue shadows about the corner of the eyes and balls, &c., and the greyish blue under the eyes, and about the temples, working them sweetly and faintly over by degrees, beginning the shadow as the light falls, as likewise the hard shadows on the dark side of the face under the eye-brows, chin, nose, and neck, with strong touches on those places, to pass to the right side of the face, and bring all your work together to an equal roundness; yet at this time do not finish any particular part, but well view the work, and consider how near you come to the life, not only in likeness, but posture, colouring, &c.

Having now wrought the faint shadows into the red shadows, you may take a touch at the hair, disposing it in such curls, folds, &c. as best contribute to grace and ornament, only drawing it with colours suitable to the life, and deepen it somewhat more strongly in the deepest shadowed places.

Of the second Sitting.

The party to be drawn in this second sitting must be placed in the same posture as before; and now you must take a more correct survey of the lines and features. And now is the proper time to sweeten them with the same colours, by working and drawing them one into another, s<> that no rough edge, or lump of colour may appear ; and you must do this with a pencil sharper

REPOSITORY OF 58

than the former, to render the shadow smooth and soft.

This done, proceed to the backside of your picture, and if there be a curtain required, and it be supposed to be of blue satin, then temper blue with your oil, and draw the outlines of the curtain, as also your picture, and lay it over very thin and airy, with a large pencil, that it may be the whole ground intended to be done with blue, and then lay over it again a substantial body with the same colour, doing it quick, that no part of the colour may dry before it be all finished. And in the same manner you may lay the backside with any colour.

This done, lay your line of a fair white, and your drapery flat with the colour you intend it; then view the face again well, noting what shadows are too light or too deep, and labour to reduce the several shadows to their perfection ; then draw the lines out of the eye-lids, and shadow the entrance into the ears, the deepness of the eye- brows, and all the most material marks and notes in the face; do this with a sharp pencil; then heighten the hair, deepening it as it appears in the life, casting over the ground some loose hairs, which will not only make it look airy, but seem as if the picture stood at a distance from the curtain.

In shadowing the lines, use black, white, and a little blue ; deepen the black with ivory black, and put to it a little quantity of indigo or lake, and so the second uperation is finished.


The third Silting.

When you find any defect, or judge it reasonable, you must give strong touches ; take heed of the rounding of the face, which will now be better accomplished than before; observing dili- gently what yet may conduce to similitudes, as moles, scars, casts with the eyes, drawing of the mouth, &c.

For garments or ornaments, the ground for blue being laid with bice, the deepening must be indigo and a little lake, the lightening white, very fine, faint, and fair ; and for the greater ornament, the light may be mixed with silver or gold, but of drapery more particularly in mezzotinto painting ; for pearl colour, the ground may be white and indigo, and the shadow, pink and black; if the body requires to be in armour, let leaf silver be the ground, and when it is well dried and burnished, work the shadow with silver, umber, and indigo, and the shadow on the silver, as the life directs.

For gold armour, lay shell gold for the ground, or liquor gold, and shadow it with lake, English ochre, and a mixture of gold.

Of Drawing the Complexion.

To draw a fair complexion, make a mixture of a small quantity of white, and twice as much lake and vermilion : temper them well with the flat of a knife upon the palette, and let it be used as the deepest carnation in the face : then adding a little part more of white, reserve that for a higher car-

30 REPOSITORY OF

nation, and yet a third part being reserved, add more of white to it, till it comes to the lightest colour in the face ; and so proceed to prepare the faint shadows.

Having prepared your palette with suitable colours for a fair face, consider again what other colours are required. If the complexion be more brown or swarthy, in such place temper the colours as before, putting a little quantity of burnt ochre amongst the lake,, and vermilion and white, that it may, amongst the other heightened colour, appear tawney ; and in this case temper so much ochre as will just turn it; and for your very deep and very faint shadows, use the same as for the former complexion.

For a tawney complexion, use the same as before ; however, prepare the shadows of burnt ochre and umber.

For a very black or dark complexion, prepare the shadows as the foregoing; but for your lightening, take lake, burnt ochre, with white and black; however, but a little of the white must be put in the first, that by degrees it may be the better worked up : and observe that the single shadows laid at first upon your palette, and well tempered according to the foregoing directions, serve as shadows for all complexions.

Further Directions for Colouring Drapery,.

Garments or drapery require to be made suitable to their colours ; for red, therefore, lay the ground-work with vermilion ; glaze it over with lake, and heighten it with white.

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 3)

For scarlet, let vermilion be the lightest, deepened with lake and heightened with red.

For crimson velvet, lay a ground of burnt ochre, vermilion, and Indian red ; glaze it with lake, and touch it with vermilion.

For a sad red, heighten Indian red with white, and deepen with black, pink, and lake, well mixed together.

For green, heighten bice and pink with masticot, and deepen it with pink and indigo.

For green velvet, lay the dead colour with a little white and lamp-black; glaze it with verdigris, deepened with pink and indigo, and heightened with white and pink.

For yellow', use masticot, umber, and yellow ochre: lay the dead colour with masticot and white in the highest places, and wdth ochre in the meanest, in the darkest with umber, glazing when dry with pink.

For blue garments, take indigo and white ; first laying the white in its due place, and then your main colour, viz. indigo and white, well tempered, in their proper place; then deepen with indigo, and when dry, glaze with ultramarine.

For black garments, let the dead colours be lamp-black and a little verdigris, and go over it when dry with a little ivory black; and when you have heightened it with white, go over the work with verdigris and ivory black.

For orange colour, mix lake and red-lead, laying the lightest part with red-lead and white-lead, the main part only w'ith red-lead, and the deeper with lake, and, if it be necessary, you may heighten with white.

B

32 REPOSITORY OF

For a cloth colour, let the ground be umber and white, and for the deeper shadows black and umber; for the main, ochre and umber, and heighten it with ochre and white. And so much for colouring garments.

Instructions how to paint Landscapes.

In this work of painting with oil, begin with the sky and sun-heams, and the higher parts; and then the yellow, which must be done with masticot and white; the next, your blue sky, with smalt, leaving no part of the ground uncovered, but lay the colours smooth all over, working the sky downwards towards the horizon, still suffering it to grow fainter as it inclines nearer to the earth ; and work the tops of mountains, and other objects very remote, so faint, as they appear lost in mist and air ; and as for the nearest and lowest ground, it must be a dark brown, each colour inclining a little towards yellowish and green, as the nature of it requires; the next a light green ; and so proceeding gradually, as they lose in their distance, you must lessen their colour, observing not to make any thing that is to be seen at a great distance perfect, because you must imagine it is at such a distance that you cannot well discern it, but express it in colours weakly and faintly, as your eye judges it may be, always taking notice to place the light opposite to the dark, which will very much extend the prospect; and do it so that the shadows may lose, in their proportion of distance, their force by little and little, as they remove from the eye ; observing always to put in the strongest


shadows nearest. Put no moon or stars but in a night piece ; for they are not otherwise naturally proper, because they cannot be well seen in the day. If you imitate an over-cast sky, where black clouds threaten a storm, the shadows may be on the meeting part of the clouds. This may be also done with colours mixed with water, wherein gum-arabic has been dissolved.

If in any fair landscape you express the light of the sun, always observe throughout the whole piece that you cast the lights of your trees, rocks, hills, buildings, ruins, and all other things expressed in that way. Observe also, to lessen your bodies proportionably as they are nearer or farther distant, and carry it off so far that the earth, and sky, and water seem to meet; rivers, as they run to a distance, must lessen their streams; so ships or boats and the like.

As for living creatures, beasts, fowls, and serpents or insects, you must consider their proportion, shape, and colour, and get draughts or pat- terns, which will be better than printed directions : and these kinds being numerous, for brevity sake I omit to treat of them.

To lay Mezzotinto Prints on Glass.

In undertaking this, carefully lay the prints flat ways in warm water, and let them soak well. Get a pane of glass, very thin and even, and go over it with Venice turpentine, spread thin with a pliable knife, and dab it all over with your finger, that the turpentine may seem rough.

34 REPOSITORY OF

This done, take the soaked print, and lay it on a clean cloth smooth: then press it with another to take out the water; then lay it on the glass, the print next it, beginning at one end stroking outwards the parts already fixed to the glass, that neither wind nor water may be retained between to wrinkle it; then with a little sponge, or your hand, wet the back side, and by degrees roll off the paper carefully without making a hole, especially in the lights, which are the tenderest; and when the print appears very plain on the back side, let it dry about two hours : then varnish it over with turpentine or mastic : varnish it till you see through it, and a night’s drying will prepare it to be worked on with colours.

If you will have all the paper off, so that nothing but the print may remain, lay it as before with oil of mastic and a little turpentine, and a brush will take off the paper.

To Paint Landscapes of Mezaotinto.

As for the posture to do any of this work, the best is sitting to a true light. Your pencils must be fine; and in the first place, glaze all the places that require it: and if you would have them so thin as they should, and soon dry, mix varnish as they are laid on, and in four hours you may venture other colours.

In this work, glaze the nearest and greatest trees; ground them with brown pink, or if you fancy them greener, use distilled verdigris, and where the leaves and weeds that appear in some landscapes very sprightly and extraordinarily, green


must be glazed with distilled verdigris and Dutch pink ; the trees appearing farther off, with only the former ; the hills, rocks, mountains, and trees at the greatest distance, glaze with smalt, a little lake and verdigris thinly mixed with varnish. For the skies, use ultra-marine or fine smalt, mixed with thin varnish ; glaze it over two or three times, with a large clean pencil, and nimble strokes. If buildings, or ruins of buildings, appear in it, finish them first; and the mixture of colours for these consist of yellow, black, white, and now and then a tincture of red.

To finish ground, trees, and skies, begin with the nearest and largest trees ; do over the lightest leaves with white pink and a little smalt, and do neatly over the darkest and nearest leaves with a little pencil dipped in varnish; and those trees you would have very beautiful, paint with a mixture of verdigris, yellow masticot and white, the darker part with white, verdigris and pink ; as also those trees you glaze with verdigris only, they being very lightly mixed with white.

As for the skies and forescapes, if any clouds appear, let them be touched with varnish, and a light colour made of white lake and yellow ochre: touch also with these the light p?rt of hills, likewise towns, and the remotest distance: then mix white and smalt as light as conveniently may be, and paint over the sky ; add a tincture of lake for the dark clouds : let the clouds lie even and thin; and when finished, give it time to dry, to make it look more lively. Set the picture against the light, that the shadows may appear.

36 REPOSITORY OF

To make Mezzotintos.

Mezzotintos are made in the following manner:—Take a well polished copperplate, and, beginning at the corner, rake or furrow the surface all over with a knife or instrument made for the purpose, first one way, and then the other, till the whole is of a regular roughness, without the least smooth part to be seen ; in which state, if a paper was to be worked from it at the copperplate press, it would be all over black. When this is done, the plate is rubbed over with charcoal, or lead, and then the design is drawm with white chalk ; after which the outlines are traced out, and the plate finished, by scraping off the roughness, so as to leave the figure on the plate. The outlines and deepest shades are not scraped at all ; the next shades are scraped but little; the next more, and so on, till the shades gradually falling oflf, leaving the paper white, in places where the plate is neatly burnished.

To extract Lake from Red Roses, Wild Poppies, Red Violets, Flower de Luce, Orange Borage, Carnation, or other Floivers.

Take what quantity you please of the leaves of the flowers, which being bruised on a leaf of white paper, tinges it with its colour; you may assure yourself of success. But those herbs or flowers that do not so are not serviceable in this way.

This experiment being made, put ordinary aquavitte into a glass body, the head as large as


may be ; and in the top put the leaves of those herbs and flowers from which you would draw a tincture : then lute the joints of the head, and fit a receiver to it, to give it a temperate heat, that the more subtile part of the aquavitae, as- cending to the head, and falling on the flower, may suck out the tincture, suffering it to do so, as long as it continues coloured. After that, distil the coloured aquavitte in a glass vessel, which will be white at its coming forth; and then the tincture remaining at the bottom must not be over-dried, but care taken that it may be moderately done ; and thus you may have the tincture of lake from all the flowers and herbs fit for limning.

Ytlloiv Lake, extracted from Broom Buds, or other Yellow Flowers, that have a good tincture another way.

Make a ley of lime and barilla tolerably strong, and in it, over a gentle fire, boil fresh broom flowers, having the full sap or substance in them ; order it so that the ley may draw to it all the tincture of the flowers, which will be known by their turning white, the ley being then as yellow as Theban wine. After that, take out the flowers, and put the ley into glazed earthen dishes; set it at a moderate heat; after that let it boil by degrees, and put to it so much roche-alum as may well dissolve with the fire. When it is well ordered, put the ley into vessels of fair water, and the yellowness will settle at the bottom ; so when the sediment is made, decant

38 REPOSITORY OF

off the water, and pour on that which is fresh ; and when the tincture is sunk, order it as the former. Do this till the salt of the ley is quite taken out, and also the salt of the alum, and then the tincture of the colour will be fairer; and so till the water runs out sweet, without any saltness, with the same taste as when it was put in : and then at the bottom you will find a beautiful lake for use; and while it is wet, spread it on a piece of white cloth, and dry it in the shade, upon new baked bricks, and keep it dry, and as much from the air as may be ; and by these two ways, at your discretion, you may extract colours from any flowers or herbs that have natural tinctures.

A Lake to be drawn from Cochineal. Infuse in cold water a pound of shearings of

the finest woollen cloth, a day, and so press it well to take away the oiliness of the wool; then in this manner alum the shearing, viz.

Take of roche-alum four ounces, and of crude tartar finely powdered, and one of cochineal ; put these into a little pipkin, with about four quarts of water, and when this begins to boil, put in the flocks; let them boil over a gentle fire half-an-hour; so take them off, and suffer them to cool six hours ; then take them out, and wash them well in fair water; and when the water is well soaked in them, by standing two hours, press it out, and let the flocks dry. Evaporate the water, and at the bottom you will find a sediment of a beautiful tincture; as also in the flocks.


Lake of Cochineal.

Put a pound of roche-alum powder into a bottle of aquavitae of the first running, and being well dissolved, put in an ounce of cochineal, in powder, finely sifted ; do this as in the former, and put the materials in a glass body, with a long neck; shake it often, that the aquavita; maybe tinctured, then let it stand four days, and so pour it into a clean glazed earthen pan. In common water dissolve four ounces of roche-alum; put that to the coloured aquavitre, in Hippocrates’ sleeve, or a woollen bag; and for the rest, order it as the other cochineal lake, and it will answer.

The Manner of Painting on Glass.

There are two kinds, viz. in oil colours, and such colours as are afterwards to be annealed and burnt on.

To lay Oil Colours on Glass.

To lay oil colours on glass, you must first grind them with gum water, then temper them with Spanish turpentine ; so lay them on according to art, in figures, or otherwise, and let them dry by the fire, and the work is done.

To Anneal or Burn Colours on Glass.

To do this, and make the colours durable, you must have a square brick furnace, a foot and a half broad, and as much in depth. Lay five or

40 REPOSITORY OF

six iron bars on the top of it, and raise the furnace about eight inches above the bars ; then lay over the bars a plate of iron, and sift on it slaked lime, and upon the bed of lime lay a row of glasses ; then cover them with lime, and lay on another row of glasses; and so on, until the furnace be filled.

Lay likewise with every bed of glass, a waste piece, that you may wipe over with any colour.

These are termed watches, and so when you think the glass is sufficiently burnt, with a pair of pliers, take out the lowermost and uppermost piece, or watch ; lay it on a board, and when it is cold use your endeavour to scrape off the colour, and if it hold well on those rows from whence you took them, they are sufficiently done, and will hold their colours against all weathers ; and by this rule try all the rest, and so proceed in your work.

To Gild Letters on Vellum or Paper.

Letters written on vellum or paper are gilded in three ways : in the first, a little size is mixed with the ink, and the letters are written as usual; when they are dry, a slight degree of stickiness is produced by breathing on them ; upon which the gold leaf is immediately applied, and, by a little pressure, may be made to adhere with sufficient firmness. In the second method, some white-lead or chalk is ground up with strong size, and the letters are made with this by means of a brush ; when the mixture is almost dry, the gold leaf may be laid on, and afterwards burnished. The last method, is to mix up some gold

ARTS AND SCIENCES, 41

powder with size, and make the letters of this, by means of a brush.

To Make Pounce.

Gum-sandarac, powdered and sifted very fine, will produce an excellent preventive, to keep ink from sinking in the paper after you had occasion to scratch out any part of the writing.

Method of obtaining Copies of Inscriptions.

The stone, or other matter, in which the inscription is cut, is to be first well washed and dried then with printers’ balls, or rollers, the surface is laid over with printing ink, in the same manner as is laid on types ; one or more sheets of paper,; according to the size of the inscription, previously damped, are then laid over it, and the impression taken off by striking the paper with a clean ball, the hand, or a brush.

Three or four copies should be taken in this manner, as the fourth is usually the most perfect. As the inscription will be reversed on the paper, it may be read off right on the oth&r side, by holding the paper against the light. If the inscription is in relievo, the letters will be black ; if in hollow, the letters will be white and the ground black.

To take off, instantly, a Copy from a Print or Picture.

Make a water of soap and alum, with which wet a cloth or paper ; lay either on a print or picture, and pass it once under the rolling-press ;

REPOSITORY OF 40

then going round the other side to take it up, you will have a very fine copy of whatever you have laid it upon.

To Varnish Drawings, Paintings in Water Colours, or any kind of Paper or Card Work.

Take some clear parchment cuttinga, and boil them in water, in a clean glazed pipkin, till they produte a very clear size ; strain it and keep it for use.

Give your work two coats of the above size, passing quickly over the work not to disturb the colours.

To Clean or Whiten Prints or Engravings.

Half fill a glass bottle with a mixture composed of one part of the red oxide of lead, or minium, and three parts of the muriatic acid; and having closed the mouth of the bottle with a glass stopper, put it in a cool place, not exposed to the light. A certain heat will then be produced, which is an indication that new combinations are formed. The oxide of the lead abandons a considerable portion of its oxygen, which remains combined with the liquor; the latter then acquires a beautiful gold colour, and assumes the odour of the oxygenated muriatic acid. It holds in solution a small portion of the lead, which does not in the least injure its effect, It is necessary that the bottle should be of strong glass, and the stopper be well secured, to prevent the elastic vapour which rises, from forcing it out. When you em- ploy the liquor thus prepared, take a large pane of glass, and raise a kind of border of white wax


around its edge, about one inch in height, and every way equal. By these means you form a sort of trough, into which put the prints, and pour over them a little fresh urine, or water mixed with a portion of ox-gall. At the end of three or four days, pour off either of these, liquids you have employed, and supply its place with warm water, which ought to be changed every three or four hours, until it comes off perfectly clear. When the matter with which the prints are dirtied is of a resinous colour, which sometimes happens, dip them in a little alcohol: afterwards suffer all the moisture to drain off, and cover the prints in the oxygenated muriatic acid made by minium. Place on the edge of the wax another pane of glass of the same size as that below, in order that you may not be too mucli in- commoded by the smell of the acid, and you will plainly see the yellowish prints resume their original whiteness. One or two hours will be sufficient to produce the desired effect. Having then poured off the acid, wash the prints several times in pure water, and dry them in the sun.

To Clean Oil Paintings.

If smoked or very dirty, take stale urine in which a little common salt is dissolved ; rub them over with a woollen cloth dipped in that, till you think them quite clean, then with a sponge wash them over with fair water ; then dry them, and rub them over with a clean cloth.

Of Colours that arise from Mixture.

Ash colour is made of white-lead and lamp- c

44 REPOSITORY OF

black; if a deep ash colour, then take the more black ; if a light one, then take but little black.

A lead colour is made of indigo and white-lead. A colour resembling new oaken timber is made

of umber and white-lead. A flesh colour is compounded of lake, white-

lead, and a little vermilion. For a buff colour, mix yellow ochre and white-

lead. For a light willow green, mix verdigris and

white. For a grass green, mix verdigris and pink. A carnation is made of lake and pink. Orange colour is yellow ochre and red-lead. A light timber colour is of spruce ochre, white-

lead, and a little umber. Brick colour is red-lead, a little white, and

yellow ochre. For a straw colour, use white-lead, and a little

yellow ochre. Olive wood is imitated with ochre and a little

white, and veined over with burnt ochre. Walnut tree is imitated with burnt umber and

white, veined over with the same colour, and the deepest places with black.

Pales and posts are sometimes laid over with white, and is called a stone colour.

Note.—All painting intended to be white, must have a quarter of an ounce of Prussian blue, mixed with every two pounds of white lead ; without which it will be a stone colour, and not white ; and instead of all linseed oil, it must be half linseed oil, and half oil of turpentine.

Doors and gates, if painted in pannels, then the


shadows of white are umber and white; but if laid in lead colour, then the shadows are umber and black.

A Green Paint for Garden Stands, Venetian Blinds, Trellises, fyc.

Take mineral green and white-lead ground in turpentine, mix up a quantity to your mind, with a small quantity of turpentine varnish for the first coat; for the second, you must put as much mineral green in as will produce a good colour; a little curds may be mixed with it according to the colour which you wish to give the wood ; but care must be taken, that the addition of colour to the first mixture of curds and lime may contain very little water, else the painting will be less durable.

When two coats of this paint have been laid on, it may be polished with a piece of woollen cloth, or any other proper substance, and it will produce a good gloss.

N. B. By adding a small quantity of Prussian blue, you will have the colour much brighter.

Method of preparing a cheap Substitute for Oil Paint, as durable as that prepared with Oil, and

free from any bad smell.

Take fresh curds, and bruise the lumps on a grinding-stone, or in an earthen pan or mortar, with a spatula. After this operation, put them into an equal quantity of lime, well quenched, and become thick enough to be kneaded ; stir this mixture well, without adding water, and you will soon obtain a white coloured fluid, which may be

40 HEPOSITORY OF

applied with as much facility as varnish, and which dries very speedily ; but it must be employed the same day, as it will become too thick the day following.

Ochre, Armenian bole, and all colours which hold with lime, will become as bright as varnish. It is certain that no kind of painting can be so cheap, and it possesses this advantage, that in the same day two coats may be laid on and polished, as it dries speedily, and has no smell. If it be required to give it durability in places exposed to moisture, do over the painting, after it has been polished, with the white of an egg. This process will render it as durable as the best oil painting.

Cheap Black Paint from Earthy and Mineral Substances.

Take of the blueish marly stone found in copper, lead, and tin mines, (principally in the copper mines,) and of iron stone, and of fine blue marble of slate, and of ochre, equal quantities; and reduce them by grinding or pounding to a very fine powder. To any given quantity of the above- mentioned materials, when put together, add one eighth of their weight of lamp-black, so that there will be seven eighths of the earthy or mineral substances, and one eighth of the lamp-black. This produces a superior black paint for wood, iron, canvass, or any thing for which paint is used ; but for the purpose of using such paint, it must be ground (in the usual manner of grinding colours) with oil as commonly done by colourmen or painters (their boiled oil is to be preferred); and the game, when mixed and made up as other paint


generally is, may be used with the brush, as in common practice. Ivory black may be substituted; but for general purposes, the lamp-black is preferable.

To make a Brown Paint.

Take brown muriate of copper, diluted with about ten parts of distilled or rain water; then pour in prussiate of lime until the whole is pre- cipitated ; the prussiate of copper is then to be well washed with cold water on the filter, and to be dried without heat.

To prepare the beautiful Colour called Naples Yellow.

The beautiful yellow colour, commonly sold under the name of Naples yellow, is well known. Those who buy it, are often imposed upon by being told that it is a substance produced from Mount Vesuvius; but it is not known to be a composition by art. The process is composed of the following substances, viz. one pound of antimony, one pound and a-half of lead, half an ounce of alum, and the same quantity of common salt. The antimony and lead should be calcined together ; afterwards the other ingredients added ; and then the whole mixture undergoes a second calcination.

Another Method.

To prepare this colour, take twelve ounces of white lead, three ounces of diaphoretic antimony, alum, and sal-ammoniac, of each one ounce. All these must be ground together dry, upon a levi-

c 2

48 REPOSITORY OF

gating stone ; they must then be put into an open crucible, and exposed to a gentle fire, for some hours : the fire is afterwards to be increased during a certain time ; and, finally, the mixture is to continue three hours in a degree of heat sufficient to keep the crucible red hot. The mass will then be found to have acquired a beautiful yellow colour. If it is wished to be more of the colour of gold, a greater quantity of diaphoretic antimony and sal- ammoniac must be added to the other ingredients.

It is probable that instead of diaphoretic antimony, the grey calx of antimony might be made use of.

To prepare Ivory Leaves for Miniature Painters.

Take the ivory leaf, or table on which the painting is to be made, and having cleansed it, rub it over with the juice of garlic. This takes off that greasiness which is so much complained of, as pre- venting the colours from taking on the ground, and which is not otherwise to be remedied by the use of soap, or even gall. It is, however, effectually removed by the above simple preparation.

To make Wax or Cement of a Mahogany Colour.

Take two ounces of bees wax, half an ounce of rosin ; melt them together; then add half an ounce of Indian red, and a small quantity of yellow ochre, to bring it to the colour you desire ; and keep it in a pipkin for use.

ARTS AND SCIENCES- 19

Cheap and excellent Composition for preserving Boarding, and all other Works liable to be in-

jured by the Weather.

Lime, it is well known, however well burnt, will soon become slaked by exposure in the open air, or even confined to a situation remarkably dry, so as to crumble of itself into a powder. This is called air-slaked lime, in opposition to that which is slaked in the usual way, by being mixed with water. For the purpose of making the present useful composition to preserve all sorts of wood- work exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather, take three parts of this air-slaked lime, two of wood ashes, and one of fine sand ; pass them through a fine sieve, and add as much linseed-oil to the composition as will bring it to a consistence for working with a painter’s brush. As particular care must be taken to mix it perfectly, it should be ground on a stone slab, with a proper muller, in the same manner as painters grind their white- lead, &c.; but where these conveniences are not at hand, the ingredients may be mixed in a large pan, and well beaten with a wooden spatula. Two coats of this composition being necessary, the first may be rather thin ; but the second should be as thick as it can conveniently be worked. This most excellent composition for preserving’ wood when exposed to the injuries of the weather, is highly preferable to the customary method of laying on tar and ochre.

To make Lead-Coloured Paint preserve Iron.

Take a small quantity of common litharge, and

50 REPOSITORY OF

place it over a fire in a shovel; afterwards, when sufficiently warm, scatter over it a little flour-of- brimstone, which will instantly convert it into a blackish colour, and which, when ground in oil, makes a good dark lead colour. It dries quick, gets remarkably hard, and resists the weather better than any lead colour.

To judge of Transparent Colours for Painting.

Transparent colours should be so clear when mixed with abundance of water, as to communicate a strong tint, without in the smallest degree plastering or concealing the paper, &c.; hence the designation. The best of every kind are made from either vegetable or animal substances, minerals being extremely difficult to prepare, equally so to work with water, and many of them very subject to change.

To make Portable Glue, {commonly known by the name of Batik Note Cement.')

Take half a pound of the best glue; boil and strain it very clear; boil two ounces of isinglass ; and put them into a double glue pot, with a quarter of a pound of fine brown sugar, and boil it pretty thick ; then pour it into plates or moulds; when cold, you may cut and dry them in small pieces for the pocket.

To Gild Leather for Listing Doors, Folding Screens, fyc.

Take two or three clear brown sheep skins, and damp them with a sponge and water; then

ARTS AND SCIENCES. , 51

strain them tight with tacks on a board, sufficiently arge ; when dry, size them with a clear double size; then take the whites of fresh eggs, beat them to a foam, and let them stand to settle; then take a book of leaf-silver, and blow out the silver on a gilder’s cushion ; pass over the leather carefully with the egg size, and lay on the silver, closing any blister with a bit of cotton ; when dry, varnish them over with yellow lacker till they are of a fine gold colour; your skins being then gilt, you may afterwards cut them out as you please, and join them with paste to any length.

You must perform the foregoing operation in the height of summer, when the air is clear, dry and warm, that the skins may dry well before you size them, that the size may have the desired effect upon the outer pores, and no farther; and that the silver may not tarnish before you lacker it.

A Cement to join Broken Glass.

Take one ounce of isinglass, and steep it in half a pint of spirits of wine for twenty-eight hours; then let it dissolve over a slow fire, keeping it close covered, or the spirits will evaporate; then take six cloves of garlic, bruise them in a mortar, put them in a linen cloth, and squeeze the juice into the isinglass; mix it well together, and keep for use, it being excellent to join glass ornaments, &c.

52 REPOSITORY OF

OF VARNISHING AND JAPANNING.

\T'ne following original and excellent observations on Var- nishing, were first published by Thomas Cooper, Estp of Northumberland, {North /tmerica), in the American edition of Dr IVillich’s “ Domestic Encyclopiedia." \

Observations on Varnishes.

The liquids in which the substances proper for making varnishes are generally dissolved, are linseed oil, nut oil, sun-flower oil, oil of turpentine, and spirit of wine. Hence the substances themselves are all of the class of rosins. Nut oil is not often used, though, being of a clearer colour than linseed oil, it might sometimes deserve the pre- ference. The other essential oils, as rosemary, bergamotte, &c., are too dear, and do not dry.

The substances commonly employed, are such as form a transparent solution with the solvents above mentioned, and are not liable to be affected by moisture of any kind, since none of the gums or gum resins are fit for the purpose.

The resins usually employed, are, copal, amber, mastic, sandaric, lac, (both stick-lac and seed-lac), pine turpentine from Chios or Venice, common white rosin, dragon's blood, gum elemi, asphaltum or Jews’ pitch, and common pitch. To which may be added, elastic gum, or ca-out-chouc, though this is only used at present for balloons.

Oil of turpentine deadens the colour of paints; the varnishes of amber and copal brighten them.

Linseed Oil is procured by grinding linseed in mills for that purpose. It is of a brownish colour. Before it can be used it must be made drying.

ARTS AND SCIENCES. !>3

The reason that oil will not dry without preparation is, either that it contains a quantity of un- cotnbined mucilaginous substance, or a quantity of uncombined acid, or both. I have not seen this any where ascertained. Mr Watt told me it was acid.

The common method of making drying oil is— put about half a pint of litharge to each quart of the oil ; boil it not hastily or violently, but witli a moderate and equal fire, for about two hours, scumming it. If it be boiled too hard it will be. burnt and become brown. Let this rest till all sediment has perfectly subsided: then separate the clean oil, which will grow the clearer and the better for keeping. When it is perfectly dry, it will have a scum formed at the top. Perhaps white lead would be better to use than litharge.

Poppy Oil is from the seeds of the common poppy.

Nut Oil is the oil expressed in the same manner from walnut. It is made by drying it in the same manner as linseed ; and being clearer, is preferable for colourless varnishes.

To make boiled linseed oil colourless, take three or four gallons of oil; add to it about two quarts of fine clear sand, and three or four gallons of boiling water; agitate it for about half an hour; separate the oil, and repeat the process with fresh water.

Oil of turpentine is produced by the distillation of common turpentine : the residuum is rosin.

Copal is a resin produced from certain trees in New Spain. The best is the clearest, and such

54 REPOSITORY OF

as will glaze a hot tobacco pipe without biis~ tering.

Amber, (Kavabe succinum) is a substance, but whether vegetable or animal is not quite deter- mined : it is found upon the sea-shore of Polish Prussia. Amber has been by some thought to be a resin from a tree, and by others a fossil ; while others say it is the indurated excrement of the whale.

Mastic is a resin produced from a small tree called the Lentisk, growing in the isle of Chio. The bark is cut and the juice exudes.

Sandaric is a rosin produced in the same way, from a species of juniper growing on the coast of Africa.

Lac, gum lac, seed-lac, is produced on certain trees of the fig kind, in the mountainous parts of the East Indies, by the perforation of insects in the bark. It has been by some thought a kind of wax produced by the insects themselves.

Turpentine is collected in the Greek Isles, by making an incision in the fir trees : the juice is turpentine. Venice (Chian) turpentine is brought over in large earthen jars.

Common rosin is the residuum of turpentine, after distilling it to receive the essential oil.

Dragons blood, a resin of a red colour, produced from certain trees in the East Indies, Madeira, and the Canary Islands.

Gum Elemi, a resin, the produce of trees growing in the East Indies and Brazil.

Asphaltum, Jews’ pitch. This is a native bitumen, found in various parts of the world, of a blackish brown colour.

ARTS AND SCIENCES. ii

Common pitch is the residuum after the distillation of tar.

Elastic Gum, a substance, from the East Indies and the Brazils, having all the properties of inspis- sated bird lime, or of the juice of the misletoe. It dissolves in petroleum and oil of turpentine.

General Rules for Varnishinrj.

This is a point nicely to be observed, or your labour and cost may be in vain.

1. If you choose wood that requires to be varnished, let it be exempted from knots, very close- grained, smooth, clean, well brushed, and free from greasiness.

2. As for your colours and blacks, lay them even, and exquisitely smooth ; sweep all roughness off with your brush.

3. Keep your work ever warm, but not so hot as to raise blisters or crack it, which nothing but scraping off all the varnish can amend.

4. After every distinct wa-h, let your work be thoroughly dry, for neglect in this point introduces the fault of roughness.

5. After it is varnished, let it lie by and rest as long as your convenience will admit, and it will be the better.

6. Take care to begin your varnish strokes in the middle of the table, or what you do it on, and not from one end to the other; and your brush being planted in the middle, strike it at one end ; then take it off, and fix it to the place you began at; so draw or extend it to the other end, and so continue it till the whole plane be varnished over;

D

56 REPOSITORY OF

and beware you overlay not the edges, which is when the varnish hangs in splashes, or drops on them ; therefore, to prevent it, draw your brush gently once or twice against your gallipot’s side.

7. When you have proceeded so far as to come to polish, let your tripoli be very fine, and the finer the work let it still be the finer; and use fine rags, keeping your hand moderately hard upon it; and brighten or polish one place as much as you intend, before you leave it, and pass to another: and always be sure that you polish your work as smooth as you intend at one time ; but if your convenience will admit, let it rest two or three days before you give it the finishing strokes after you have polished ; but come not too near the wood to make it thin and hungry, for then it will require another varnish, or remain to your discredit.

8. Take a sufficient quantity of tripoli at the first polishing, till it begins to become smooth, and so lessen by degrees, and carefully observe that there be no scratches or grating in it.

9. When you have a mind to clear up the work, wash off the tripoli with a sponge, and soak up the wet with a clean linen cloth, and with lamp- black mixed with oil, gently smear the whole face of it; let no corner or moulding of it escape, that the whole piece may be freed: then, with other linen, and a hard hand, cleanse off that; and these things done, there will be an admirable gloss.

For white work, let your polish be gentle and easy ; do it nimbly, and clear it with oil and fine flour; and in exactly observing these rules you will prove an artist.


Of Black Varnishing or Japan.

Provide for this imitation of japan, a close- grained wood, well wrought off; rush it smooth and keep it warm by the fire, but never so near as to burn, scorch, or blister your work ; then add to seed lac varnish as much lamp-black as will at the first stroke colour the wood ; do it three times permitting it to dry between every operation, and nlso rush it well: and then with a quarter of a pint of the thickest seed lac, mixed with an ounce of Venice turpentine, put in more lamp-black, so much as may well colour it; and with this wash it six times, letting it stand twelve hours between the three first and three last washings: then with finest seed lac just tinctured with the black, do it over twelve times, letting it dry between every time of doing; after which let it remain for five or six days before you polish it.

At the end of that time, take water and tripoli, and polish it, having first dipped your cloth in water, and rub it till it gains a very fine smooth- ness and gloss; but do not rub so as may in any manner wear off the varnish, which cannot be easily repaired ; then use a rag wetted with tripoli, and clear it up with oil and lamp-black; yet polish not all at once, but let it have some days respite between the first and last polishing, at least three or four days.

White Varnishing or Japan.

This must be carefully done without any soiling, and therefore you must be cautious of letting any dirty thing come near whilst you are doing it.

58 REPOSITORY OF

To begin this work, scrape as much isinglass as will make it of a reasonable thickness, or when dipping your pencil into it, it will with a stroke whiten the body which has been passed over with a brush ; but let it be neither of the extremes, too thick nor too thin; then mix it with your size, whiten your work over with it, and when dry repeat the same, covering it from all manner of dust before it is varnished. It must be whitened three times, and dried between every one of them : smooth and lay it as close as you can to the wood with your rushes, then mix white with your size, only so that it may lie with a full and fair body on the piece, and whiten your work three several times with this, drying between each ; then make it with your rushes very smooth, but keep your distance from the wood.

In the next place, take white starch boiled in fair water till it becomes somewhat thick, and when it is lukewarm, wash over your work with it once or twice, drying between times, and let it then stand twenty-four hours : then take the finest of the whitish varnish I have directed you to make, wash your pencil in spirits, and wash or anoint your work six or seven times, and after thirty or forty hours do the like again; and if done with a dexterous hand, a better gloss will be set on it, than if it had been polished ; and if it miss of that gloss, it is requisite that you polish it; and in order thereto you must accommodate it with five or six washes more than the former, and it must continue to settle well before you polish it.

In polishing, your linen and tripoli must be of the finest; being neat and careful in this operation,


your hand carried light and gentle, having your cloth neither too dry, nor too wet, and clear it up with fine flour and oil.

How to Make Isinglass Size.

Break and divide an ounce of isinglass into little pieces, put into a glazed, clean, and well-covered pipkin, and let it soak for twelve hours in a pint and a half of fair water: then place it over a gentle fire, till it boils well at leisure; and when the water is consumed to a pint, let it stand to cool leisurely and then it will be jelly, and may be used in the white varnish and other works; make no more at a time than you will use, for in two or three days it will spoil.

How to Make Red Japan. The reds are properly three, viz. the common

red, the deep red, and the light pale red. In the first vermilion is proper, mixed with

the thickest seed lac; warm the work, and mix your vermilion with a varnish in a medium : lay it on four times, permitting it to dry as the former, and if your reds be of a good body and full, rush it smooth : then with the ordinary seed lac varnish wash it eight times, and after twelve hours rush it again; and for a handsome outside covering give it eight or ten washes of seed lac varnish, and after five days polish it, and clear it with lamp-black and oil.

Blue Japan. Grind white-lead very fine, add smalt as finely

ground, mix them with isinglass size, the white- lead grind with gum water; let there be a proper

d 2

60 REPOSITORY OF

proportion of white and blue, and mix them well to the thickness of common paint: go over your work with it, and when it is well dry, proceed so three or four times, till the blue lies with a fair body : rush it smooth, and go over it again with a stronger blue, and when dry, wash it with the clearest isinglass size, having a new pencil for that purpose ; then, when it is dry, warm it by the fire, and go over it with a pencil dipped in white varnish, seven or eight times, and so let it continue for a day or two: then wash it as often as before, and so continue many operations at intermitted times; for a week at least must pass before you can well venture to polish it; and when it is well polished, clear it with oil and lamp-black.

Note.—In no wise mix your colours with isinglass colours too strong, lest when dried, they be apt to crack, dry, and spoil the piece; bet when you lay your wash of clear isinglass, to keep your varnish from tarnishiug or soaking into your colours, then it is proper that it be of a full and strong body.

To Make White Varnish.

Take an ounce of white gum mastic, and an ounce of white gum sandaric, three ounces of the best and clearest Venice turpentine, gum elemi, half an ounce, gum copal, an ounce and a half, gum benjamin and animse of the clearest, half an ounce, and half an ounce of white rosin; and the gums being separated in their quantities provided, put the rosin and copal in a glass vial, with half a pint of spirits, that they may he dissolved ; and to the same end, in a glass bottle of three quarts of

ARTS AND SCIENCES. Cl

spirits, put tlie Venice turpentine, anima:, and benjamin ; and in another bottle the gum mastic and sandaric, in a pint and a half of spirits; then dissolve the gum elemi in a quarter of a pint of spirits ; powder very finely the animse and benjamin, the better to dissolve in the spirits, then pour them off into one large bottle; let them stand to fine as the former, and then strain them through a linen cloth gently, not hardly pressing the sediment, lest you carry the grittiness of the gums along with you, to injure the varnish.

Receipt to make Turpentine Varnish.

Take one gallon of the spirits of turpentine, and five pounds of rosin pounded ; put it into a tin can on a stove, and let it boil half an hour: when it is cold it is fit for use.

Varnish to prevent the Rays of the Sun from passing through the Glasses of Windows.

Pulverize gum tragacanth, and put it to dissolve for twenty-four hours in the whites of eggs well beaten. Lay a coat of this on the panes of your windows with a soft brush, and let it dry.

To make Lacker for Brass.

Take eight ounces of spirits of wine, and one ounce of annotta, well bruised ; mix this in a bottle by itself, then take an ounce of gamboge, and mix it in like manner, in the same quantity of spirits; also bruised saffron steeped in spirits, nearly the same proportion. After this take seed lac varnish, what quantity you please, and you may brighten it to your mind by the above mixture : if it be too

62 REPOSITORY OF

yellow, add a little more from the annotta bottle: and if it be too red, add a little more from the gamboge, or saffron bottle ; if it be too strong, add a little spirits of wine, &c. Thus you may temper lacker or varnish to what degree of perfection you please.

TO OVERLAY WOOD WITH GOLD OR SIL- VER-GOLD AND SILVER SIZE, &c.

To overlay Wood with Gold or Silver.

To prepare the work, you must be furnished with parchment size ; that is, the cuttings of parchment boiled in fair water to a jelly, and when strained and cooled, it will prove a strong size.

When you are to use it, put as much as you shall want in an earthen pot, and make it hot, then, as it is cooling, scrape as much whiting into it as will colour it: mix them well with a clean brush, and with this mixture whiten your wood or frame, that it may the better enter into the hollowness of the carved work ; then give it rest that it may dry.

This done, melt the size again, and put in more whiting to render it some degrees thicker; and with this do over the frames seven or eight times, or as you see there is necessity ; and when it is dry, open with a gouge, not larger than a wheaten straw, the veins in the carved work that the whiting has stopped up ; then with a fine wet rag and your finger, carefully smooth and water-plane it over, and rush it smooth when dry if necessity


requires it; and in this condition it will receive your gold or silver size.

Having thus proceeded with the white, the next thing to be done, is to colour it with yellow ochre ; but if it he a piece of sculpture in relievo, first touch it up, and prepare the several parts which may have happened to be disfigured, by small iron instruments, as gouges, chissels, &c. The ochre used for this purpose must be well ground and sifted, and mixed up with the size before-mentioned.

The best Gold Size at present in use.

Take an equal quantity of the best French and English bole ammoniac, grind these fine on a marble stone, with fair water, then scrape into it a little candle-grease ; incorporate and grind all these well together ; then mix a little quantity of parchment size, with a double proportion of water, and the size is made.

The best Silver Size in use.

Grind tobacco pipe-clay very fine, mix with it as much lamp-black as will turn it of a light ash colour, and to these add small pieces of candle- grease ; grind them very fine together in a mixture of size and water, and try these on the corner of the frame; if it be rough in burnishing, put more oil and grease, and bring it as near as you can to a due temper, that it may work well.

To Size pour Frames, fyc. Make your size blood warm, and with a fine

brush stir it very well, until it is somewhat thin ; go over the frame with it twice or thrice, yet

04 REPOSITORY OF

toucli not the hollow parts of the deepest carvings, where the gold cannot be conveniently laid, for the yellow colour nearly resembling the first laid on, the fault will not soon be discovered. Let it dry four or five hours, and then try the gold if it "will burnish on it; if not, alter the size, and do it over again.

To lay on Gold in order for Burnishing.

Let your frame, or other matter intended, be set on an easel, and place the leaf gold on a cushion to be held in your left hand with the palette and pencil. You must for this work have a swan’s quill pencil, or a large camel’s hair, if the work require it; dip it in water, and wet no more of your frame at a time than will take up three or four leaves: make your beginning at the lower end, and so proceed upwards, laying on whole leaves, or half ones, as it requires. Then wet such another part of your work, and lay on the gold with your pencil or cotton, gently pressing it very close; and having gilded the upright sides, turn the frame and proceed the same way with the ends. Then survey the spots and places that are omitted, and cut small pieces of gold to cover them when wetted with a smaller pencil than before ; when it is so finished, let it stand till the next day.

To Burnish the Gold Work.

Take a wolf-dog’s tooth, if you cannot get agates or peebles formed into the same shape, and burnish so much of the work as you design, leaving the ground of the carving untouched, and such other

ARTS AND SCIENCES. CS

parts as you see most convenient, which in respect of the burnishing being rough, the better it sets off. That which is omitted to be burnished, must be matted, or secured with seed lac varnish or lacker; if you design it a deeper colour, then your work must be repossest, or set off with lacker mixed with saffron or dragon’s blood, or the colour called annotta, and with a fine pencil dipped therein, touch the hollow parts of the carving, and the veins of the foliage or leaves ; if you fancy it is not deep enough, you may by a repetition make it out, and the work is done.

To lay on Silver Size.

Warm the silver size that is newly ground, and mingle it well with weak size, as you did the gold size ; do it once or twice, and let it dry, and try the leaf silver: if it will burnish on it, it is prepared for the work ; but if it will not, make an alteration in the size; and for the rest, lay on the leaf silver, and do as you did by the gold size, and it will answer.

Note.—In gilding observe these further rules. I. Lst your parchment size be pretty strong ;

keep it not long, in case it spoil. II. Grind no more silver or gold size than you

have present occasion for. III. Be careful to keep your work clean from

dust after it is sized and gilded, or else in the burnishing it will be full of scratches.

IV. Do not whiten or burnish gold size in hard frosty weather; for then the whiting will be apt to peel off, and the gold flaw.

sc REPOSITORY OF

OF GILDING METALS.

To prepare the Go\d. Take ducat or leaf gold, what quantity you

please, observe to beat the ducat very thin, and put this gold, with as much quicksilver as will just cover it, into a gallipot, where let them continue half an hour, when immediately after the mixture, stir them with a stick, and then strain them through a piece of leather, squeezing with your hand till you have forced out as much quicksilver as you can easily do, so that what remains in the leather, looks more like silver than gold: yet this must only be employed in gilding after the following manner :—

To Gild with Gold, Silver, Copper, Brass, Princes Metal, Sfc.

Brush first your metal well with a brush, wet it with water or beer, and brush on till the dirti- ness or filth be quite removed, that the gold may more closely join it; prepare then your quicksilver by mixing with it a little aquafortis to an ounce of the quicksilver; quicken your work with it, viz. rub it over with a rag or your finger, till it appears all silvered or touched. This done, take your prepared gold with a small knife or iron tool proper for the purpose, and spread or overlay the whole piece, taking care to omit no part; give it two or three little heats before you give it a thorough beat, so that with a hair brush, like a comb brush, yon maydab and spread your gold,these little heats making the quicksilver more easily to comply; then

ARTS AND SCIENCES. G7

give it the thorough heat, which will compel the mercury or quicksilver to evaporate, or fly away : then take it from the fire, and with a scrub brush, untouched with quicksilver, cleanse it at first; if you perceive any untouched spot, or quicksilver, the gold must be laid on it again, when it is cleaned with a scratch brush; and after this manner you may heighten the colour if you see it necessary.

To heighten the Colour of Gold.

Take an equal quantity of smalt, argol, and brimstone; mix them with as much clean water as will cover the gilded metal, when put into it boil them well, and tying your gilded metal with a string, pluuge it in fora little space, often plung- ing, and looking as often on it as you draw it out; and when the colour is heightened to your expectation, dip it in cold water, and the work is done. You may, in the foregoing manner, double or treble gild till the gold enriches it to be of a last- ing thickness and colour.

Art of Gilding Iron or Steel.

Dissolve in aqua regia, with the assistance of a little heat, as much gold as will fully saturate it, then adding cream of tartar, form it into a paste. Any bright piece of steel or iron, such as the blade of a knife, or a razor, &c. being first wetted with water or saliva, and then rubbed with this paste, will be instantly gilded in a beautiful manner ; after which, it is to be washed with cold water. If a thicker coat of gold be required, gold leaf may be laid on and burnished hard, when it will adhere to the first gilding; and if

cs REPOSITORY OP

the nature of the thing gilded will admit of heat, hy warming it, but not so as to become red hot, and then burnishing it, any thickness of gilding may easily be added.

Method of Dry Gilding. Dry gilding, as it is called by some workmen,

is a light method of gilding, by steeping linen rags bui'iiene- in a solution of gold, then .burnishing them, and

1 with a piece of cloth dipped in salt water, rubbing the ashes of the silver intended to be gilt. This method requires neither much labour nor much gold, and may be employed with advantage for the carved work and ornaments. It is not, however, durable.

Composition for Gilding Brass or Silver.

Take two ounces of gum lac, two ounces of karabe or yellow amber, forty grains of dragon’s blood, in tears, half a drachm of saffron, and forty ounces of good spirits of wine. Infuse and digest the whole in the usual manner, and afterwards strain it through a linen cloth. When the varnish is used, the piece of silver or brass must be heated before it is applied ; by this weans it will assume a gold colour, which is cleansed, when soiled, with a little warm water.

To make Shell Work.

Take the paring of gold leaf, or even the leaves themselves, and reduce them into an impalpable powder, by grinding them on a marble flag with honey ; put this into shells where it will stick

ARTS AND SCIENCES. C9

and dry: when you want to use it, dilute it with gum water.

iV. B.—Shell silver is made the same way. j

To Clean Gold and Restore its Lustre.

Dissolve a little sal ammoniac in urine : boil your soiled gold therein, and it will become clean and brilliant.

To Silver Glass Globes. Take two ounces of quicksilver, one ounce of

bismuth, of tin and lead, half an ounce of each : first put the tin and lead in fusion, then put in the bismuth ; and when you perceive all in fusion, let it stand till almost cold, and then pour in the quicksilver.

After this, take the glass globe, which must be very clean, and the inside free from dust; make a paper funnel, which put in the hole of the globe, as near the glass as you can, so that the amalgam, when you pour it in, may not splash and spot the glass : pour it in softly, and move it about, that the amalgam may touch every where: if you find it to begin to be curdly, hold it over a gentle heat, and it will flow again; the cleaner and finer your globe is, the looking-glass will be the better.

OF DYEING AND STAINING BONE AND WOOD—PAPER—SKINS, &c.

To make Liquid for Staining Bone and Wood of different Colours.

Take strong white wine vinegar, in a glass

70 REPOSITORY OF

vessel, and put to it 61ings of copper, with some rosin vitriol, roche-alum and verdigris, and leave it thus infused for seven days ; then boil it in some vessel, and by putting into it bone, ivory, or wood, it will penetrate it and give it a green colour. If any colour is required, as red, blue, or yellow, put brazil wood, indigo, French berries, or any such colours, to infuse in the vinegar, with a little roche-alum.

To Stam or Dye. Wood Black.

Boil logwood in water or vinegar, and two or three times brush or stain your wood with it when very hot; then take nut galls and copperas, brush them well, and boil them in water, and with it wash or stain your wood so often till it be a perfect black ; or rather steep it in the hot liquor, if you can put it in, and the dye will penetrate the better.

To Dye or Stain Wood for Inlaying Flowers, or other things for Cabinets.

Get moist new horse dung, and squeeze out the moisture through a cloth, put it into several small vessels fit for your purpose, and dissolve gum arabic, and roche-alum, each the quantity of a walnut, and with these mix red, green, blue, or any colour that is suitable to the w’ork ; stir them often, three or four days, then take your wood, particularly pear tree for white, cut it into the thickness of half crowns, or as much as will suffice any inlaid work, and in a square or length, according to your desire; boil up the liquor or


colour very hot, and put in the wood, till the colour has taken well ; some, indeed, you may take out sooner, that the colour, being less strong, may the better agree with your party-coloured flowers, shading, and the like.

To Stain or Dye Ivory, Done, or Horn, Red.

Soak fine linen about twelve hours in clean rain water, then pour off the water well from the settling, through a linen cloth, and to each pint put half an ounce of rasped brazil wood, and having boiled your materials in alum water, boil it in this, and it will give a beautiful tincture.

To Stain Horn, Bone, Wood, or Ivory, Green.

Prepare your materials, by first boiling alum water, then grind the common thick verdigris, or Spanish green, a moderate quantity, adding half as much sal ammoniac, and put them into the sharpest wine vinegar, as also the materials you intend to stain, and keep them there till they have taken a good tint.

To Stain Horn to imitate Tortoise-Shell.

The horn to be stained, must first be pressed into proper plates or scales, or other flat forms. The following mixture must be used :—

Take of quick lime two parts, of litharge one, and temper them to the consistence of soft paste with soap lye. Put this paste over all the parts of the horn, except such as are proper to be left transparent, in the manner of tortoise-shell ; and when put over a foil, will be scarcely distiu-

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72 REPOSITORY OF

guishable from it. It requires some degree of fancy and judgment to dispose of the paste in such a manner, as to form a variety of transparent parts, of difl'erent magnitude and figure, to look like nature. This may be done by mixing whiting with some of the paste, to weaken its operation in particular places, by which spots of a reddish brown will be produced, that, if properly interspersed, especially on the edges of the dark parts, will greatly increase the beauty of the work, as well as the similitude to real tortoise- shell.

To Stain or Dye Horn, Bone, or Ivory, Black.

Put small pieces of brazil wood into aquafortis, and so continue them till they appear green, then wash your materials in them ; and boil logwood in water, into which, put them while they are warm, and in a little time the ivory, &c. will be of a jet black, so that when polished, it will look like ebony or japan; and if you would have any part, for flowers or the like, remain white, draw them, before staining, with turpentine varnish, and the black will not touch them ; and afterwards you may sketch them, and clear up with oil and lamp-black.

Another way to Stain Wood a Black.

Drop a little oil of vitriol in a small quantity of water, rub the same to your wood, then hold it to the fire until it becomes a fine black, and when polished, it will be exceedingly beautiful.


To Stain Wood a beautiful Red or Mahogany Colour.

Place a square piece of plane-tree wood, a line in thickness, into pounded dragon’s blood, from the Canaries, mixed with oil of turpentine, over the fire in a glass vessel; the wood will slowly assume the colour, even before the spirit has volatilized. After more than an hour, take the vessel from the fire, and let it stand all night, when the wood will appear of a mahogany colour, not merely on the surface, but also in the interior parts. The denser fibres will be somewhat less coloured ; but this, instead of injuring the beauty of the wood, will rather add to it. The red dye can be made stronger or weaker by a greater or less degree of digestion and boiling. The wood of the plane-tree is best for this purpose, because it can be easily sawed and polished . and it has a white colour; is neither too hard nor too soft; has beautiful white spots, with’ veins that cross each other; and because artists who make inlaid works, have long attempted to colour it by staining. The wood, when stained, can very easily be freed from the dragon’s blood adhering to it, by means of rectified spirits of wine. The spirits of turpentine makes the wood the more compact, and renders it more suscep- tible of a fine polish.

To Stain Wood Green. Dissolve verdigris in vinegar, or crystals of ver-

digris in water ; and with the hot solution, brush over the wood till it be duly stained.

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The Modern Methods of Dyeing or Staining Paper.

Yellow. Take half a stone of American or quercitron

bark, and put it into a small cask, or any other vessel where the liquor can be drawn off at the bottom, on which pour five gallons of cold soft water. Let it remain one night; in the morning, draw off at the bottom of the vessel, putting in again the first pint or so, till it runs off clear, (as the bark itself forms a fibre to clear the liquor,) to which add about the size of a walnut of alum to every quart, which must be dissolved in the liquor: it will then be fit for use. The linen or calico may be immersed in the liquor for a short time, and hung up to dry; and when so, if not a blight clear yellow, by immersing it again, it will each time increase and heighten the colour. Also, paper may be stained a bright beautiful yellow, by laying on this liquor with a soft painter’s brush.

Green. To make a fine green. To the above liquor

produced from the quercitron bark, add spirit of blue, or distilled verdigris, a small quantity, (as only by practice you can obtain the shade you may want,) and to every three pints of this liquor add one ounce of dissolved gum arabic.

Lilac. To make a fine lilac. Take one pound of


orcltal, to which add three quarts of clear soft water, also gum arabic, one ounce to every three pints of the liquor.

Olives of any Shade. To the liquor produced from the quercitron

bark, as before described, add a little green copperas, and one ounce of gum arabic to every three pints of the same. By adding more or less copperas, you may lighten or deepen the shade.

Buff or Leather Colour. Take one pound of copperas, put it into one

gallon of soft water, or sour beer is better; dip calico or linen in it, hang it up till thoroughly dry without wringing, then rinse it in scalding hot water; it will produce a beautiful colour.

Red or Crimson. Boil one pound of ground brazil in four gallons

of water, till it comes to a full smart boil, add a quarter of a pound of alum, and a quarter of a pound of muriate tin; when well mixed and boiled, immerse the linen or calico in the liquor, hang it up to dry without wringing, and it will produce a fine strong colour.

To Stain Skins Green. Bruise a good quantity of the leaves of night-

shade very well; dissolve in the juice, well strained out, about ten ounces of alum ; then put in half an ounce of verdigris; suffer them to stand over a gentle fire twenty-four hours ; when warm, dip in a brush, and strike over your skins; let it dry, and repeat it till it has taken a pleasant green.

76 REPOSITORY OF

An Approved Method to Colour White Leather.

,These skins must be hung in lime or chalk water, that the wool or hair may be entirely stripped off, and they become supple; stretch forth on tenters, brush them over with alum water, very warm, and so tincture them with the colours you design, suitable to your purpose.

To Colour a good Black on Leather.

Take two pounds of the inward bark of an old elder, the like quantity of the rust or filings of iron, put these into two gallons of rain water, and close them tight up in a vessel, and when they have stood above six weeks, put in a pound of copperas ; let them simmer a considerable time over a fire, and after twenty-four hours standing, and often stirring, pour out the liquid part, and go over your leather with it warm, and it produces a rich German black.

To Colour Leather a Bright Bed.

Dip your leather first in alum water, and rub it well therein; then take stale urine, boil it until it is half consumed, scum it well, and put into it an ounce of the best lake, rasped brazil wood two ounces, and an ounce of sal ammoniac; stir them well over a moderate fire for two hours ; pour off the liquid part and brush over your skins with it, till it makes a good tincture; remember- ing ever to let the skins in all colours dry well between each going over with your brush, and your expectation will be answered to very considerable advantage.


A Rich French Yellow for Skins.

Take wood ashes and chalk, of each a like quantity, and when you have made a good ley with rain water, strain out the finest part, and set it over the fire; then put in a sufficient quantity of turmeric, well bruised or beaten to powder, and as much saffron as may give a lively tincture; let it stand over a moderate fire, but not boil, till it becomes pretty thick, and being warm, colour the skins with it.

A deep Blue or Purple for Leather.

Strain out the juice of elder berries, put to two quarts an ounce of alum, half an ounce of smalt or indigo ; set these three over a gentle fire, and when warm, brush your leather over with the composition.

To Stain Skins a fine Crimson.

Dissolve cake soap and bole ammoniac in fair water, each three ounces, and place it over a gentle fire, till the liquor grows clammy ; then put in a little handful of grains of cochineal, two ounces of red-lead, an ounce of lake, a quarter of an ounce of vermilion, and a small piece of indigo ; heat them over a gentle fire, till they are as thick as the glaire of an egg; then go over the skins with a soft brush dipt in it, till the colour arises to your mind.

To imitate Turkey Blue on Skins.

Take two ounces of smalt, a quarter of a pint

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of red wine, half a pint of vinegar, and an ounce of white starch ; incorporate these over a fire till they come to a moderate thickness, then soak the skin in alum water; add to the composition a pint of water wherein gum arabic has been dissolved, and stir it well: go over the skins three times, drying them between each time, and when well dried, polish them over, to make them glossy.

A Light Green for Skins.

Take the juice of an herb called horse-tail, and add to it a little alum, verdigris, and copperas.

To Cover or Dress Skins with Gold or Silver.

Grind brown red with a muller on a marble stone ; add to it a little water wherein chalk has been dissolved, and lightly go over the skins till they look white; and before they are dry, lay on the lake, gold or silver, a little lapt one over another, that no space be found wanting; when they stick well to the leather and are dry, polish them over with smooth ivory, or a horse tooth, and it will give a very brilliant lustre. The silver you may go over with liquor varnisli, and change it into a gold colour.

Another way is to take the glaire of eggs, or gum water, and brush the skins over with it; so lay on your gold and silver leaf, doing as before.

To make Skins Shine iviihout Gold or Silver.

Take gum water, the glaire of eggs, and the


powder of antimony ; grind and mix them well together, and the skins being dry, lay it on with a brush three or four times, letting them dry between every time: then brush them over, and they will have a gloss like silver, which, tinctured with liquor varnish, will produce a gold colour.

To Dye Bristles a Red colour.

Take half an ounce of alum, a quarter of an ounce of vermilion, and an ounce of rasped brazil wood; put these into a pint of vinegar: so boil them moderately, and dip in the bristles when it is very hot; which continuing there for some time, will be a fine red. You may make larger quantities of the liquor with ingredients proportionable, and thus dye feathers.

To Dye Feathers or Bristles Green.

Take verditer, and verdigris, each an ounce, and put them into a pint of water ; soak the feathers or bristles in hot water, and put them in this liquor boiling hot: let them remain till they have taken a good colour. According to the complexion of your dyes, you may make them any shade of light or dark.

For blue, let your dyes be indigo and bice. For black, galls and logwood, with a little cop-

peras. For purple, lake and indigo. For carnation, smalt and vermilion. For yellow, yellow berries and saffron, dissolv-

ing a little tartar in your water. For orange, turmeric and red-lead. And so of

any other colour you fancy. r

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Art of Dyeing or Staining Leather Gloves, to resemble the beautiful York Tan, Limerick Dye, fyc.

These different pleasing hues of yellow, brown, or tan colour, are readily imparted to leather gloves, by the following simple process:—Steep saffron in boiling hot soft water, for about twelve hours, then, having slightly sewed up the tops of the gloves to prevent the dye from staining the insides, wet them over with a sponge or soft brush dipped into the liquid. The quantity of saffron, as well as of water, will of course depend on how much dye may be wanted, and their relative proportions on the depth of colour required. A common tea-cup will contain sufficient in quantity for a single pair of gloves.

FOR DYEING SILKS, STUFFS, CLOTHS, THREADS, &c. OF VARIOUS COLOURS.

To Dye Silk a Sanguine Colour. Take a pound of green wood, and as much

alum; bruise them, then pour on them fair water, and half a pound of rasped brazil; set them over a gentle fire, to mix them well; then put in the silk, suffering it to seeth therein, and continue it, strengthening your dye, and dipping till you perceive the colour has taken; after that, rinse it in ley of wood ashes, or oak bark, and so clear it with fair water; then dry and press it.

To Dye Silk a deep Carnation. Take white gall, and alum, the herb called


Foil, well dried, one pound, two ounces of Spanish red, four of Indian lake, boil them in fair water over a gentle fire, and when they come to the height of tincture, dip your silks in them, and let them have good dippings three or four times, and the colours will take very well.

To Dye Silk Queens Red.

Let them be steeped in alum water, then give them a gentle heat, adding, in the heating, bran water, a pound and a-half of green weeds; heat it up, and put the silk into it, but let it not seeth; then rinse it in ley of wood ashes, after that in water; then put in your logwood, rasped or in powder, and so heatup a second time ; so in thrice dipping, the business will be accomplished.

To Dye a very Fine Yellow.

Take woad, the stalks, seed, and leaves, and lay them to soak in the leys of wood ashes, three hours; then seeth it till it is sufficiently sodden, and put into a mixture of hot water and urine: so beat it up, and strain the liquid parts through a sieve or strainer, adding verdigris, and so boil it up with the ley already sodden, stirring and well mixing the liquor about three hours, and when it is very hot, dip three times.

To Dye Silk a Rose Red.

Take to every four yards and a-half you intend to dye, a pound and a-half of nut galls ; boil them in fair water unbruised two hours: shift the water, then put in the silk or linen,

82 REPOSITORY OF

letting it soak four hours, then wring it dry, and beat it in fair water, wherein alum has been dissolved : then put in half a pound of brazil powder, and a pound of green weed, so by dipping in gentle heats, the colour will heighten.

A good Black Water for Silk or Cloth.

Take an ounce of lamp-black, half a pound of nut-galls, bruise the latter, and put them into a bottle of water, with a handful of the filings or rust of iron ; beat them up, adding a quarter of a pound of copperas : seeth it to a third part of consumption, then add half a pound of gum water, and it will not only be fit for present use, but will keep long, and be a very good black.

To Dye Purple.

In this case, if you dye silk, you must take to each pound of it, an ounce of alum and a gallon of water, dissolving the alum therein, over a gentle fire ; then put in the silk, and let it continue there four hours; then take lake and indigo, each a quarter of a pound, a quart of urine ; then adding a small handful of cochineal, heat them up in a dye, and dip your silks or fine stuffs into it as usual.

To Dye a very fine Blue.

Take white silk stuff or cloth, and soak it in water: that done, wring out the water very well, and add two pounds of woad, a pound of indigo, and three ounces of alum ; give a gentle heat in fair water, and so dip till you perceive the colour take well.

ARTS AND SCIENCES. S3

Carnation. To make this a genuine colour, take dried

purpur: soak it in urine for a night: then take what you have to dye, and soak it in alum water twice ; seeth the purpur in fair water, and then set another vessel to receive the li-quor, and dip therein.

For a pleasant Light Red. Boil two gallons of wheat and an ounce of alum

in four gallons of water, strain it through a fine sieve: dissolve half a pound more of alum and as much of white tartar; add three pounds of madder to perfect the colour, and put in your stuff or cloth, at a moderate heat.

Black for Velvet, fyc. Take half a pound of copperas, a gallon of

smith's water, two pounds of galls, burnt ivory, oak bark, and shoemaker’s black, each an ounce, well ground, and two gallons of fair water; mix them well, and set them in the sun, or other warm place, a month; often stir it, and at a moderate warmth dip your velvet, or other things designed for a deep black.

To make Red Water for Silk or Woollen, Violet, Green, Azure, or Yellow.

Take two gallons of fair water, four ounces of brazil wood, and being half consumed in heating, remove it from the fire; then put in an ounce of grains, a quarter of an ounce of gum arabic, with a quarter of a pound of alum well bruised ; and having stood all night, it may be used in the morning.

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84 REPOSITORY OF

To Dye Woollen Yarn or Wool. Take two pounds of woad, to every four pounds

of yarn, &c., and two gallons of water: put in two handfuls of wood ashes, and when it seeths, put in the yarn or wool, and let it continue half an hour or more; then wring it, and put it in again, and let it seeth as long as before; and if it have a brown blue shade, it will be of a dark

• green, or of a white yellow colour.

To make Bran Water. This is very necessary in dyeing, and therefore

you ought to know how to prepare it. Do it with half a peck of wheat bran to two gallons of fair water, and half a pound of bruised alum, over a gentle fire: suffer it to stand about a week, often stirring it before you use it.

To Dye Linen, Thread, or Cloth a good Red. Soak a pound of saff-flower twenty-four hours

in two gallons of water, suffering it to heat over a gentle fire : add two ounces of vermilion, half a pound of rasped brazil, and an ounce of alum dissolved in fair water: so dip in order as other things.

To Dye Cotton a fine Buff Colour. Let the twist or yarn be boiled in pure water,

to cleanse it; then wring it: run it through a diluted solution of iron, in the vegetable acid, which is printers’ iron liquor ; wring and run it through lime water to raise it; wring it again, and run it through a solution of starch and water; then wring it once more, and dry, wind, and warp, and weave it for use.


To make Nankeen Dye.

Boil equal quantities of annotta and common potash in water, till the whole are dissolved. This will produce the pale reddish buff so much in use, and sold under the name of “ Nankeen Dye'.'

Easy method of dyeing Yellow or Green.

The plant called weld, or dyer’s weed, affords a most beautiful dye for cotton, wollen, mohair, silk, and linen, and that which is most commonly used by dyers for that purpose, as it gives the brightest dye. Blue cloths dipped in a decoction of it become green. The yellow colour of the paint called Dutch pink, is got from this plant: the tinging quality resides in the stem and branches, and it is cultivated in sandy soils, because rich soils are apt to lessen its value, by making the stalk hollow.

Substitute for Galls in dyeing, and also in making Ink.

The excrescences on the roots of young oaks may be used with advantage as a substitute for galls. Oak dust has been used in this country instead of galls, to produce a black dye: so also has a strong decoction of logwood, copperas, and gum arabic.

Substitute for Verdigris in dyeing Black. Saturate two pounds of vitriol of copper, with

a strong alkaline salt, (American pot-ashes when to be procured are recommended). The vitriol

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will make about an equal weight of dry ashes. Both the vitriol aud the ashes are previously to be dissolved apart. When this proportion is mixed well, stirred, and suffered to stand a few hours, a precipitate will subside. Upon adding a few drops of the solution of ashes, if the mixture be saturated, the water on the top of the vessel will remain colourless ; but if not, a blue colour will be produced, upon which add more ashes : there is no danger in its being saturated with ashes. Take care to add the solution of ashes to that of vitriol, by a little at a time, otherwise the effervescence which ensues, will cause them to overflow the vessel; these four pounds of vitriol, of copper, and ashes, will be equal to about the same weight of verdigris, and should be added to the other liquors of the dye, at different times, as is usual with verdigris.

The black thus dyed, will be perfectly inno- cent to the goods, rather tending to keep them soft than corrode them ; particularly hats, in which there is the greatest consumption of verdigris.

For those who are constantly using verdigris, it would be proper to have a vessel always at hand containing a saturated solution of vitriol of copper, and another with a saturated solution of ashes ready to mix if they are wanted ; for they do not answer so well if kept long.

USEFUL PROCESSES RELATIVE TO IRON.

To Braze or Solder pieces of Iron.

This is done by means of thin plates of brass,


melted between the pieces that are to be joined. If the work be very fine, as when two leaves of a broken saw are to be brazed together, cover it with pulverized borax, melted with water, that it may incorporate with the brass powder, which is added to it; the piece must be then exposed to the fire without touching the coals, and heated till the brass is seen to run.

Composition that will effectually prevent Iron, Steel, Sfc.from Rusting.

This method consists in mixing fat oil with varnish, and four-fiths of well rectified spirit of turpentine. The varnish is to be applied by means of a sponge; and articles varnished in this manner, will retain their metallic brilliancy, and never contract any spots of rust. It may be applied to copper, and to the preservation of philo- sophical instruments, which, by being brought into contact with water, are liable to lose their splendour and become tarnished.

To prevent Steel or Iron from Rust.

Take one pound of hog’s lard, free from salt, one ounce of camphire, two drachms of black-lead powder, and two drachms of dragon’s blood in fine powder; melt the same on a slow fire until it is dissolved, and let it cool for use.

To prevent Polished Hardivare and Cutlery from taking Rust.

Case-knives, snuffers, watch-chains, and other small articles made of steel, may be preserved from rust, by being carefully wiped after use, and

88 REPOSITORY OP

then wrapped in coarse brown paper, the virtue of which is such, that all hardware goods from Sheffield, Birmingham, &c. are always wrapped in the same.

To clear Iron from Rust.

Pound some glass to fine powder, and having nailed some strong linen or woollen cloth upon a board, lay upon it a strong coat of gum water, and sift thereon some of your powdered glass, and let it dry: repeat this operation three times, and when the last covering of powdered glass is dry, you may easily rub off the rust from the iron utensils, with the cloth thus prepared.

To whiten Linseed Oil. Take any quantity of linseed oil, and to every

gallon add two ounces of litharge; shake it up every day for fourteen days ; then let it settle a day or two ; pour off the clear into shallow pans, first putting half a pint of spirits of turpentine to each gallon. Place it in the sun, and in three days it will be white as nut oil. This oil, before it is bleached, and without the turpentine, is far superior to the best boiled oil, there being no waste or offensive smell.

The German Method of making Elm and Maple Wood resemble Mahogany.

Having very smoothly planed whatever boards of tbe elm or maple tree are intended to be used for the purpose of appearing like mahogany, wash them well with a little aquafortis diluted in common water; then take a few drachms of dragon’s blood, according to the quantity which

ARTS AND SCIENCES. S

may be wanted in the whole, with half as much alkanet root, and quarter the quantity of aloes : digest these ingredients in four ounces of proof spirits to every drachm of dragon’s blood. As soon as the hoards are dry, varnish them over with this tincture by means of a sponge or soft painter’s brush ; and they will ever after so wear the appearance of mahogany as to deceive the eye of any indifferent observer.

Substitute far Mahogany.

The difficulty of procuring mahogany and other precious woods, and the consequent exorbitant prices demanded for the ordinary articles of family convenience, have occasioned the art of the chemist to be applied to a subject peculiarly calculated to promote domestic establishment at a trifling expense. It has been contrived to render any species of wood of a close grain, so nearly to resemble mahogany in the texture, density, and polish, that the most accurate judges are incapable of distinguishing between this imitation and the native produce. The first operation, as now practised in France, is to plane the surface, so as to render it perfectly smooth ; the wood is then to be rubbed with diluted nitrous acid, which prepares it for the materials subsequently to be applied. Afterwards, one ounce and a half of dragon’s blood, dissolved in a pint of spirits of wine, and one-third of that quantity of carbonate of soda, are to be mixed together and filtered ; and the liquid, in this thin state, is to be rubbed, or rather laid upon the wood with a soft brush. This process is repeated with very little alteration, and, in a short inteiTjd

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afterwards, the wood possesses the external appearance of mahogany. When this application has been properly made, the surface will resemble an artificial mirror ; but if the polish becomes less brilliant, by rubbing it with a little cold drawn linseed oil, it will be restored to its former brilliancy.

STATIONERY.

To clarify Quills. Scrape off the outer film, and cut the ends oft;

then put the barrels into boiling water, wherein is a small quantity of alum and salt; let them remain a quarter of an hour, and then dry them in a hot pan of sand or an oven.

To harden Quills.

In order to harden a quill that is soft, thrust the barrel in hot ashes, stirring it till it is soft; and then taking it out, press it almost flat upon your knee, with the back of a penknife, and afterwards reduce it to a roundness with your fingers. Ano- ther method to harden quills, is, by setting water and alum over a fire, and, while it is boiling, put in a handful of quills, the barrels only for a minute, and then lay them by.

Dutch method of preparing Goose Quills for Writing.

The process consists in immersing the quill, when plucked from the wing of the bird, into water almost boiling; to leave it there till it becomes sufficiently soft to compress it, turning it


«n its axis with the back of the blade of the knife. This kind of friction, as well as the immersion in water, to be continued till the barrel of the quill be transparent, and the membrane as well as the greasy kind of covering, be entirely removed ; it is immersed a last time to render it perfectly cylindrical, which is performed with the index finger and thumb; it is then dried in a gentle temperature.

To make Wafers.

Take very fine flour, mix it with the glaire or white of eggs, isinglass, or a little yeast; mingle the materials; beat them well together; spread the batter, being made thin with gum water, on even tin plates, and dry them in a stove ; then cut them for use. You may make them of what colour you please, by tinging the paste with brazil or vermilion, for red ; indigo or verditer, &c. for blue; saffron, turmeric, or gamboge, &c. for yellow.

VALUABLE RECEIPTS FOR INKS, INK- POWDERS, &c.

To make that which is called the London Ink- Powder.

Take ten ounces of the clearest nut galls; bruise them and sift the powder very fine ; then add two ounces of white copperas, three ounces of Roman vitriol, and an ounce of gum arabic, or sandaric ; bruise and sift them very fine, so that though they appear white a little, being put into

G

02 REPOSITORY OF

water will in a short time turn it; and an ounce of powder will make a pint of very black ink.

To make what is commonly known by the name of Stewart’s Patent Dublin Ink Powder.

Take four pounds of the best blue powdered galls, one pound and a half of powdered gum arabic, six ounces of powdered copperas, four ounces of ivory black, half a pound of powdered coarse white sugar; put in each paper one ounce and a half, and it will make a pint of good black ink.

Black Ink.

Take one gallon of rain or soft water, and three quarters of a pound of blue galls bruised: infuse them three weeks, stirring daily. Then add four ounces of green copperas, four ounces of logwood chips, six ounces of gum arabic, and a wine-glass full of brandy.

To make Black Ink on a larger scale.

Take sixteen pounds of best blue galls powdered, four pounds of gum arabic dissolved, five pounds of green copperas, two pounds of ivory black ground with a muller on a painter’s flag, one pint of treacle, and half a pound of alum : to the above add twenty gallons of soft water in a cask, and keep stirring it as often as possible; and after one month being made, you may strain it off through a coarse canvas bag, and you will have most excellent ink that will become black the instant after writing, and never will change its colour.


To make excellent Red Ink.

Take the raspings of brazil wood, four ounces, best vinegar, one pint, alum powdered, half an ounce; boil the whole together one hour over a gentle fire; let it stand till it is as deep a colour as you approve, and then keep it in a well corked ^ bottle for use.

To make a beautiful Blue Writing Ink.

Take half a pint of elder-berry juice into a glass vessel; put in some powdered alum, and half a quarter of a pint of vinegar, and a very little urine, stir it well, and try if the colour is good, by dipping in it a piece of white linen rag; if too pale, add a little more elder berry juice: and if too dark, add a little more vinegar.

Substitute for Indian Ink.

Boil parchment slips, or cuttings of glove leather in water, till it forms a size, which when cool, becomes of the consistency of jelly ; then having blackened an earthen plate, by holding it over the flame of a candle, mix up with a camel- hair pencil the fine lamp-black thus obtained, with some of the above size, while the plate is still warm. This black requires no grinding, and produces an ink of the very colour, which works as freely with the pencil, and is perfectly transparent, as the best Indian ink ; it possesses the advantage of furnishing artists with a substitute for that article, which can be prepared in situations, where it may he difficult to obtain the ink itself.

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To Make Indian Ink. Take horse beans, burn them till they are per-

fectly black ; grind them to a fine powder, and with a weak gum arabic water, make it into paste, and form it into long square cakes.

A Powder Ink to rub on Paper, and icrite on. Bruise about twenty nut galls, and half an ounce

of Roman vitriol, as much gum arabic, and gum sandarac: mix these finely together when well bruised and sifted to a powder; rub the paper hard with it, with cotton wool, and polish it with a piece of ivory, with water, and in a little time the letters you write will appear a fair black, as if written with the best ink.

To make Red Sealing Wax. Take one pound of bees’ wax, three ounces of

turpentine, and one ounce of rosin finely powdered ; when they are well melted, and the dross taken off, put in the red-lead or vermilion, and stir them together, till they are well incorporated : and you may, when it grows a little cool, make it up into what form you please.

To make an ordinary sort of Sealing Wax. Take common bees’ wax, two pounds, turpen-

tine, six ounces, oil of olives, two ounces ; melt all these together: then add six ounces of red-lead ; boil them a little, and stir it till it is almost cold : cast it into fair water, and make it up into rolls or cakes.

A Black Sealing Wax. Take bees’ wax, one pound, rosin powdered.


one ounce, turpentine, three ounces, oil of olives, one ounce ; mix and melt them together, to which add lamp or ivory black ; and when cool make it into what form you please.

T5 make fine Sealing Wax of all Colours.

Green It is made after the same manner, and in the same proportion as fine red sealing wax, by mixing with the ingredients verdigris, instead of vermilion.

Blue.—It is also made after the same manner, putting in blue smalt or ultramarine.

Purple.—It is made after the same manner, by putting in vermilion mixed with ivory black or lamp black.

Yellow.—This is done as the rest, with finely ground auripigmentum, or yellow masticot.

To Marble the Edges of Boohs or Paper.

Marbling of books or paper is performed thus : Dissolve four ounces of gum arabic in two quarts of fair water: then provide several colours mixed with water in pots or shells, and pencils peculiar to each colour; sprinkle them by way of intermixture upon the gum water, which must be put into a trough, or some broad vessel; then with a stick curl them, or draw them out in streaks to as much variety as may be done. Having done this, hold your book or books close together, and only dip the edges in, on the top of the water, and colour very lightly; which done, take them off, and the plain impression of the colours in mixture will be upon the leaves ; doing as well the ends as the front of the book in the like manner, and afterwards glazing the colours.

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TO TAKE SPOTS AND STAINS OUT OF SILKS, WOOLLEN, OR LINEN, &c.

To take Spots or Stains out of Silk.

Take an ounce of flax seed, bruise it well in two or three spoonfuls of lemon juice, add a quarter of an ounce of white-lead, as much of burnt bone, mix them over a gentle fire to a thickness, and lay them on a strainer.

To make a Soap that will take Grease, Spots, or Stains out of Clothes, Silks, or Stuffs.

Burn a pound of roche-alum, and powder it finely; add to it half a pound of the root of an herb called florence flame, a new laid egg, and two pounds and a half of cake soap ; bruise and mix them well together, that they may be made up with fair water into halls; then first wash the place stained or spotted with clean water, scrape the soap moist on it, and wash it out; and in three or four times thus doing, the blemish will disappear.

To take Spots out of Linen.

Take two spoonfuls of the juice of an onion, and as much of lime juice; wet it two or three times, as often drying it by the fire ; wash it immediately in a good laver, and it is done.

The Fumes of Brimstone useful in removing Spots or Stains from Linen, 8$c.

If a red rose be held in the fumes of a brimstone match, the colour will soon change, and at

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length the flower will become white. By the same process, fruit stains or iron mould may be removed from linen or cotton cloths, if the spots be previously moistened with water. With iron moulds weak muriatic acid is preferable, assisted by heat; as by laying the cloth on a tea-pot or kettle filled with boiling water.

A good Ley to take out Spots or Stains. Put half a pound of soap-boilers’ ashes into

two pints of water : let them remain three days, often stirring them ; then pour off the clear ley, and mix it with fuller’s earth ; then lay it thick on the place, drying it in the sun, or by the fire, and in two or three times doing, it will answer your expectations.

To take Spots or Stains out of Coloured Silks, Stuffs, Linen or Woollen.

Take pumice stone, and grind it to powder; put to it sharp vinegar and fuller’s earth ; let it lie on and dry ; then wash it out with milk and flower of almond.

A way to take out Tar, Pitch, or Posin. Lay on oil of turpentine; let that dry, and

put on more, and the third time, when it is dried, you may rub out the pitch, &c., for it will crumble like dirt.

To take out Oil or Grease. Mix burnt bone and fuller’s earth with a little

white wine, and plaster it on the spot; then dry it in the sun, or by the fire, and it will suck out all the grease in once or twice doing.

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How to take Spots or Stains out of Scarlet, Silk, or Velvet.

Take soapwort (an herb of that name), bruise it, strain out the juice, and add a little black soap; mix them well to a moderate thickness, rub over the stained or spotted place, wash it out with warm water, and allow it to dry; do it again twice or thrice, and it will effect your desire.

How to take Iron Moulds or Rust out of Linen.

Dissolve the powder of burnt alum in the juice of lemon, wet the place with it, and dry it with the back of a spoon, in the fore part of which is a live coal; and in doing it five or six times, the iron mould or rust will wash out.

Another. Take essential salt of lemon, as much as will

lie on your finger, and having a deep pewter dish ready filled with boiling water, cover it with a pewter plate ; lay the iron mould part on this quite hot, and with your finger rub in as much salt of lemon as will lie on it; rub it until the iron mould disappears ; then wash it out with soap and water.

BLEACHING.

Method of Bleaching Straiv. Dip the straw in a solution of oxygenated

muriatic acid, saturated with potash, (oxygenated muriat of lime is much cheaper). The straw is


thus rendered very white, and its flexibility is increased.

Efficacy of Horse Chesnut in Bleaching Linen, and clearing Woollen Staffs, and as a Ley for preparing Hemp.

The manner of making this ley is to peel the chesnuts, and to rasp them as fine as possible into soft water. This is done ten or twelve hours before the mixture is to be used ; and in the mean time it is stirred from time to time, the better to dissolve these raspings, and im- pregnate the water: the last stirring is given about a quarter of an hour before the water is drawn off from the thickest part of the raspings that subside; and this is done either by inclining the vessel and pouring off the ley gently, or by laving it out by the hand, while the water is yet white, and froths like soap suds. In order to use this ley, it is made rather hotter than the hand can well bear, and the hemp is then steeped and washed in it as in soap suds. Linen may also be washed in this ley, and even when very dirty, much less soap will be required than commonly used, it being sufficient to rub the dirtiest part only with soap. The raspings of the chesnuts, which sink to the bottom of the ley, are good for pigs. Hemps, as above prepared, may be dyed like silk, wool, or cotton, and may be made into stuff and garments of all kinds: a great advantage attending the use of this material is, that it will not be destroyed by those insects which devour woollen.

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To Bleach Bees Wax.

Melt your wax, and while hot throw it into cold water, to reduce it into little bits, or spread it out in the air, night and day, on linen cloths ; then melt it over again, and expose it as before ; repeat this till the sun and dew have bleached it: then for the last time melt it in a kettle, and cast it with a ladle on a table covered over with little round hollows, in the form of the cakes sold by the apothecaries; but first wet your mould with cold water, that the wax be the easier got out: lastly, lay them out in the air for two days and two nights, to make it more transparent and drier.

ANGLING.

To preserve Fishing Rods.

Oil your rods in summer with linseed oil, drying them in the sun, and taking care the parts lie flat; they should be often turned, to prevent them from warping. This will render them tough, and prevent their being worm eaten; in time they will acquire a beautiful brown colour. Should they get wet, which swells the wood, and makes it fast in the sockets, turn the part round over the flame of a candle a short time, and it will be easily set at liberty.

Rules for Fishing. When the wind is in some points, few fish will

bite; the most unfavourable is the eastern


quarter. A warm lowering day, with flying showers, and a slight ripple on the water, is the most favourable. Water slightly disturbed, pre- vents fish seeing the tackle ; and in it they take the bait most readily: hence, whatever tends to disturb it, so as to hide the line without obscur- ing the bait, is of advantage. In waters affected by the tide, the flood is the best time for angling. Whirlpools, eddies, mill-tails, sides of bridges, and beneath their arches, are places where fish most readily bite, chiefly from the above reasons ; and in general, a certain degree of d-arkness in the water, whether occasioned by the shades of buildings, rocks, or muddy streams flowing into it, is favourable to angling.

Sure method to know the state of the Weather. It is found by experience, that the leech kept

in a common eight ounce phial, three fourths filled with water, changed once a week in winter, and twice in summer, and covered with a bit of linen rag, is a sure prognosticate of the weather. First, in serene weather, it lies rolled up in a spiral form at the bottom. Secondly, when it rains before the afternoon, it creeps to the top, and remains till the weather is settled. Thirdly, before wind it keeps in rapid motion, and seldom rests until it begins to blow hard. Fourthly, if a remarkable storm of thunder and hail is to succeed, it lodges some days before, continually without the water, and is very uneasy and con- vulsed. Fifthly, in frost, as in clear weather, it lies at the bottom : and in snow, as in rain, it keeps at the mouth of the phial.

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BIRD CATCHING.

Method of making the best sort of Bird Lime, and manner of using it.

Take at Midsummer the bark of holly, and peel from the tree so much as will fill a moderately large vessel; then put to it running water, and set it over the fire, and boil it till the grey and white bark rise from the green, which will take up sixteen hours; then separate the barks, after the water is well drained away; then take all the green bark and lay it on the ground, on a close moist floor, and cover it over with green weeds, as hemlocks, docks, thistles, and the like; then let it lie ten or twelve days, in which time it will rot, and turn to filthy slimy matter ; then put it into a mortar, and beat it till it becomes universally thick and tough, without the discerning of any part of the bark or substance : then take it out of the mortar, and carry it to a running stream, there wash it well, not leaving any foulness about it; then put it into a very close earthen pot, and let it stand and purge for several days together, scumming it as often as any foulness arises, for four or five days : when you perceive no more scum, then take it out of that pot, and put it into another clean earthen vessel; cover it close and keep it for use.

When you want to use your lime, take what quantity you think fit, and put it into a pipkin, adding a third part of goose or capon’s grease, finely clarified, and set them over a gentle fire;


let them melt together, and stir them continually, till they are well incorporated : then take it from the fire, and stir it till it be cold.

When your lime is cold, take your rods, and warm them a little over the fire ; then take your lime, and wind it about the tops of your rods; then draw your rods asunder, one from the other, and close them again, continually playing and working them together, till, by smearing one upon another, you have equally bestowed on each rod a sufficient proportion of the lime.

If you lime any strings, do it when the lime is very hot, and at the thinnest, besmearing the strings on all sides, by folding them together, and unfolding them again.

If you lime straws, it must be done likewise when the lime is very hot, doing a great quantity together, as many as you can grasp in your hand, tossing them and working them before the fire till they are besmeared, every straw having its due proportion of lime. Having so done, put them in cases of leather, till you have occasion to use them.

To prevent the freezing of your lime, either on twigs, bushes, or straws, you must add a quarter as much of the oil of petroleum, as of capon’s grease, mixing them well together, and then work it on your rods, &c., and so it will ever keep supple, tough, and gentle, and will not be pre- judiced should the weather freeze ever so hard.

Experienced method of Catching Larks.

The common way of taking larks, of which so many are used at our tables, is in the night, with

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those nets which are usually called trammels. These are generally made of thirty-six yards in length, and about six yards over, with six ribs of packthread, which, at the ends, are upon poles of about sixteen feet long, and made small at each end. These are to be drawn over the ground by two men, and every five or six steps, the net is made to touch the ground, otherwise it will pass over the birds without touching them, and they will escape. When they are felt to fly up against the net, it is clapped down, and all are safe that are under it. The darkest nights are most proper for this sport; and the net will not only take larks, but all other birds that roost on the ground, among which are woodcocks, snipes, partridges, quails, fieldfares, and several others.

BOOKS.

For taking Grease oat of the Leaves of Books.

Fold up in two small bags made of fine open muslin, some ashes of burnt bones, finely powdered, or of calcined hartshorn, which is always ready prepared at the shops of the druggists; lay the hags of muslin, containing the powder, one on each side of the greasy leaf; and having heated a pair of fire tongs, or hair-dresser’s pinching tongs, of a moderate warmth, press with them the two bags against the greasy spot, and hold them some time in that situation. Repeat the process, if necessary.

When the irons cannot be conveniently used,


the powder may be heated over the fire, in a clean earthen vessel; and whilst hot, applied without any muslins, on each side of the greasy spot, and a weight laid on it to assist its effect.

Method of cleaning dirty Prints or Boohs.

If the print should be pasted upon canvass, put it into a copper or kettle of water just boiling, and in three or four minutes it will easily separate from the canvass ; next expose it to the sun, by placing it on a grass plat; prevent the wind from having any effect on it, so as to tear it or blow it away; fix four skewers into the ground, near the corners, and tie a string to each of the skewers, crossed from corner to corner, so as to confine it completely ; when it becomes dry, wet it again thoroughly, and so on for several days, if necessary, in the same manner as you bleach linen ; in which operation, as well as in bleaching-prints, a hot sun is best. If the foulness of the print should settle in spots, soak those spots well, by putting wet linen rags doubled upon them for a considerable time. If soaking them in this manner does not get the spots out, put the print into hot water, gently boiling, or very near it, and let it continue for twenty-four hours ; but if the paper be spongy, or very thin, it will not bear soaking so long. Soaking in this manner is seldom necessary. The foulness from flies may be gently brushed off with a wet sponge when the print is thoroughly soaked. Spirit of sea-salt much diluted will take white-wash off prints. Take care not to hold your nose over the

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vapour of the spirit. Do not leave your prints on the grass plat at night for fear of the worms.

BUILDING.

How to cure Damp Walls.

Boil two quarts of tar with two ounces of kitchen grease for a quarter of an hour in an iron pot; add some of this to a mixture of slaked lime and powdered glass, which have passed through a flour sieve, and been completely dried over the fire in an iron pot, in the proportion of two parts of lime to one of glass, till the mixture becomes of the consistence of thin plaster. The cement must be used immediately after being mixed ; and, therefore, it is proper not to mix more of it than will coat one square foot of wall, since it quickly becomes too hard for use; and care must be taken to prevent any moisture from mixing with the cement. For a wall merely damp, a coating of one-eighth of an inch is sufficient ; but if the wall be wet, there must be a second coat. Plaster made of lime, hair, and plaster of Paris, may afterwards be laid on as a cement. The cement above described, will unite the parts of Portland stone or marble, so as to make them as durable as they were prior to the fracture.

A Preparation to preserve Wood from catching Fire, and to preserve it from decay.

A member of the Royal Academy at Stock- holm having, within these few years, visited the


alum mines of Loswers, in the province of Cal- mar, took notice of some attempts made to burn the old staves of tubs and pails that had been used for the alum works. For this purpose, they were thrown into the furnace, but those pieces of wood which had been penetrated by the alum did not burn, though they remained for a long time in the fire, where they only became red ; however, at last they were consumed by the intenseness of the heat, but they yielded no flame.

He concludes from this experiment, that wood or timber, for the purpose of building, may be secured against the action of fire, by letting it remain for some time in water wherein vitriol, alum, or any other salt has been dissolved, which contain no inflammable parts.

To this experiment, it may be added, that wood, which has been impregnated with water, wherein vitriol has been dissolved, is very fit for resisting putrefaction, especially if afterwards it is brushed over with tar, or some kind of paint; in order to do this, the wood must be rubbed with very warm vitriol water, and afterwards left to dry before it is painted or tarred. Wood, prepared in this manner, will, for a long time, resist the injuries of the air, and be preserved in cellars and other low moist places. It is to be observed, that if a solution of vitriol is poured on such parts of timber, where a sort of champignons are formed by moisture, and rubbed off, none will ever grow there again.

By boiling, for some hours the spokes of wheels in vitriol water, they are not subject to rottenness in the part where they enter the stocks. After

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boiling them in this manner, they are dried as perfectly as possible, and then, in the accustomed way, painted with oil colour.

CEMENT.

Roman Cement or Mortar for Outside Plastering or Brick- Work, now much used on Old Houses, fyc. in Imitation of Stone- Work.

This will resist all weather, and may be used to great advantage in lining reservoirs, as no water can penetrate it.

Take eighty-four pounds of drift sand, twelve pounds of unslaked lime, and four pounds of the poorest cheese, grated through an iron grater; when well mixed, add enough hot (but not boiling) water to make it into a proper consistency, for plastering such a quantity of the above as is wanted. It requires very good and thick working. One hod of this mortar will go a great way, as it is to be laid on in a thin smooth coat, without the least space being left uncovered. The wall, or lath-work, should be covered first with hair and lime mortar, and well dried. This was used by the ancients, and is now adopted among us. The Suffolk cheese does better than any other of this country.

Useful Property of Common Glue.

Common glue dissolved with linseed oil, will resist the weather. The glue should be melted with very little water, before the oil is added.


To make Size from Potatoes.

One of the beneficial uses of potatoes, not perhaps generally known, is, that the starch of them, quite fresh, and washed only once, may be employed to make size, which, mixed with chalk, and diluted in a little water, forms a very beautiful and good white for ceilings. This has no smell: while animal size, which putrifies so readily, always exhales a very disagreeable odour. That of potatoes, as it is very little subject to putrefaction, appears from experience to be more durable in tenacity and whiteness, and for white- washing, should be preferred to animal size, the decomposition of which is always accompanied by unhealthy exhalations.

A most excellent Glue.

Beat an ounce of isinglass to shreds : dissolve it gradually in a pint of brandy, by means of gentle heat, and then strain the solution through a piece of fine muslin. The glue thus obtained, should be kept in a glass closely stopped. When required for use, it should be dissolved with a moderate heat, when it will appear thin, transparent, and almost limpid.

When applied in the manner of common glue, its effects are so powerful as to join together the parts of wood, stronger than the wood itself is united. This glue dries into a very strong, tough, and transparent substance, not easily damaged by any thing but aqueous moisture, which renders it unfit for any use where it would be much exposed to wet or damp air.

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Parchment Glue.

Take one pound of parchment, and boil it in six quarts of water, till the quantity he reduced to one ; then strain oft’ the dregs, and boil it again till it be of the consistence of glue.

The same may be done with glover’s cuttings of leather, which make a colourless glue, if not burnt in the evaporation of the water.

Strong Cement.

To prevent the escape of the vapours of water, spirits, and liquors not corrosive, the simple application of slips of moistened bladder, will answer very well for glass; and paper, with good paste, for metal. Bladder to be very adhesive, should be soaked some time in water, moderately warm, till it feels clammy ; it then sticks very well. If smeared with white of eggs, instead of water, it adheres still closer.

Fire Lute.

For a fire lute, take porcelain clay from Corn- wall, (not pipe clay); let it be pounded small, and mixed up to the consistence of thick paint, with a solution of two ounces of borax, in a pint of hot water. For want of this peculiar kind of clay, slaked quick lime, mixed up in the same manner, may be used. This may be kept ready mixed in a covered vessel.

Cold Lute.

Take equal parts, by measure, of the above clay, and wheat flour, mix them to a proper con-

ARTS AND SCIENCES. Ill

sistence with cold water. This is more tenacious than the fire lute, but does not keep so well.

Another.

A very excellent lute for many purposes may be made, by beating up an egg, both the white and the yolk, with half its weight of quick lime in powder. This lute is to be put upon a piece of linen, and applied as usual; it dries slowly, but becomes very compact, and acquires great hardness.

Blood Cement for repairing Copper Boilers, fyc. This cement is often used by coppersmiths to

lay over the rivets and edges of sheets of copper, in large boilers, to serve as an additional security to the joinings, and to secure cocks, &c. from leaking. It is made by mixing pounded quick lime with ox’s blood. It must be applied fresh made, as it soon gets so hard as to be unfit for use.

If the properties of this cement were duly in- vestigated, it would be found useful for many purposes to which it has never yet been applied. It is extremely durable.

To restore Cast Iron Furnaces, and Soap Pans that through accident or mismanagement may he cracked. Take a small clod of fine new lime, slaked,

and finely sifted, mix it up with whites of eggs, well beaten, till it is of the consistence of pap or soft mortar: then add to it some iron file dust, and with this composition fill up the inside of the crack, (which will be sufficient), raising a

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little seam or bed upon it, and it will soon become bard and fit for use.

This experiment completely cured a gentleman’s furnace which had a crack fourteen inches long, and he has boiled in it three or four times every week since, without the least inconvenience, or prospect of its being again disunited.

Composition of a Cement to resist the action of Fire and Water.

Take half a pint of milk, and mix it with an equal quantity of vinegar, so as to coagulate the milk. Separate the curds from the whey, and mix the latter with the whites of four or five eggs, after beating them well up. The mixture of these two substances being complete, add sifted quick lime, and make the whole into thick paste of the consistency of putty. If this mastic be carefully applied to broken bodies, or fissures of any kind, and dried properly, it resists water and fire.

Turkey Cement for joining Metals, Glass, SjC.

The jewellers in Turkey, who are mostly Ar- menians, have a curious method of ornamenting watch cases, and similar things, with diamonds and other stones, by simply glueing them on. The stone is set with silver or gold, and the lower part of the metal made flat, or to correspond with the part to which it is fixed ; it is then warmed gently, and the glue applied, which is so very strong, that the parts never separate. This glue may be applied to many purposes, as it will


strongly join bits of glass or polished steel, if thus made : —

Dissolve five or six bits of mastic, as large as peas ; put in as much spirits of wine as will suffice to render it liquid ; in another vessel, dissolve as much isinglass, (which has been previously soaked in water till it is swollen and soft), in French brandy or rum as will make two ounces, by measure, of strong glue, and add two small bits of gum galbanum, ammoniacum, which must be rubbed or ground until they are dissolved : then mix the whole with a sufficient heat. Keep it in a phial, stopped: and when it is to be used, set it in hot water.

Excellent Cement for Broken China.

This may be made from a mixture of equal parts of glue, white of eggs, and white-lead.

To make Red Coral Branches for Embellishing Grottoes, and the method of Building a Grotto at a very small expence.

Dissolve clear rosin in a brass pan: to one ounce thereof, add two drachms of the finest vermilion ; and when you have stirred them well together, and have chosen your twigs and branches, of black thorn peeled and dried, take a pencil and paint these twigs all over whilst the composition is warm, and shape them in imitation of natural coral; when done, hold it over a gentle coal fire, turn the branches about with your hand, and it will make it all over smooth and even, as if polished.

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To make Patent Paste. Boil a quantity of mealy potatoes, and mash

them without peeling; then take as many, and one-third more of raw potatoes, and obtain the starch or flour from them, by grating them into a vessel of water, and reserving only the finer particles. The mashed potatoes are to be diluted, beat up, and passed through a sieve. They are then to be put into a boiler, and when nearly boiled, the starch produced from the grated potatoes is to be added, and the whole boiled together about twenty minutes, during which time, it must be kept carefully stirred. It is then good paste, and is to be put into a wide vessel to cool.

To make strong Paste.

Mix fine wheaten flour, first in cold water; then boil it till it be of a glutinous consistence. This method makes common paste. When you wish it to be of a strong nature, mix a fourth, filth, or sixth of the weight of the flour of powdered alum : and where it is wanted, of a still more tenacious quality, add a little powdered rosin.

RECEIPTS FOR BLACKING.

To make a good Black.

In three pints of small beer, put two ounces of ivory black, and one pennyworth of brown sugar. As soon as they boil, put a dessert spoonful of sweet oil, then let it boil slowly till reduced to a quart. Stir it up with a stick every time it is


used ; and put it on the shoe with a brush when wanted.

Another. Two ounces of ivory black ; one tea spoonful

of oil of vitroil, one table spoonful of sweet oil, and two ounces of brown sugar; roll the same into a ball, and to dissolve it add half a pint of vinegar.

Another. Take ivory black and brown sugar candy, of

each two ounces ; of sweet oil a table spoonful ; add gradually thereto a pint of vinegar, cold, and stir the whole till gradually incorporated.

Another. To one pint of vinegar, add half an ounce of

vitriolic acid, half an ounce of copperas, two ounces of sugar-candy, and two ounces and a half of ivory black: mix the whole well together.

Another. Sweet oil, half an ounce; ivory black and

treacle, of each half a pound ; gum arabic, half an ounce, vinegar, three pints; boil the vinegar, and pour it hot on the ingredients.

Another. A quarter of a pound of ivory black, a quarter

of a pound of moist sugar, a table spoonful of flour, a piece of tallow about the size of a walnut, and a small piece of gum arabic. Make a paste of the flour, and while hot, put in the tallow, then the sugar, and afterwards mix the whole together in a quart of water, and you will have a beautiful shining blacking.

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Blacking Ball for Shoes.

Mutton suet, four ounces, bees’ wax, one ounce, sugar-candy and gum arabic, one drachm each, in fine powder; melt these well together over a gentle fire, and add thereto about a spoonful of turpentine, and ivory and lamp black; while hot enough to run, you may make it into a ball, by pouring the liquor into a tin mould ; or let it stand till almost cold, and you may mould it in what form you please by the hand.

A celebrated Black Cake for Boots and Shoes. *

Make one part of gum tragacanth, four parts of river water, two parts of neat’s foot, or some other softening lubricating oil, two parts of superfine ivory black, one part of Prussian blue, in fine powder, or indigo, four parts of brown sugar- candy. Boil the mixture, and when the composition is of a proper consistence, let it be formed into a cake of such a size, that each cake may make a pint of liquid blacking.

A Black Varnish for Gentlemen!s old Straw or Chip Hats.

Take best black sealing wax, half an ounce, rectified spirits of wine, two ounces : powder the sealing wax, and put it in with the spirit of wine into a four ounce phial; digest them in a sand heat, or near a fire, till the wax is dissolved; lay it on warm with a fine soft hair brush, before the fire, or in the sun. It gives a good stiffness to old straw hats, and a beautiful gloss equal to new,


and resists wet. If the hats are very brown, they may be brushed over with writing ink, and dried before the varnish is applied. Spirit of turpentine may probably be used in the place of the spirit of wine.

How to mahe Oil Cloth; very necessary for Country People, or any that travel in Wet Weather. You are first to make a drying oil, by taking

red-lead and umber, each half an ounce, linseed oil, two pounds; which boil for a quarter of an hour or longer; let it stand two days, and it will have a skin over it, and be fit for use. You are now to take off the skin ; set the oil on the fire, and dissolve some good rosin in it, and let the quantity be such as may make the oil fit to spread upon the cloth ; when the rosin is dissolved, you may add to it some colour, as verdigris for green, umber for brown, indigo for blue, or a light colour, &c.

PLEASING EXPERIMENTS.

To make, the Phosphoric Match Bottle. These bottles may be prepared, by mixing

one part of flour of sulphur with eight of phosphorus. This requires caution, and should afterwards be handled with great care, lest any part of the mixture get under the finger nails, a small portion of which, might occasion great inconvenience. When used to procure a light, a very minute quantity is taken out of the bottle on the

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point of the match, and rubbed upon cork or wood, which produces an immediate flame.

To make an Illuminated or Phosphoric Bottle, tvhich will preserve its Light for several Months. By putting a piece of phosphorus, the size of

a pea, into a phial, and adding boiling oil until the bottle is a third full, a luminous bottle is formed ; for, on taking out the cork to admit at- mospheric air, the empty space in the phial will become luminous.

Whenever the stopper is taken out in the night, sufficient light will be evolved to shew the hour upon a watch ; and if care be taken to keep it well closed, it will preserve its illuminating power for several months.

The Phosphoric Pencil, Is a small bit of phosphorus, put into a quill, and kept in a phial in water ; when you write, dip the pencil often in the water, to prevent its taking fire.

The Fire Bottle. Take as much unslaked lime as will lie on the

point of a small pen-knife : put it into a short bottle; then put in about half a drachm of phosphorus, and shake it gently until it takes fire; then blow gently in the bottle until it has done crackling, and it will be fit for use.

To make a Fire-Ballon. Take eight sheets of paper, either India, bank-

post, or stout tissue ; cut each sheet in an oblong round form, and with good paste join the broad

ARTS AND SCIENCES. Ill)

parts together : then paste the edges of the whole together, leaving the bottom part open, to serve as a neck or mouth. If you perceive any holes in any part of it, cover them neatly over, and then hang it up to dry. When it is quite dry, paste a bit of thin wire round the bottom of the neck or mouth, to keep it open, and put four cross wires a little way in the mouth, on the middle of which place a piece of sponge. Then get half a gill of spirits of wine, dip your sponge into it, and set fire to what remains in the cup ; holding the mouth of the balloon over the spirits of wine. When you think it is filled enough, place your sponge on your wires, and set fire to that, and you will see your ballon ascend in a regular and pleasing manner.

To make an Air Balloon. Take a piece of taffeta, or thin silk, and sew it

into an orbicular, or round form, leaving a small orifice for the admission of the inflammable air. The taffeta, or silk, with all the seams, must be strongly gummed several times over, in order effectually to keep out common air, and prevent the artificial air from transpiring.

The method of filling your balloon, when properly prepared, is as followsTake a glass bottle, or vessel, the size according to the quantity of inflammable air required, or in proportion to the magnitude of your machine ; put into it a quantity of the oil of vitriol, with some iron filings, or old nails ; then pour on some clear water, and it will soon begin to ferment, and, if not prevented by stopping it close, ascend to a considerable height in smoke. This must be conveyed

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into the balloon by means of a glass tube or cone, which must be well secured at each end ; and, as the fermentation increases, the balloon will fill. When you have gotten a sufficiency of the air, you must draw the neck tight with a string fixed on purpose ; and from this moment it becomes a so much lighter body, that it would ascend immediately, unless restrained by a proportionable balance.

Before you begin to infuse the inflammable air, make the parts again secure with gum, or some other glutinous matter; and, after all, you may, if you please, gild over the whole, which, in its flight, will have a grand appearance. This will float in the atmosphere until the inflammable air finds a vent, when it will gradually descend.

A cheap and simple process for Painting on Glass, sufficient for the purpose of making a Magic Lantern, Take good clear rosin, any quantity, melt it in

an iron pot: when melted entirely, let it cool a little, and before it begins to harden, pour in oil of turpentine, sufficient to keep it liquid when cold ; in order to paint with it, let it be used with colours ground with oil, such as are commonly sold in colour-shops.

To make Transparent Screens for the Exhibition of the Phantasmagoria.

Transparent screens are to be prepared by white wax dissolved in spirits of wine, or oil of turpentine, over thin muslin. A screen so prepared, will roll up without injury. A clearer screen may be


produced, by having the muslin always strained upon a rectangular frame, and prepared with turpentine instead of wax. Such a screen is not always convenient, and it cannot be rolled without cracking, and becoming in a short time useless. Therefore nothing can be better for the purpose than the former.

THE ART OF MAKING FIRE-WORKS, DETONATING BALLS, &c.

Of the several Ingredients for making Fireworks.

Gunpowder, saltpetre, sulphur or brimstone, and charcoal are the principal ingredients in the composition of fireworks; and great care should be taken that these articles be good, each of its kind, otherwise your works may fail of having their proper- effect. The saltpetre ought to be well cleansed, and free from all impurities; the sulphur of a high yellow colour, bouncing and crackling when held in one’s hand ; and the charcoal must always be soft and well burnt. In general, it is better to buy them ready made, as they are manufactured in large quantities, and in great perfection.

Touch Paper. Dissolve in some spirits of wine, vinegar, or

water, a little saltpetre ; then take some purple or blue paper, and wet it with the above liquor, and when dry it will be fit for use. When you paste this paper on any of your works, take care that the paste does not touch that part which is to burn. The method of using this paper is, by

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cutting it into slips, long enough to go once round the mouth of a serpent, cracker, &c. When you paste on these slips, leave a little above the mouth of the case not pasted ; then prime the case with meal powder, and twist the paper to a point.

To preserve Steel or Iron Filings.

Steel or iron filings being used in fireworks to give a brilliancy to them, some observations on them may not be amiss. If your fireworks are to be used directly, you may use the filings without preparation ; but if they are to be kept by you for a few months, or longer, the filings should be prepared.

The saltpetre being of a damp nature, it causes the iron to rust; the natural consequence of which is, that when the works are fired, there will appear but very few brilliant sparks, but instead of them, a number of red drossy sparks ; and besides, the charge will be weakened. But to prevent such accidents, prepare your filings after the following manner:—Melt in a glazed earthen pan some brimstone, over a slow fire, and when melted, throw in some filings, which keep stirring about till they are covered with brimstone ; this you must do while it is on the fire : then take it off, and stir it very quick till cold, when you must roll it on a board with a wooden roller, till you have broken it as fine as corn powder; after which sift from it as much of the brimstone as you can. There is another method of preparing filings, so as to keep two or three months in water. This may be done by rubbing them between the strongest


sort of brown paper, which before has been moistened with linseed oil.

If the brimstone should take fire, you may put it out by covering the pan close at top. It is not of much signification what quantity of brimstone you use, so that there is enough to give each grain of iron a coat; but as much as will cover the bottom will do.

To lineal Gunpowder, Brimstone, and Charcoal.

To meal these articles, a wooden mallet or stone should be used : if they were to be done with an iron hammer, there would be danger of your powder exploding. You should spread your powder on a stone, and with your muller you will soon reduce it to a powder. Brimstone should be bought ready powdered ; and charcoal may be pounded the same way as gunpowder ; but for this an iron hammer may be safely used.

Of mixing the several Ingredients. The performance of the principal part of fire-

works depends much on the composition being well mixed ; therefore great care ought to be taken in this part of the work, particularly in the composition for sky-rockets. First put the different ingredients together; then work them about with your hands, till you think they are pretty well incorporated ; after which put them into a fine sieve, and if, after it is sifted, any remains that will not pass through the sieve, grind it again till fine enough. Common works are not so material, nor need they be so fine. But in all fixed works, from which the fire is to play regular, the ingre-

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dients must be very fine, and great care taken in mixing them well together : and observe, that in all compositions wherein are steel or iron filings, the hands must not touch : nor will any works, which have iron or steel filings in their charge, keep long in damp weather, without being properly prepared, according to the directions given.

Squibs and Serpents.

First, make the cases of about six inches in length, by rollings slips of stout cartridge paper three times round a roller, and pasting the last fold ; tying it near the bottom as tight as possible, and making it air-tight at the end by sealing-wax. Then take half a pound of gunpowder, one ounce of charcoal, one ounce of brimstone, and half an ounce of steel filings (or in like proportion), grind them with a muller, or pound them in a mortar. Your cases being dry and ready, first put in a thimble full of your powder, and ram it hard down with the roller ; then fill the case to the top with the aforesaid mixture, ramming it hard down in the course of filling two or three times ; when this is done, point it with touch-paper^ which should be pasted on that part which touches the case, otherwise they are liable to drop off.

Crackers.

Cut some stout cartridge-paper into pieces three inches and a-half broad, and one foot long: one edge of each of these pieces fold down lengthwise, rather less than an inch broad : fold the double edge down a quarter of an inch, and turn the single edge back half over the double fold : then


rpen it, and lay all along the channel, which is formed by the foldings of the paper, some meal powder; then fold it over and over, till all the paper is doubled up, rubbing it down every turn: this done, bend it backwards and forwards, two inches and a-half, or thereabouts, at a time, as often as the paper will allow; then hold all these folds flat and close, and with a small pinching cord, give one turn round the middle of the cracker,4and pinch it close; then bind it with pack-thread as tight as you can : then in the place where it was pinched, prime one end, and cap it with touch- paper. When these crackers are fired, they will give a report at every turn of the paper. If you would have a greater number of bounces, you must cut the paper longer, or join them after they are made: but if they are made very long before they are pinched, you must have a piece of wood with a groove in it, deep enough to let in half the cracker: this will hold it straight while it is pinching.

Sky Rockets.

As the performance of rockets depends much on their moulds and cases, it is necessary to give a little definition of them. The moulds are turned of close hard wood, about an inch in diameter, and about six inches in length. The cases should be made of the stoutest cartridge-paper, or pasteboard, six times round, and glued together well; and great care must be taken in winding or rolling them tight round the roller.

When your cases are thus prepared, be very careful that the powder is well worked and

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cleansed—that the saltpetre is thoroughly refined —that the brimstone be well cleansed—that the charcoal be well burned, powdered, dried, and sifted—and that all these ingredients be well mixed together, and sifted through a fine sieve.

When you are satisfied in these things, and have weighed the proportionable quantities of each, then try your charge, by sifting a little on a table ; and«if, when lighted, it burns away in an even fire, and does not fly up, it is a sign it is worked enough ; but if at one place it burns quicker than at another, or stops in its course, then you must grind it more.

Having rammed a rocket for trial, take it to a secure open place. If it mounts even and high, and gives a report as soon as it turns, it is a sign of being made to perfection ; but if the rocket bursts as soon as lighted, then the charge is too fierce; or if it rises a little and falls back, then the charge is foul and weak. The former is rectified by adding more charcoal, and the latter by some meal powder. For the rest, it must be observed, that the larger the rockets are, the weaker must be the charge ; and on the contrary, the smaller they are, the stronger must be their charge.

The charges may be composed of the following ingredients:—Meal powder, eight ounces, charcoal, half an ounce ; or meal powder, five ounces, charcoal, half on ounce; or meal powder, eight ounces, charcoal, one ounce; or meal powder, six ounces, saltpetre, half an ounce, brimstone, a quarter of an ounce, charcoal, three quarters of an ounce, or an ounce.


The composition should be rammed in very tight: the mould should be made by a turner, for the purpose.

If you would represent a fiery train falling from the rockets, mix among your charge a little composition of powdered glass, filings of iron, and saw- dust. This shower is commonly called the pea- cock’s tail, on account of its varied colouring.

You may also exhibit a variety of colours issuing forth from a rocket, by mixing among the charge a little camphire, which produces a white or pale fire ; rosin, a red and copper colour; bloodstone, which has been annealed and beaten to a palpable powder, will yield a blood red ; sulphur, a blue ; sal ammoniac, a green ; raw antimony, a reddisii or honey colour; ivory shavings, shining silver ; filed agate stone, an orange ; and pitch, a dark and deep coloured fire. This must be managed with discretion ; and practice will be the best teacher in that particular : for long lessons are more fit to perplex a young beginner than put him forward.

The necks of your rockets must be drawn or choked firm, to prevent the cord giving way.

Prepare the composition for your rockets just before you want it.

Let it be neither too damp nor too dry, but sprinkle it over with a little oily substance, or a little brandy.

And lastly, avoid, if possible, a damp, foggy, rainy, or windy night to play your rockets in.

Of Marroons.

Formers for marroons, are from three quarters of an inch to one and a half diameter; cut the

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paper for the cases twice the diameter of the former broad, and long enough to go three times round; when you have rolled a case, paste down the edge, and tie one end close : then with the former drive it down to take away the wrinkles, and make it flat at bottom : then fill the case with corn powder one diameter and a quarter high, and fold down the rest of the case tight on the powder. The marroon being thus made, wax some strong packthread with shoemakers’ wax: this thread wind up in a ball ; then unwind two or three yards of it, and that part which is near the ball, make fast to a hook: then take a marroon, and stand as far from the hook as the packthread will reach, and wind it lengthways round the marroon, as close as you can, till it will hold no more that way: then turn it, and wind the packthread on the short way, then lengthways again, and so on till the paper is all covered : then make fast the end of the packthread, and beat down both ends of the marroon, to bring it in shape. The method of firing marroons is, by making a hole at one end with an awl, and putting in a piece of quick-match: then take a piece of strong paper, in which wrap up the marroon with two leaders, which must be put down to the vent, and the paper tied tight round them with small twine. These leaders are bent on each side, and their loose ends tied to other marroons, and nailed in the middle to the rail of the stand. The use of winding the packthread in a ball is, that you may let it out as you want it, according to the quantity the marroons may require ; and that it may not be tied in knots, which would spoil the marroon.

arts and sciences. 12U

Water Rockets.

Cases for water rockets are made in the same manner and proportion as sky rockets, only a little thicker of paper. When you fill these rockets, which are drove solid, put in, first one ladleful of slow fire, then two of the proper charge ; and on that one or two ladles of sinking charge : then the proper charge; then the sinking charge again : and so on till you have filled the case within three diameters. Then drive on the composition one ladleful of clay, through which make a small hole to the charge ; then fill the case within a diameter with corn powder, on which turn down two or three rounds of the case in the inside ; then choke and tie the end very tight. Having filled your rockets according to the above direction, dip their ends in melted rosin or sealing wax, or else secure them well with grease. When you fire these rockets, throw in six or eight at a time; but if you would have them all sink or swim at the same time, you must drive them with an equal quantity of composition, and fire them altogether.

Water Squibs.

Water squibs are generally made of one ounce serpent cases, seven or eight inches long, filled two- thirds with charge, and the remainder bounced. The common method of tiring them is thus :— Take a water-wheel with a tin mortar in its centre, which load with squibs after the usual method; but the powder in the mortar must be no more than will just throw the squibs out easily into the water. You may place the case on the wheel,

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either obliquely or horizontally; and on the top of the wheel, round the mortar, fix six cases of brilliant fire, perpendicular to the wheel; these cases must be fired at the beginning of the last case of the wheel, and the mortar at the conclusion of the same.

Water Crackers which turn in the Water.

The case is made nine or ten diameters long, the neck is drawn quite close, and charged with meal powder almost half full: upon this a partition is made with a hole in it; then put corn powder for a report. Upon that is placed another partition : the rest is filled with meal powder, the end tied close, and the paper cut short at both ends. When these crackers are to be fired, make a touch hole at the end of both, reversed. Having filled them up with meal powder, and covered them well with brandy dough, you may fire and fling them into the water, having previously dipped them in melted wax or pitch.

Wildfire which burns under Water.

This is composed of equal quantities of sulphur, naphtha, bitumen, pitch, and gum ; and can only be extinguished by vinegar, mixed with sand and urine, or by covering it with raw hides.

To make a Whale, a Mermaid, SfC. to play and swim upon the Water.

You may make figures of what shape your fancy best pleases; the body must be made of light wicker rods, and in the midst of the body let there be placed an axle-tree having two wheels coming


into the water, yet so as they may not be seen. These wheels must be hollow, to contain a quantity of sand and water : the use of it is to keep the body of your figure upright, and able to sink it so far into the water as is needful, and likewise to make it swim the more steadily. Not that these wheels must be loose, and the axle-tree fast. In the midst of the axle-tree place three or four great serpents, one by another, with their mouths all one way: yet so provide that there may be such a distance between each serpent, as there may come a vent from the tail of the first to the mouth of the second, and from the second to the third. And to the end that it may continue the longer in motion, you may place divers light about the body, to make it the more beautiful; every one of which lights extinguishing, should give a report, and so conclude.

To 'prepare a Globe which burns like a Star, and leaps about both on Land and in the Water.

Cause a globe to be turned of dry wood, whose diameter is the length of a half pound or pound rocket. Divide this globe into two equal parts ; in the middle of one of the half globes, in the inside, make a cavity, deep, long, and wide enough to hold three or four crackers, so that the other half of the globe may be easily and closely fitted upon them. After this, take three crackers, one with strong reports, and two without any. Place them so into the hollow, that the head of the one may lie on the other’s neck, and be so ordered, that as soon as the one is spent, the other may take fire and force the globe back ; and thus alter-

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nately from one to the other, till it come to the report which finishes. Care must be taken that the fire passes not from the first to the next cracker before it has quite consumed the first.

Having taken care to fix the crackers, cover them with the other half globe, and join them firmly with strong pasted paper.

A Composition for Stars, of a beautiful Colour, to put in Backets, Serpents, Blue Candles, Water Rockets, or other sorts of Fireworks.

Saltpetre, one ounce, sulphur vivum, one ounce, camphire, a quarter of an ounce ; beat these very fine, and mix them ; afterwards make them up into paste with oil of turpentine, and form these into small balls of about the size of peas, which roll in powder dust, and let them dry. Of this sort, you may put a dozen, or two or three dozen, in a rocket, and other fireworks of a smaller sort or size, and they will have a very pretty effect. To fireworks of a smaller sort, a less quantity must of course be used.

To produce beautiful Fireworks in Miniature.

Put half a drachm of solid phosphorus into a large pint Florence flask, holding it slanting, that the phosphorus may not break the glass: pour upon it a gill and a half of water, and place the whole over a tea-kettle lamp, or any common tin lamp, filled with spirits of wine: light the wick, which should be about half an inch from the flask : as soon as the water is heated, streams of fire will issue from the water, by starts, resembling sky rockets: some particles will also adhere to the

ARTS AND SCIENCES. ITS

sides of the glass, and represent stars, and will frequently display brilliant rays. And thus continue for some time, till the water begin to simmer, when immediately a curious aurora borealis begins, and gradually ascends, till it collects into a pointed flame : when it has continued half a minute, blow out the flame of the lamp, and the apex that was formed will rush down, forming beautifully illuminated clouds of fire rolling over each other for some time ; which disappearing, a splendid hemi- sphere of stars presents itself. After waiting a minute or two, light the lamp again, and nearly the same phenomena will he displayed as from the beginning. Let a repetition of lighting and blowing out the lamp be made for three or four times at least, that the stars may be increased. After the third or fourth time of blowing out the lamp, the internal surface of the flask is dry, and many of the stars will shoot with great splendour from side to side, and some of them will fire off with brilliant rays ; and these appearances will continue for several minutes. What remains in the flask will serve for the same experiment three or four times, without adding any more water. Care should be taken after the operation is over, to lay the flask and water in a cool and secure place.

Ingredients that make Sparks token rammed in Cases.

The set colours of fire produced by sparks, are divided into four sorts : viz. the black, white, grey, and red. The black charges are composed of two ingredients, which are, meal powder and charcoal ; the white of three, saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal;

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the grey of three, meal powder, cliarcoal and saw- dust ; and the red of four, meal powder, sulphur, file dust, and a small proportion of charcoal.

A Sloiv Fire

Must be composed of saltpetre, four ounces, brimstone, two ounces, and meal powder, one ounce and a half.

Dead Fire.

Saltpetre, one ounce and a quarter, brimstone, a quarter of an ounce, lapis calaminaris, a quarter of an ounce, antimony, two drachms.

Brilliant Fire. Meal powder, one pound, saltpetre, one ounce

and a-half, brimstone, half an ounce, and steel dust, one ounce and a-half.

A Blue Flame.

Meal powder, saltpetre, and sulphur vivum : the sulphur must be the chief part. Or, meal powder, saltpetre, brimstone, spirits of wine, and oil of spike: but let the powder be the principal part.

Port or Wild Fires.

Saltpetre, four ounces, meal powder, six ounces, and brimstone, two ounces. This composition must be moistened with one gill of linseed oil.

Illumination Port Fires. The cases must be made of very thin paper,

and rolled on formers, from two to six inches long; they are pinched close at one end, and left open at


tlie other. When yon fill them, put in but a little composition at a time, and ram it in lightly, so as not to break the case. Three or four rounds of paper, with the last round pasted, will be strong enough for these cases.

To make Golden Rain.

Get a few goose quills ; cut them off at the end next the feathers; then fill the quills with the composition, and they will make a very pretty show. To one quarter of a pound of powder dust add half a pound of coal dust; and for use, put the open end downwards.

This may be put into rockets, serpents, or indeed any fireworks that will take it in ; or it may be used as a serpent.

To make a Catherine Wheel.

Take a piece of cartridge paper, of what length you please, and roll it twice round a pretty thick wire, pasting it as you roll it. When the cases are dry, take the wire out, and fill it with a composition of slow fire, such as follows :—One part of camphire, one part of saltpetre, one part of sulphur, and two parts of mealed powder. After your cases are thus filled, you must twist it round a small wooden wheel, or a bone button mould ; and to fasten it to the end, you may either use sealing-wax, or, what is much better, paste a piece of cartridge-paper across the Catherine wheel; when this is done, put a bit more of your composition to the mouth of your case, and fasten a piece of touch paper to the end. When this is done, it is ready for use.

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This may be made with half the above directed quantity of camphire.

To make a Flower Pot.

Make a case as for a serpent, but rather thicker in proportion ; fill it with a composition of good brisk fire, which may be prepared thus :—One part of powdered coal, one part of saltpetre, two parts of powder, and one part of sulphur: no charge should be put in. Cover the end with touch paper, and it is ready for use.

To make a Roman Candle.

The cases for Roman candles may be made of any size; but those of half an inch across the mouth, and in length about six inches, are as good as any. When you have made your cases, and choked them tight at one end, proceed to fill them. The charge of filling may be composed of three parts of saltpetre, one part of brimstone, one part of meal powder, and one part of finely powdered glass; or four parts of saltpetre, two parts of brimstone, one part and a half of meal powder, and one part of fine powdered glass.

When you have finely powdered and well mixed either of those compositions, you can charge your cases ; but, in doing this, observe the following directions : first, put in a little mealed powder, and then a star, (directions for making the stars having been previously given ; but they may be varied by any of the more brilliant fires before described,) on which ram lightly a ladleful of composition, then a little mealed powder, and on that a star ; then again composition, and so on till

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 13/

you have filled the case. Stars for Roman candles should not be round, but must be either square, or flat and oval, with a hole through the middle : the quantity of powder for throwing the stars, must increase as you come near the top of the case; for if much powder be put at the bottom, it will burst the case. The stars must differ in size in this manner : let the star which you put in first be a little less than the bore of the case; but let the next star be a little larger, and the third star a little larger than the second, and so on : let them increase in diameter till within two of the top of the case, which two must fit in tight. As the loading of Roman candles is somewhat difficult, it will be necessary to make two or three trials before you depend on their performance. When you fill a number of Roman candles, take care not to put in each an equal quantity of charge between the stars, so that when they are fired, they may not throw up too many stars together.

To make a Dragon, or any other Animal, run on a Line, spitting Fire.

The shape of the dragon should be made of pasteboard, and pasted together in such a manner as to be hollow. When you fasten the sides together, fasten one or two serpents at the bottom of the belly, another at the vent, another at the tail, at the nose, in the eyes, ears, or any part you please. To make it run on a line, you may either put two kinds of arms, sewed crossways from either end of the back, with a smooth strong hole in each, through which put your line; or you may use two small pullies, attached to the head and

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tail of the dragon by strings to run on. When all is ready, set fire to either or all of the serpents, and it will appear to throw fire from all parts of its body : or, by first lighting the head part, it will run to the other end of the line, and then, by setting fire to the tail part, it will go back again. The firing of it must, however, be left to fancy : these directions are only given as a hint to the learner.

St George and the Dragon.

When you have formed your figures as before directed, you must make a hollow trunk (a reed or thin tin or paper tube for instance,) through the body of them to run on the line freely. Put your serpents principally in the front; a few at the back of each are placed principally to impel them forward towards each other : but this can be managed by a string fastened to each, and pulled by the person firing them. By this means you may cause them to run furiously at each other, retreat, or perform just as you please. I should have premised, that you must be careful that your figures are not so much heavier on the top than the bottom, lest they turn over when fired ; and that they hang pretty well on a balance. When you light them, lighting one serpent in each figure at a time will do, as the others generally catch fire.

Numerous other devices may be made in the same manner : two lions, two tigers, two horses, or horsemen, or, indeed, any designs which the inventor’s fancy may pourtray; and the simple directions here given, will be quite sufficient to

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 13!)

guide liim in the completion and forming of any other kind.

The serpents used for these devices should not he too strong in the report or bounce; as it would in that case tear the figure to pieces. In- deed, it would be much the best, were there no report to them.

There are many other devices for fireworks which must, however, be left entirely to fancy. It is, indeed, impossible to conceive the variety of fireworks, and the many pleasing ways of exhibit- ing them, which an ingenious person may display.

To make Pulvus Fulminans, or Thunder, in a Room.

This composition is simple, yet, has a very curious effect. It is made with three parts of saltpetre, two of salt of tartar, and one of sulphur, all ground to a fine powder, and well mixed. As the effect of this powder is quite different from that of gunpowder, so is there a different method of firing it, which is thus :—Put about two spoonfuls of it into a fire shovel or iron ladle, and when it is quite hot, it will go oft' with a violent report. There is something surprising in the nature of this composition; for, as the common powder acts every where equally, and makes greatest noise when confined, this, on the contrary, acts only downwards, and makes the strongest report when unconfined.

Waterloo Crackers. Take a slip of cartridge-paper, about three

quarters of an inch wide. Paste and double it. L

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When it is quite dry, cut into two equal lengths, as A and B in the pattern.

A

When you have proceeded thus far, glue or gum the paper slips in the part marked G in the pattern, and on it strew a little powdered glass, or coarse (No. 1.) emery; then put about a grain of the silver on the part marked S, and while the glass composition is moist, put the paper marked A over the farthest row of glass. Over all, paste twice over the part that covers the silver, a piece of paper; let it dry, and when you wish to explode it, take hold of the two ends, and pull them sharply from each other, and it will produce a loud report.

Fulminating Balls.

Procure some glass globes, between the size of a pea and a small marble, in which there must be a small hole : put into each half a grain of fulminating silver. Paste a piece of paper carefully over the ball, to prevent the silver from escaping. When you wish to explode one, put it on the ground, and tread hard upon it, and it will go off with a loud noise. These balls may be productive of much amusement in company. They may be procured at the barometer maker’s.

Drawers.

To perform this trick, inclose half a grain of silver in a small piece of emery, or glass paper,

ARTS AND SCIENCES. Ill

and put it at the side or the bottom of the drawer, so that in either opening or shutting of the drawer, it must be rubbed against it, and it will explode with a loud report, to the no small discomfiture of the person at the drawer.

Chairs. A very small quantity of the silver being en-

closed as for the drawers, and laid under one of the legs of a chair, on any one sitting down, it will explode.

Boots and Shoes. A little silver placed on the heel of a boot or

shoe, and confined by pasting a bit of paper over all, will explode on the heel being pressed to the ground.

The Girdle of Safety. Take a piece of girt of about twelve or eighteen

inches in length ; then double it, and fold it down about one inch and a-half, similar to the fold of a letter, and then turn back one end of the girt, and it will form two compartments. Take some gum and dissolve it in water; boil it till it is quite melted, and very thick: add coarse powdered glass, sufficient to make it into a very thick paste ; place two upright rows of the glass composition in the inside of one of the folds, about as wide as the thickness of a lath, and as high as a half-crown laid flat; and when they are dry, sew the first fold together on the edge, and then the second on the opposite end, so that one end may be open. Then in the centre of the two rows, put about a grain of fulminating silver, and

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paste a piece of cotton or silk over it. Make a hole at each end of the girdle, and hang it to a hook in the door-post, and the other hook on the door, observing to place the silk part so that it may come against the edge of the door when opened, which will cause a report as loud as a small cannon.

Tape or Garters. This should be made of binding, about three

quarters of an inch in width, and in preparing it observe the same directions as are given for the girdle. You may either explode it yourself, by holding one end in each hand, and pulling them from each other sharply, or give one end to another, and pull together.

Pins. A small quantity of the silver folded in a bit

of paper, and that paper pasted by another piece round a pin, will explode by being stuck in the wick of a candle.

Snuffers. A very small quantity of the silver, if wrapped

in a bit of paper, and enclosed in an empty cold pair of snuffers, on their receiving the hot snuff of the candle, will explode.

Tobacco Pipes. When any one is going to smoke, if you can

previously convey a little silver among the tobacco, you may cause some sport. When the fire reaches it, it will rebound, and most likely force the pipe out of the hand of the smoker.


Segars are prepared by opening tlie smoking end, inserting a little of the silver, and then closing it up carefully.

Spiders.

A piece of cork cut into the shape of the body of a spider, and a bit of thin wire for the legs, will represent, with tolerable exactness, this in- sect. Put a small quantity of silver underneath it; and on any female observing it, she will naturally tread on it, to crush it, when it will make a loud report.

Beetles, cock-chafers, crickets, and any other insects may be imitated this way; and if well managed, will yield much amusement.

Many more tricks than are here enumerated, may be performed with this silver; but the speci- mens here given will be sufficient to shew what may be done. One simple trick, however, we shall add, and with that conclude. If a small quantity of the silver be inclosed in a bit of paper together with a pea, it will cause a pretty loud report on being thrown on the ground. Indeed, it will answer all the purpose of the balls, when the glass globes cannot be easily obtained.

To produce an Explosion imitating Gunpowder.

Take a phial, which hold reverse for the space of a minute over a bottle of dissolution of iron. Take away the phial, and afterwards put a lighted candle to its mouth, and you will see the effects.

(This explosion is not dangerous.) l 2

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An Artificial Earthquake. Mix four pounds of sulphur, and four pounds

of steel dust, and after making it into a paste with water, bury it a little depth in the ground. In ten or twelve hours after, if the weather be warm, the earth will swell up and burst, and flames will issue out, which will enlarge the aper- ture, scattering around a yellow and a blackish dust. It is not impossible, that what is seen here in miniature, takes place on a grand scale in vol- canoes, as they furnish abundance of sulphur, and the matter abounds in metallic particles ; for iron is the only metal which will produce an effervescence with sulphur, when they are mixed together.

BREWING, AND MANAGEMENT OF MALT LIQUORS.

Niceties in Malting, the observation of which will increase the Profits of the Maltster nearly ten per cent.

In malting barley, the water should be changed oftenest in spring and autumn, when the weather is warm. If barley be left to steep too long at these seasons in the same water, the water will grow slimy, and sometimes sour. The maltster should therefore watch the change of the water, and when he finds it smooth or oily to the touch, or inclining to smell or taste sour, it must be changed immediately.

The common method of changing it, is first


to draw off that in which the barley was steeping, and then by pails or pumping, fill the cistern again ; but this is a had way, for when the water is drawn off, the barley lies closer, and is apt to heat, which causes great damage. It is therefore recommended to get a hogshead of water in readiness near the cistern, which should be thrown on the barley the instant the first water is drawn off; and as a hogshead of water is sufficient to wet eight bushels of barley, as many hogsheads save one, should be afterwards added, as the cistern will require.

River water is the best, and hard spring water is the worst. In general, the water that soonest lathers should be preferred.

A thin-skinned, fine-coated barley is the best for making malt. It need not be very full-bodied, but should be quite ripe.

Barley that has grown on land highly manured, is not so good as that produced on a land moderately rich without manure: and if the soil is very luxuriant either by nature or art, the barley will not be fit for the maltster.

It is a good practice to give malt as much drying as possible on the floor: it does not shrink so much as on the kiln, and acquires no foreign taste. When it comes to the kiln, the fire in the furnace should be moderate, but equal.

Brown malt used in the same proportion as pale, will not make the strongest beer ; but the pale malts that are slack dried make a raw un- wholesome liquor that will not keep.

Maltsters should never buy barley grown on various soils, or even different fields, because the

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kerns will spire at different times. They should therefore never buy tithe barley. A maltster having bought one hundred quarters of tithe barley, without knowing it, soon discovered it in the malting, and sold it to a hog-feeder for eightpence a quarter less than he gave, as the least loss he should incur by his bargain. This happened in England.

To discover whether malt has been made of mixed or unripe barley, throw a couple of handfuls of it into a bowl of water; stir it gently, and the grains, that have not been malted, will sink, the half-malted grains wdll have one end sunk, and so swim in a perpendicular position, and those that are perfectly malted will sw'im. The best barley will not malt equally well at times. As soon as housed, before it is in sweet, and after the sweating is over, it wdll malt well; but not while it is in sweat.

Barley that has been got in early, in a very dry season, malts but indifferently ; but if the same barley be left abroad till rain falls on it, to loosen the husks from the kernel, it will malt well, and yield a large increase.

Home-Brewed Beer.

As cleanliness is essential to the management of beer, it is proper to observe, that the copper should be used the day before the brewing begins, to boil water for washing the barrels, &c., and the copper should be made thoroughly clean. When the barrels are brought out of the cellar, the bungs should be taken out, the grounds pour-


ed out, and the barrels washed with cold water; then dried, and scalded with a good quantity of boiling water, which should be left to stand in the casks for an hour; then wash them well, and set them to dry. It is best to have the heads of the barrels taken out, to wash them ; but when that cannot be done, care must be taken to have them as clean and as dry as possible.

Twelve bushels of malt is generally thought the proper quantity to make three barrels of ale, and half the quantity of table beer. If the copper is not large enough to boil a sufficient quantity of water to make the ale, it must l>e mashed twice ; put half the malt into a mash tub, and when the water boils, pour half of it upon the malt, or as much as will wet it all: then put in the remainder of the malt (except about half a bushel, which must be kept dry to throw over the top,) and add more water : stir it about well, so as to mix the malt and water thoroughly: then pour over it the dry malt, which was saved for the purpose : cover the tub with the sacks, to keep in the heat and steam. Let it stand three hours ; then draw off a gallon, and put it upon the malt again, as the first that is drawn is never clear ; then let it run very slowly, till it is all drawn off. Have ready more boiling water, and mash again as before : let it stand two hours; then draw it off, and mix it with the other, which together, should be a sufficient quantity for the ale. Then mash again with boiling water, and let it stand an hour; then draw it off, and throw a few gallons of cold water upon it with a bowl,

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so as to spread all over the top ; but do not stir it at all, nor stop it at the bottom, but let it keep gently running off. This will work out all the remaining sweetness from the grains much better than boiling water. Put the hops into a large tub, and the wort for the ale to it, till you are ready to put it into the copper : then put the hops and wort in, and when it begins to boil, let it continue to do so an hour or more; then strain it through a coarse sieve, and cool it as soon as you can. When you have cooled a small quantity, put a small quantity of yeast into a bowl, and mix a little of the liquor with it, which should be about blood-warm : then set it in the liquor that has been cooled, till it works over the top of the bowl; then mix it altogether, and turn the bowl bottom upwards: cover the tub with the cask, add more liquor to cool it, reserving three or four gallons to warm, and put to it next day, in order to improve the fermentation : when it has fermented two days, put it into the barrel with a tin, for the purpose of drawing out the yeast at the top cork-hole ; put the bung in slightly, but do not stop it down close till it has done ferment- ing, which will be in two or three days. Then take out the tin, cork it close, beat and bung down close, paste brown paper over it, and lay sand upon it: let it stand at least six months before it is tapped; but it is better if it stand twelve months. The quantity of hops, is nine pounds to twelve bushels of malt. March and October are the best months for brewing. This process and quantity will make you strong Eng- lish beer.


Porter.

Porter may be made with eight bushels of malt to the hogshead, and eight pounds of hops; put into a copper with it, while boiling, three pounds of bruised liquorice-root cut short, a pound of Spanish liquorice, and twelve pounds of coarse brown sugar, or the same quantity of treacle.

Method of Extracting the Virtue of Hops in Breiving.

The usual method is to put in hops without any preparation, into the strong-beer or ale-wort. The consequence is, the richer and better the wort is, the less it will partake of the essence of the hops. The rich fat wort sheathes up the pores of the hop, and, as it were, embalms the leaves, so that the beer or ale-wort can extract scarcely any part of the necessary quality of the hop; but when it is put into the small-beer wort, a fluid of a more thin nature, there the pores are unsheathed, and the small-beer is rendered too bitter; therefore, the hops, before they are put into the strong drink, should be previously soaked in a pail of hot water.

To confirm the truth of this observation, take a quarter of an ounce of the best green tea, and instead of pouring on it simple boiling water, let the water have the same quantity of sugar boiled in it, that would be necessary to sweeten so much tea when made, and you will find that the

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sweetness of tlie water will prevent its extracting the grateful bitter of the tea.

Cheap and easy method of Brewing. One bushel of malt, and three quarters of a

pound of hops, will, on an average, brew twenty gallons of good beer.

For this quantity of malt, boil twenty-four gallons of water; and having dashed it in the copper with cold water to stop the boiling, steep the malt, properly covered up, for three hours ; then tie up the hops in a hair-cloth, and boil malt, hops, and wort, all together, for three quarters of an hour, which will reduce it to about twenty gallons. Strain it off, and set it to work when luke-warrn.

In large brewings, this process, perhaps, would not answer ; but, in small ones, where the waste is not so great, and where the malt can be boiled, the essence is sure to be extracted.

To make excellent and wholesome Table-Beer. To eight quarts of boiling water, put a pound

of treacle, a quarter of an ounce of ginger, and two bay leaves ; let this boil for a quarter of an hour, then cool, and work it with yeast, the same as other beer.

Uses of Ground Ivy in Ale, fyc. The leaves thrown into the vat with ale, clarify

it, and give it an anti-scorbutic quality. The expressed juice mixed with a little wine, and applied morning and evening, destroys the white specks on horses’ eyes.


To make Ginger Beer.

To every Gallon of spring water, add one ounce of sliced white ginger, one pound of common loaf sugar, and two ounces of lemon juice, or three large table spoonfuls ; boil it near an hour, take off the scum ; then run it through a hair sieve into a tub, and when cool (viz. 70°), add yeast in the proportion of half a pint to nine gallons ; keep it in a temperate situation two days, during which it may be stirred six or eight times ; then put it into a cask, which must be kept full, and the yeast taken off at the bung-hole with a spoon. In a fortnight add half a pint of fining (isinglass picked and steeped in beer) to nine gallons, which will, if it has been properly fermented, clear it by ascent. The cask must be kept full, and the rising particles taken off at the bung-hole. When fine (which may be ex- pected in twenty-four hours) bottle it, cork it well, and in summer it will be ripe, and fit to drink in a fortnight.

To make Good Spruce Beer. This cheap and wholesome liquor is thus

made :—Take of water sixteen gallons, and boil the half of it; put the water thus boiled, while in full heat, to the reserved cold part, which should be previously put into a barrel or other vessel ; then add sixteen pounds of treacle or molasses, with a few table spoonfuls of the essence of spruce, stirring the whole well together; add half a pint of yeast, and keep it in a temperate situation, with the bung-hole open, for

M

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two days, till the fermentation be abated ; then close it up, or bottle it off, and it will be fit to drink in a few days afterwards. In North Ame- rica, and perhaps in other countries, where the black and white spruce firs abound, instead of adding the essence of the spruce at the same time with the molasses, they make a decoction of the leaves and small branches of these trees, and find the liquor equally good.

It is a powerful anti-scorbutic, and may prove very useful in a long sea voyage.

To make Yeast or Barm. Mix two quarts of soft water with wheat flour,

to the consistence of thick gruel or paste : boil it gently for half an hour, and when almost cold, stir into it half a pound of sugar, and four spoonfuls of good yeast. Put it into a large jug, or earthen vessel, with a narrow top, and place it before the fire, so that it may, by a moderate heat, ferment. The fermentation will throw up a thin liquor, which pour off and throw away ; the remainder keep for use in a cool place in a bottle, or jug tied over. The same quantity of common yeast will suffice to bake or brew with. Four spoonfuls of this will make a fresh quantity as before.

Substitute for Barm or Yeast. [This receipt wns presented to the October meeting of the

Manchester Agricultural Society, held at Allringham, f809, by Charles Lownds, J?st/., when it wns ordered, that a copy should be printed for each member.]

Boil two ounces of hops in four quarts of water twenty minutes; strain it, and whilst hot, stir

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 13S

in half a pound of flour; when milk warm, mix half a pint of good ale yeast, or a pint of this mixture, which you should always reserve to keep as a supply. When nearly cold, bottle and cork it well, and keep it for use in a cool place. If too warm it would be apt to fly : you will judge of this by the season of the year. Observe to fill the bottles only two-thirds full.

When used, put it into the flour you intend for bread, in the proportion of a pint to twenty- four pounds, with water to make it of a proper warmth; mix a little of the flour with it in the middle of the bowl or kneading vessel: it must be covered close, and set it in a tolerably warm place all night. Knead it well in the morning, and let it stand some time longer to rise. It should be eighteen or twenty hours from the first putting together, before your bread is set in the oven.

To make Yeast in the Turkish Manner.

Take a small tea-cup full of split or bruised peas, and pour on it a pint of boiling water, and set it in a vessel p.ll night on the hearth, or any warm place. The next morning the water will have a froth on it, and be good yeast, and will make as much bread as two quartern loaves.

To extract the Essence of Malt for Brewing.

After brewing, when the grains are done with, strew a small quantity of unslaked lime over the same, with two or three roots of horse raddish. This will draw out all the remaining goodness

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from the malt, and make a less quantity go farther than is generally supposed.

To prevent Beer from growing flat.

In a cask, containing eighteen gallons of beer, becoming vapid, put a pint of ground malt sus- pended in a bag, and close the bung perfectly; the beer will be improved during the whole time of drawing it for use.

To Season New Casks.

Boil two pecks of malt dust in a copper, with a sufficient quantity of water to fill a thirty gallon cask; put it boiling hot into the cask, stop it close and let it stand two nights; then wash the barrel, and when dry it is fit for use.

Table Beer.

If you wish to brew table beer only, five or six bushels of malt will be sufficient to make one hogshead. If brewed in October, it will be fit to drink in April or May, and is excellent for summer beer.

To Bottle Ale.

Put into each bottle six or eight raisins, a lea-spoonful of moist sugar or a little whole rice ; either of these will improve it very much.

DISTILLING,

On the most modern principles.

Distillation, scientifically considered, may be regarded as a process of evaporation or vola-


tilization, performed in vessels adapted to condense and collect the substance volatilized. In this way of considering the matter, it would divide itself into three classes, according as the substance obtained is solid, fluid, or gaseous. Our business is with the fluid class; but we may, previously to entering upon it, observe that distillation, where the principal preduct is solid, and is commonly known by the name of sublima- tion, this benzoin acid, or as it is called in the shops, flowers of benzoin, is a product distilled from the benzoin in the impure state. The distillation of gases is confined almost entirely to the experimental chemist and philosopher.

The apparatus for the distillation of liquids must consist of at least two parts ; viz. the boiler, or vessel in which the materials are heated, and the vessel communicating with it, in which the steam or vapour is condensed into a liquid. Distillation of liquids on a large scale is usually carried on in the still refrigeratory. The still for manufacturers, consists of a boiler fixed in masonry, with a fire-place beneath it; of a head or capital as it is called, which is a hollow globe fitting upon the boiler, and with its upper part drawn out into a curved pipe of decreasing diameter, which describes a complete arch, and terminates at the upper part of the serpentine or worm in which it fits. The latter is a long pipe with a regularly decreasing diameter, which is arranged in a spiral form, in the middle of a large tub of cold water, by means of which the vapour is condensed, and trickles down in a

m 2

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small regular stream from the lower end of the worm, where it emerges from the side of the tub.

The boiler of the still is generally made of tinned copper, as well as the lower part of the capital; but the arched termination of the latter, as well as of the whole worm, is of pewter. The joining between the boiler and the capital, requires to be luted with slips of blooded and well made paste. The line of the tube from the arch of the capital to the bottom of the worm, should be an uniformly descending spiral, to prevent any lodgment of the distilled liquor, and some nicety is required in large stills to give the worm an exact degree of slope. The management of the fire is of great importance in all distillations, to avoid, on the one hand boiling over or burning the ingredients by too great a heat, and on the other, to keep up the fire sufficiently strong to afford an even, regular evaporation into the condensing part of the apparatus. When too much heat is used, there is danger of the capital being blown off by the great expansive force of the vapour, which is too suddenly generated and cannot be condensed with sufficient rapidity, or else the liquor in the boiler rises up into the capital, and flows over into the serpentine. The latter accident, as it may be called, is perceived by the liquor coming out at the bottom of the serpentine, not in a clear uniform stream, but by gushes and starts, with a gurgling noise, and coloured or fouled. When the stream of distilled water flows evenly, and the boiling liquor is heard to simmer mo-

arts and sciences. 157

derately within the still, the process will be known to go on properly.

The great object of the distiller ought to be to procure a spirit perfectly flavourless, which, it is admitted, is not an easy task. The materials for distillation that have, in this country, been used in large quantities, are malt, molasses or treacle, and sugar. All these, but sugar the least, abound with an oily matter, which, rising with the spirit, communicates a disagreeable flavour, from which it is with the utmost difficulty freed. Previously to the operation of distillation, those of brewing and fermentation are necessary, for which we refer to the article Brew- ing. Methods have been suggested, and we believe carried into practice, for reducing the brewing and fermentation to one operation, which are said to improve the spirit in quality, and greatly augment it in quantity. On this princi- ple the following receipt has been given for fer- menting malt for distillation, in order to get its spirit. Take ten pounds of malt reduced to fine meal, and three pounds of common wheat meal ; add to these two gallons of water, and stir them well together; then add five gallons of water boiling hot, and stir the whole well together. Let the whole stand two hours, and then stir it again, and when grown cold, add to it two ounces of solid yeast, and set it by closely covered, in a rather warm place to ferment. This is said to be the Dutch method of preparing what is techni- cally called the wash for malt spirit, which com- modiously reduces the two processes of brewing and fermentation to a single operation. In Lon-

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don, and its neighbourhood, the method is to draw and mash for spirits as they do for beer, except that, instead of boiling the wort, they pump it into coolers, and afterwards draw it into backs, to be then fermented with yeast. Thus, in the opinion of some persons conversant with the subject, they bestow twice as much labour as necessary, and lose a large quantity of their spirit, by leaving the gross bottoms out of the still for fear of burning.

All simple spirits may be considered in their different states of low wines, proof spirit, and alcohol. The first contain only one-sixth of spirit to five-sixths of water. Proof spirits contain one half of totally inflammable spirit; and alcohol, if very pure, consists wholly of spirit, without any admixture or adulteration.

Malt low wines, which is the first state after distillation from the ivash prepared in the usual way, are exceedingly naseous, owing to the gross oil of the malt that abounds in it. When these are distilled gently, and by a slow fire, into proof spirits, they leave a considerable quantity of this foetid oil behind in the still with the phlegm ; the liquor loses its milky colour, and is perfectly clear and bright. When proof spirit from malt is distilled over again to be brought into the state of alcohol, the utmost attention must be paid to the fire, or some of the oil will be forced over, and injure the whole process. The use of the balneum mariae, instead of the common still, though a much more tedious process, would effectually prevent this mischief,

ARTS AND SCIENCES. lo9

and give a purer spirit in one rectification than can be procured in many, according to the common methods.

Malt spirits, and indeed spirits from other substances, must be brought into the state of alcohol, before it is adapted to internal uses, after which it is said to be more fit for all the various internal uses than even French brandy, it being, by this purification, a more uniform, hungry, tasteless spirit, than any other spirits which are frequently esteemed much better. A quarter of malt, according to its goodness, and the season of the year, will afford from eight to fourteen gallons of alcohol. The Dutch never give it any further rectification than this, they distil the wash into low wines, and then at once into full proof spirit, from which they manufacture their celebrated Holland’s geneva, which they export to foreign countries. Malt spirit, in its unrectified state, is usually found to have a common bubble proof, which makes it a marketable commodity, and which is obtained by mixing with it a certain portion of the gross oil of the malt. This indeed gives the rectifier much trouble, if he require a very fine and pure spirit; but, in general, he does not concern himself about this, but mixes it still stronger by alkaline salts, and disguises its taste by the addition of flavouring ingredients. The spirit loses in these processes the vinous character which it had when it came out of the hands of the malt-distiller, and is, in all respects, inferior, except in the disguise of a mixed flavour. The alkaline salts used by the rectifier destroying

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the natural vinosity of the spirit, it is necessary to add an extraneous acid to give it a new one; and this is frequently what is denominated in the shops “ spiritus nitri dulcis” and the common method of applying it, is the mixing it to taste with rectified spirit. It is said to be this that gives the English malt spirit a flavour something like brandy, which flavour is, however, very apt to fly off; and, accordingly, experienced manufacturers recommend the addition of a proper quantity of Glauber’s strong spirits of nitre to the spirit in the still. I3y this means, the liquor comes over-impregnated with it; the acid is more intimately mixed, and the flavour is retained. The action of the alkali is thus ex- plained : there is a greater attraction or aflinity between the alkaline salt and the water, than between the water and the spirit; of course, the salt combines with the water contained in the spirit, and sinks with it to the bottom.

One great object with distillers in this country, is a method of imitating the foreign spirits, particularly brandy and Holland’s gin : it may not, therefore, be amiss to describe the modes adopted in France for the distillation of spirits from their wines. As brandy is extracted from wines, and as these are very different according to the grapes from which they are made, we may expect that there would be, as experience tells us there really is, a considerable difference in the flavour of foreign brandies. Every soil and climate,—every variety of grapes,—varies with regard to the quantity and quality of the spirits extracted from them. Some wines are

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 1GI

proper for distillation ; others, not at all so. The wines manufactured in Languedoc and Provence afford a great deal of brandy by distillation ; those of Orleans and Blois afford still larger quantities ; but the best, and what are deemed the highest- flavoured brandies, are those distilled from grapes that are produced in the territories of Cogniac and Andaye. Hence, in every public-house, people are enticed by a notice, that the best Cogniac brandy is to be had there ; whereas, they probably deal in none that is not manufactured in their own neighbourhood.

Every thing that relates to the distillation of wines, may be confined or reduced to two principles. 1. To communicate an equal beat to all the parts of the mass of the liquid, and to apply to them all the heat which is disengaged by com- bustion. 2. To condense expeditiously and entirely all the vapours which arise.

The construction of the furnace produces the first effect.

The disposition of the grate throws the fire- place under the anterior half of the diameter of the boiler, so that this part receives the direct action of the heat of the fire-place; and as the current of air always tends to carry the flame and the heat towards the chimney, it strikes in its passage against the other part of the bottom of the boiler.

This same current then rushes into the spiral flue, and applies itself to the whole lateral surface of the boiler, where it spends its heat; so that the liquor is enveloped with all the heat that is disengaged from the combustible.

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The form of the boiler greatly facilitates the action of the fire. Exclusive of the advantages which have already been mentioned, the concavity of its bottom contributes to augment the effect of the heat, by applying it to a larger surface.

To produce the second effect, or to condense expeditiously the vapours which pass into the worm, nothing more is necessary than to keep cold water around it. For this purpose, fresh supplies of water are made to enter at the bottom of the worm, and the heated water is drawn off from the top.

When it is possible to have a constant current, the water always keeps at a cool temperature, and the spirit exhales scarcely any smell, because it is highly condensed.

The new apparatus for distilling, is Woulf’s apparatus. It consists of a caldron fixed in the furnace, and a series of circular boilers which communicate with each other by means of pipes. The apparatus is terminated by a worm.

The improvements successively made in the process of distillation have produced spirits in- finitely more mild than those obtained by the old processes. The latter had an empyreumatic or burnt taste: but, the consumers, especially in the North of France, were so accustomed to it, that for some time they refused to drink the milder and more pleasant-tasted spirits; so that the distillers were obliged to render them empyreumatic by the admixture of burnt spirits, in order to suit their taste. Wines furnish more or less spirits, according to their degree of spirituosity: a very generous wine yields one-third of its weight of

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 1C3

spirit. In Languedoc the average produce is one- founli, the wines of Bourdeaux yield one-fifth, and those of Burgundy not so much.

In distilling for the purpose of extracting spirits, you continue the operation till no more spirit of wine passes over, or till the produce ceases to be inflammable. The distiller forms a judgment of the degree of spirituosity of the liquor which is distilling, by the number and size of the bubbles produced by agitating the liquor, and by the longer or shorter time of their duration. For this purpose he either pours it from one glass to another, letting it fall from a considerable height; or he fills a long bottle two-thirds full, and stopping it with his thumb, he shakes and strikes it with force against the hollow of his hand, to form bubbles.

It is chiefly in consequence of the ascent of bodies of greater laxity with certain bodies of greater volatility, that there is so much difficulty here of imitating the foreign vinous spirits of other countries, as, for example, French brandies, and West India rums. All these are remarkable by the character of the essential oil that ascends with the spirit, and which gives it the peculiar flavour by which one spirit differs from another. Now we can obtain an essential oil from any of the vegetables that furnish these different spirits, but we cannot, as we have seen already, obtain a spirit altogether tasteless, and destitute of some sort of essential oil still combining with it. Could we do this, we could manufacture to perfection an aitifi- cial Cogniac brandy, or Jamaica rum ; but, as we cannot wholly separate the inherent essential oil

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from the purest and most colourless and most in- sipid spirit we can obtain, when we add the essential oil with which we mean to flavour it, the union of the two oils give us a different result, and betrays the artifice to those who are acquainted with the taste of the genuine material.

In order, then, to prepare the oil of wine, or of the grapes from which French brandies.are distilled, which are generally the worst that the country affords, (the best being selected for the process of wine itself, as yielding a far ampler profit,) take some cakes of dry wine-lees : dissolve them in six or eight times their weight of water ; distil the liquor with a slow fire, and separate the oil, reserving, for only the nicest uses, that which comes over first, the succeeding oil being coarser and more resinous. Having procured this fine oil of wine, it may be dissolved in alcohol; by which means it may be preserved a long time, fully pos- sessed of all its flavour, but otherwise it will soon grow rancid.

With a fine essential oil of wine, thus procured, and a pure tasteless spirit, French brandies may be imitated to some degree of perfection. But with regard to the colour, a particular method is required to imitate it to perfection, which may be effected by means of treacle, or burnt sugar.

The spirit distilled from molasses or treacle is tolerably pure. It is made from common treacle, dissolved in water, and fermented in the same manner as the wash for the common malt spirit. But if some particular art be not used in distilling this spirit, it will not prove so vinous as malt spirit, but less pungent and acrid, though otherwise much


cleaner tasted, as its essential oil is of a less offensive flavour. Therefore, if good fresh wine-lees, abounding in tartar, be well fermented with molasses, the spirit will acquire a greater vinosity and briskness, and approach nearer to the nature of foreign spirits. Where the molasses spirit is brought to the common proof-strength, if it be found not to have a sufficient vinosity, it will be very proper to add some dulcified spirit of nitre ; and if the spirit be clean worked, it may, by this addition only, be made to pass for French brandy. Great quantities of this spirit are used in adul- terating foreign brandy, rum, and arrack. Much of it is also used in making cherry brandy, and other cordials, by infusion ; but, in them all, many persons prefer it to foreign brandies. Molasses, like all other spirits, is entirely colourless when first extracted; but rectifiers always give it, as nearly as possible, the colour of foreign spirits.

In a similar manner, we may imitate foreign spirits of all kinds. Thus, if Jamaica rum be our object, instead of French brandy, it will only be necessary to procure some of the tops of the sugar canes, from which an essential oil being drawn and mixed with clear molasses spirit, will give it the real flavour; or, at least, a flavour as true as a spirit not totally divested of all essential flavour of its own can possibly communicate. The principal difficulty therefore must still lie in procuring a spirit totally or nearly free from all flavour of its own.

To rectify their spirit into Holland’s gin, the Dutch distillers add to every twenty gallons of spirit of the second extraction, about the strength

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of proof spirit, three pouixis of juniper berries, and two ounces of oil of juniper, and distil with a slow fire, till the faints begin to ascend; then change the receiving can. This produces the best Rotterdam gin. An inferior kind is made with a less proportion of berries, sweet fennel seeds, and Strasburg turpentine, with a small drop of juniper oil. This last is esteemed wholesome, and though still inferior to that of Rotterdam, is produced in very large quantities at Welsoppe.

The following Method is practised in Ireland, for bringing round Spirits in a short period, by the illicit Distillers ; known by the name of Innis- howen; or, Potteen Whisky,

Steep oats or barley twenty-four hours in water: spread it on a dry earthen floor, and turn it for the first three days twice a-day, till it begins to grow, after which turn it much oftener, to check the growth : after lying about a week, get it kiln- dried, and ground. Take, for instance, five barrels of malt, and sift about two and a quarter barrels of the fine part from the rest: put the coarse part into a kieve, (as directed in Brewing); when it cools, barm it; let it work in the barm for twenty- four hours, then add the back or fine part, which you had before sifted, and let it remain in back about thirty hours: then single it off through the still, and worm, placed as directed before ; when all is run off, it is called singlings. Put it all back again into the still, lute the head on as before, and double it, when you will have excellent spirits ; carefully observing to keep the still regularly supplied with fuel, but not so as to make it


bubble or gurgle in the worm. If such stills could be made with a copper bottom, and tinned inside, it would tend to improve the flavour of the spirit, and could be run oft' much quicker.

Each barrel of malt, properly handled, will produce six gallons of good spirits.

HOME MADE WINES.

Remarks on English Wine.

English wines would be found particularly useful, as foreign are so high priced ; and though sugar may be very dear, they are made at much less expense. If carefully made, and kept three or four years, a proportionable strength being given, they would answer the purpose of foreign wines for health, and cause a very considerable reduction in the expenditure.

A rich and pleasant Wine.

Take new cider from the press : mix it with as much honey as will support an egg; boil gently fifteen minutes, but not in an iron, brass, or copper vessel. Skim it well; when cold let it be tunned, but do not quite fill. In March following, bottle it, and it will be fit to drink in six weeks; but will be less sweet if kept longer in the cask. You will have a rich and strong wine, and it will keep well. This will serve for any culinary purpose which milk or sweet wine is directed for.

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Another Way.

Put five quarts of currants, and a pint of raspberries to every two gallons of water: let them soak a night. Then squeese and break them well. Next day rub them well on a line wire sieve, till all the juice is obtained, washing the skins again with some of the water: then to every gallon put four pounds of good Lisbon sugar, but not white, which is often adulterated: tun it immediately, and lay the bung lightly on. Do not use any thing to work it. In two or three days, put a bottle of brandy to every four gallons : bung it close, but leave the peg out at top a few days ; keep it two years, and it will be a very fine agreeable wine: three years would make it still better.

Black Currant Wine.

To every three quarts of juice, put the same of water unboiled, and to every three quarts of liquor, add three pounds of very moist sugar. Put it into a cask, reserving a little of it for filling up. Put the cask in a warm dry room, and the liquor will ferment of itself. Skim off the refuse, when the fermentation shall be over, and fill up with the reserved liquor. When it has ceased working, pour three quarts of brandy to forty quarts of wine. Bung it close for nine months ; then bottle and strain the thick part through a jelly bag, until it be clear, and bottle that. Keep it ten or twelve months.

Excellent Ginger Wine.

Put into a very nice boiler, ten gallons of water, sixteen pounds of lump sugar, with the whites of

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 1G!)

six or eight eggs well beaten and strained : mix all well while cold. When the liquor boils, skim it well : put in half a pound of common white ginger bruised: boil it twenty minutes. Have ready the very thin rinds of seven lemons, and pour the liquor on them : when cold, tun it with two spoonfuls of yeast: put a quart of the liquor to two ounces of isinglass shavings : while warm, whisk it well three or four times, and pour all together into the barrel. Next day, stop it up ; in three weeks bottle, and in three months it will be a delicious and refreshing liquor, and though very cool, perfectly safe.

Raspberry Wine.

To every quart of well picked raspberries, put a quart of water; bruise and let them stand two days ; strain off the liquor, and to every gallon put three pounds of lump sugar : when dissolved put the liquor into a barrel, and when fine, which will be in about two months, bottle it; and to each bottle put a spoonful of brandy or a glass of wine.

To every three pints of fruit, carefully cleared from mouldy or bad, put one quart of water: bruise the former. In twenty-four hours, strain the liquor, and put to every quart a pound of sugar, of good middle quality of Lisbon. If for white currants, use lump sugar. It is best to put the fruit, &c. in a large pan, and when, in three or four days, the scum rises, take that off, before the liquor is put into the barrel.

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Excellent Cowslip Wine. To every gallon of water, weigh three pounds

of lump sugar; boil the quantity half an hour, taking off the scum as it rises; when cool enough, put to it a crust of toasted bread dipped in thick yeast; let the liquor ferment in the tub thirty-six hours : then into the cask put, for every gallon, the peel of two lemons, and the rind of one Seville orange, and one gallon of cowslip-pipes: then pour on them the liquor. It must be carefully stirred every day for a week : then to every five gallons, put in a bottle of brandy. Let the cask be close stopped, and stand only six weeks before you bottle off. Observe to use the best corks.

Alder Wine. To every quart of berries, put two quarts of

water; boil half an hour; run the liquor, and break the fruit through a hair sieve: then to every quart of juice, put three quarters of a pound of Lisbon sugar, coarse, but not the very coarsest. Boil the whole a quarter of an hour with some Jamaica pepper, ginger, and a few cloves. Pour it into a tub, and when of a proper warmth, into the barrel, with toast and yeast to work, which there is more difficulty to make it do than most other liquors. When it ceases to hiss, put a quart of brandy to eight gallons, and stop up. Bottle in the spring or at Christmas. The liquor must be in a warm place to make it work.

White Alder Wine, very much like Frontiniac. Boil eighteen pounds of white powder sugar

with six gallons of water, and two whites of eggs


well beaten ; then akim it, and put in a quarter of a peck of alder flowers from the tree that hears white berries: do not keep them on the fire. When near cold, stir it and put in six spoonfuls of lemon juice, four or five of yeast, and heat well into the liquor; stir it every day ; put six pounds of the best raisins, stoned, into the cask, and tun the wine. Stop it close, and bottle in six months.

When well kept, this wine will pass for Fron- tiniac.

Excellent Raisin Wine. To every gallon of spring water, put eight

pounds of fresh Smyrna raisins in a large tub: stir it thoroughly every day for a month ; then press the raisins in a horse-hair hag, as dry as possible; put the liquor into a cask, and when it has done hissing, pour in a bottle of the best brandy: stop it close for twelve months ; then rack it off, but without the dregs; filter them through a bag of flannel, of three or four folds ; add the clear to the quantity, and pour one or two quarts of brandy, according to the size of the vessel. Stop it up, and at the end of three years, you may either bottle it, or bring it from the cask.

Raisin wine would be extremely good, if made rich of the fruit, and kept long, which improves the flavour greatly.

Sack Mead.

To every gallon of water, pour four pounds of honey, and boil it three quarters of an hour, taking care to skim it. To every gallon add an ounce of hops; then boil it half an hour, and let it stand

172 REPOSITORY OF

till next clay: put it into your cask, and to thirteen gallons of the liquor add a quart of brandy. Let it be lightly stopped till the fermentation is over, and then stop it very close. If you make a large cask, keep it a year.

Cowslip Mead.

Put thirty pounds of honey into fifteen gallons of water, and boil till one gallon is wasted: skim it, take it off the fire, and have ready a dozen and a half of lemons quartered ; pour a gallon of the liquor boiling hot upon them ; put the remainder of the liquor into a tub, with seven pecks of cowslip pipes; let them remain there all night, and then put the liquor and the lemons to eight spoonfuls of new yeast, and a handful of sweetbrier; stir all well together, and let it work for three or four days. Strain it, and put it into a cask : let it stand six months, and then bottle it for keeping.

Imperial Pop. Put two ounces of cream of tartar, and the

juice and paring of two lemons, into a stone jar; pour on them seven quarts of boiling water; stir, and cover close. When cold, sweeten with loaf sugar, and straining it, bottle and cork it tight.

This is a very pleasing liquor, and very wholesome ; but from the latter consideration, was at one time drank in such quantities as to become injurious. Add, in bottling, half a pint of rum to the whole quantity.

Ratafia. Blanch two ounces of peach and apricot kernel ;

bruise and put them in a bottle, and fill nearly up


with brandy. Dissolve half a pound of white sugar candy in a cup of cold water, and add to the brandy, after it has stood a month in the kernels, and they are strained off: then filter through paper, and bottle for use. The leaves of peach and nectarines, when the trees are cut in the spring, being distilled, are an excellent substitute for ratafia in puddings.

Raspberry Brandy.

Pick fine dry fruit; put into a stone jar, and the jar into a kettle of water, or on a hot hearth till the juice will run ; strain, and to every pint add half a pound of sugar: give one boil, and skim it; when cold, put equal quantities of juice and brandy : shake well, and bottle. Some people prefer it stronger of the brandy.

White Currant Shrub.

Strip the fruit, and prepare in a jar as for jelly: strain the juice, of which put two quarts to one gallon of rum, and two pounds of lump sugar: strain through a jelly bag.

Method of making Vinegar.

To every gallon of water put a pound of coarse Lisbon sugar; let the mixture be boiled, and skimmed so long as any scum arises. Then let it be poured into proper vessels; and, when it is cool as beer when worked, let a warm toast, rubbed over with yeast, be put to it. Let it work about twenty-four hours, and then put it into an iron- hooped cask, and fixed either near a constant fire, or where the summer sun shines the greater part

174 REPOSITORY OF

of the day. In this situation it should not he closely stopped up, hut a tile, or something similar, laid on the bung-hole, to keep out the dust or insects. At the end of about three months (sometimes less) it will be clear, and fit for use, and may be bottled off. The longer it is kept after it is bottled, the better it will be. If the vessel containing the liquor is to be exposed to the sun's heat, the best time to begin making it is in April.

TO DESTROY VERMIN.

To destroy Rats.

Sponge, if cut in small pieces, fried or dipped in honey, and given to these vermin, distends their intestines, and effectually destroys them. The addition of a little oil of rhodium will tempt them to eat.

A better method would be to feed them regularly two or three weeks in any apartment which they infest; the hole by which they enter being first fitted with a door, to which a long string may be added. Any apartment might thus be turned into a gigantic rat-trap.

Another method of destroying Rats.

Lay bird lime in their haunts ; for though they are nasty enough in other respects, yet being very curious of their fur, if it is but daubed with this stuff, it is so troublesome to them that they will even scratch their skins off their own backs to get it off, and will never abide in the place where they have suffered in this mariner.


To destroy Rats or Mice.

Mix flour of malt with some butter; and add thereto a drop or two of aniseed : make it up in halls, and bait your traps therewith. If you have thousands, by this means you may take them all.

A Mouse- Trap, by which forty or fifty Mice may be caught in a night.

Take a plain square trencher, and put into the two contrary ends a large pin, or piece of thick knitting needle ; then take two sticks, about a yard long, and lay them on your dresser, with a notch cut at the end of your sticks, placing the two pins stuck on the corner of the trencher, on the notches of the two sticks, so that one corner of your trencher may lie about an inch upon your dresser, or place that the mice come to ; then let the corner that lies opposite to this be baited with some butter and oatmeal, plastered fast on ; and when the mice run off the dresser to the butter, it will tip them into a vessel full of water, which you must place under the trencher, in which they will be drowned.

That your trencher may not tip over, with a little sealing-wax and a thread, seal the string to the dresser and trencher, and it will remain in good order for weeks or months.

New, simple, and effectual method of destroying Rats.

A few years ago, the corn-mill of Glassop was very much infested with rats. A quantity of barley, which lay on the chamber-floor, was hourly

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infested with some of them. The miller, one day going to drive them away as usual, happened to catch one of them under his hat, which he killed; and he then singed all the hair off its body, &c. until its skin, tail, and legs, became stiff by the operation. In this condition, he set it upon its feet by the side of a heap of barley, when it stood, with pricked up ears and tail, for some time: after this, no rats dared to come near it, and in a short space of time, the mill was cleared of those depredators, and has continued so ever since.

Dr Taylors cheap and efficacious method of destroying Rats.

[Communicated to the Manchester Agricultural Society.]

In or near the place frequented by these vermin, place, on a slate or tile, one or two tabk- spoonfuls of dry oat-meal. Lay it thin and press it flat, more easily to ascertain what is taken away. As the rats, if not interrupted, will come regularly there to feed, continue to supply them with fresh oat-meal for two or three days; and then, well mixing, in about six table spoonfuls of dry oat-meal, three drops only of oil of aniseeds, feed them with this two or three days more. After- wards, for one day, give them only half the quantity of this scented oat-meal, which they have before actually eaten ; and next day, place the following mixture :—To four ounces of dry oat- meal, scented with six drops of the oil of aniseeds, add half an ounce of carbonated barytes,


previously pounded very fine in a mortar, and sifted through a little fine muslin or cambric. Mix this- intimately with the scented oat-meal; and laying it on the tile or slate, allow the rats to eat it, without the smallest interruption, for twenty-four hours. A few hours after eating any of it, they will frequently be seen running about, as if drunk, or paralytic; but they generally, at last, retire to their haunts, and die. As rats are extremely sagacious, it may be proper to let them have twenty-four hours longer, after which it will be best to burn what is left, a fresh mixture being prepared at so trifling an expence when wanted. The doors of the place where this mixture is exposed to the rats, should be kept closed, as well to prevent their being disturbed, as to obviate the possibility of accidents to children or domestic animals; for, though it be not so extremely dangerous as the preparations employed for killing rats, and is even used in medicine, it proves fatal, if improperly taken, unless timely counteracted by emetics. The oil of aniseeds, though it renders the mixture disagreeable to dogs, and many other animals, is alluring, when used in small quantities, to rats. The carbonated barytes, Dr Taylor adds, may be procured in large quantities at the lead-mines belonging to Sir Frank Standish, Bart., at Agglezark, near Chorley, in Lancashire. The proper sort is tasteless, semi-transparent, and effervesces with acids ; it is moderately hard, and striated. It is called aerated barytes, terra ponderosa aerata, and sometimes by the miners, ponderous spar.

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It may he purchased at a cheap rate from any collector of minerals.

A general Poison for Rats.

Take two ounces of fine flour, two ounces of double-refined sugar, eight or ten drops of honey, one ounce of mercury ground very fine between two marble stones, six or seven drops of oil of rhodium, and eight or nine drops of oil of car- raway ; mix them all well together, but first beat your sugar to powder ; then with two spoonfuls of milk, make all into a stiff paste, and lay pieces of it about the size of a pea wherever they frequent. Observe to take up what is left in the morning.

IIoiv to draw Rats to the places where the Traps or Cages are laid.

When you use steel-traps, the following directions should be attended to, for the purpose of alluring the rats:—Every trap should be placed as secretly as possible, and straw or fern shook round it, that the rats may approach it in private. If you find any holes in barns,‘&c. that go through into orchards, fields, &c. then take a red herring, tie a string to the tail, and draw it round the building; and then to the hole where the trap or cage stands, and bait it also with a piece of herring. This will entice rats from any distance.

To prevent the Burrowing of Rats in Houses.

Rats may be effectually prevented from burrowing under the foundation of houses, by mak-


ing an offset of stone or brick, about two feet in breadth, and eighteen inches below the surface ; and, by carrying up a perpendicular oral from the edge of this offset, to within a few inches of the ground. The adoption of the same plan inside, will prevent the burrowing of these animals in cellars; for rats always burrow close to a wall; and finding their perpendicular course im- peded, they take a horizontal direction, as far as the offset continues, when they are again stopped by the outside wall. Thus baffled, they ascend and go off.

Those persons who have suffered in their gra- naries, ice-houses, and in the cellars of their dwelling-houses, by the depredations of rats, will probably deem this one of the most valuable articles of the present work.

Description of the Badger, and the manner of taking it.

The badger is a large, grey, hard-haired animal, and resembles both a pig and a dog. It is not near so hurful as many other animals of the vermin kind ; for the chief mischief he does, consists of scratching of earths, or holes, which afterwards serve for the foxes to harbour in ; and in scratching and grubbing up the ground, in searching after his food, such as pig-nuts, roots, and insects, on which, and on beach-mast, acorns, crabs, and other trash, he subsists; though some authors have falsely affirmed that he destroys and lives on young lambs, pigs, and poultry. He stinks very much, fattens by sleeping, and shews

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his age by the number of holes in bis tail, one being added every year.

When you have found out one of their earths, let two persons go out in the night while they are in search of their food, and put a thin sack into the hole, and fasten it at the mouth, that the badger may not run away with it; then let one person remain near the bole, while the other beats round the fields with a dog, in order to drive him home. When he finds the dog after him, he runs to bis bole as fast as possible, and goes into the sack, which slips close like a purse. The party who stays near the hole, on hearing his approach, lays hold of the mouth of the sack, and pulls out the badger in it, and this method is termed, sacking the badger. Another way, is to place a steel trap, in which you will catch him very easily, as he is not near so shy as a fox. When you come to his earths or holes, make the mouths of all the angles quite smooth, and come again the next morning, when you will see whether any have been in or gone out, and if you track them in and out, then put a trap in each earth, and you need not fear catching him : but remember to stake down the trap, that he may not go away with it.

Wild Cats.

Cats, which run wild in woods, parks, &c. are ery mischievous in chicken grounds, and may

be taken with the butch-traps, baited with fishes’ head, or bones of red-herrings, rubbing the end of the trap with the same. Let some valerian powder


be also scattered in and about the traps, which will allure them.

Description of the Weasel, and the manner of taking it.

This is a smaller animal than the pole-cat; the head is small, of an oviated form, and sharp at the snout; the ears are small, short, and pa- tulous ; the eyes of a fierce aspect; the mouth well furnished with teeth ; the upper jaw longer than the under ; the body is about eight inches long, and slender ; the feet have five toes, armed with sharp claws ; the whole body is covered with a fine tolerably long fur, the back is of a darkish colour, and the belly is white. In dissecting this creature, the heart and liver are found remarkably large. They destroy rabbits, chickens, suck eggs, &c. The weasel may be caught with a hutch or box-trap, or a small steel-trap, baited with a small bird or egg.

How to destroy or drive away Weasels. The best way to destroy weasels, is to take

sal-ammoniac, beat it, and mix it with the white of an egg, wheat flour, and honey. The weasels are killed by eating of this, laid in small bits in places where they frequent.

To prevent weasels sucking the eggs of your poultry, strew rue about the place where the hens lay, and the weasel will keep his distance.

Description of the Hedge-Hog, and the manner of taking it.

The hedge-hog greatly resembles the porcu- pine in miniature, his body being armed and for-

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tified all over with small sharp-pointed quills, which are an admirable defence for him against his enemies. The back, sides, and flanks, are set with these strong and sharp prickles ; and by the help of a muscle, it can contract itself into a glo- bular form, and withdraw its whole under part, head, belly, and legs, within its thicket. Their chief food consists of acorns, crabs, and roots; and, in grubbing up the latter, they considerably damage the ground.

The hedge-hog may be taken in the following manner :—Set a hutch-trap under the wall, or pale, of any park or warren, as these little animals will run under them in the night a considerable way, and several of them, by this method, may be taken in the course of a week. Bait the trap as you think proper, for no bait that they are particularly fond of is known.

Description of the Otter, and the manner of taking it.

The otter is an amphibious animal: the fore teeth of the upper jaw are straight, direct, and acute; those of the under jaw are obtuse, and stand close together: the ears are situated lower than the eyes, and the feet furnished each with five toes, and are palmated or formed for swim- ming. He is very destructive to fish-ponds, as scarce any fish can escape him; and when hunger drives him on shore, he will feed on herbs, snails, and frogs, and kills lambs, sucking pigs, poultry, &c.

The method to discover his haunts, is very easy: for, in whatever place he preys, you will

ARTS AND SCIENCES. li»

be certain to find tails, or hinder parts of fish, left undevoured at the sides of the pond, &c. ; for it is observable that he eats the head and body of the fish as far as the vent, and very seldom farther. Having discovered his place, put a good steel trap in the water, down in the mud: put the mud over the bridge of the trap as much as you can, that he may not discover the trap. If you should not happen to find where he takes the water, you will see where he sits to eat his fish, and then you must set a trap or two by the side of the water in different places, where you find the bits of fish : cut a hole in the ground ; then cover them over with moss very nicely. There is no necessity to bait them, for the otter will seldom touch any thing but what he kills himself.

There are small hounds employed in destroying otters; and when the otter vents, that is, when he is perceived by his pursuers, there is a spear made for the purpose, with which he is often struck and killed.

Otters may be poisoned in the following manner :—Lay near their haunts an eel slit on the back, with ratsbane put in the slit, and then sew it up again. Place the eel, from the navel upwards, out of the water, and the otter will eat it so far, but seldom farther ; and his destruction is certain.

To kill Caterpillars and other hurtful Insects.

Take one ounce of asafoetida, and three ounces of wormwood; steep them, and break them : boil the whole in four pails of water in the open

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air, because the smell is offensive. When they are boiled, strain the ingredients through a linen cloth, and use the liquor when cold, at pleasure, before the buds are opened, and the tree will not be injured; you may likewise add coloquintida, tobacco stalks, wild vines, and several other ingredients of a similar quality.

To destroy Flies.

White hellebore, steeped in milk or sweet wine, and sprinkled about the room they come to, will effectually kill them. Or, origanum and alum, bruised and mixed with milk, will answer the same end.

Put bruised coriander seed into a deep earthen pot, and all the flies will gather to it. Spread an earthen dish pretty thick with treacle and honey, and they will come to it and stick: or a mixture of dregs of sugar and water will draw them to it.

If you boil bay berries in oil, and anoint your cattle with it, they will never be pestered with flies. Wet the hair of horses with the juice of the leaves of gourds at Midsummer, and they will not be molested. Anoint your cattle with it, and the flies will not come near them, even in the hottest weather.

The scent and smoke of hens’ feathers, burnt in a room, will drive away all flies, spiders, scor- pions, &c. so that they will never return.

Insects are driven away or destroyed by various methods; either by hindering the breed- ing of them, as by the destroying of locusts’


eggs: or, we prevent insects coming by shutting all windows close. Fire and cold kill or drive them away, as do likewise white hellebore, wild cucumbers, coloquinteda, lupins, vinegar, or decoction of bays. Some things do it by scent; as corianders, vitriol flowers, leaves of alder, and brimstone. Rue and verdigris are every way offensive to them. Pitch and lees of oil were for- merly much used for getting rid of them : the first defends from the air, and the latter from living creatures. Almost all insects may be driven away by the smoke of storax.

Grasshoppers, like snails, destroy the grain after it is sprouted.

How to destroy Moths, and keep them from Clothes.

Moths commonly begin to appear about Au- gust, and that generally at night. If you leave a candle burning all night, they will fly about and destroy themselves.

Air your clothes well, and lay beaten pepper among them, and it will prevent their coming near them. The branches of the bay-tree, or moist hemp, will also keep away moths and all kinds of insects from clothes; likewise wormwood being laid among them : and if pieces of Russia leather are put into chests and clothes-boxes, no moths, or any vermin, will enter them.

How to destroy Kites, Crows, Ravens, fyc. Steep the entrails of pigs, fowls, or rabbits,

in the lees of wine, into which you have infused a quantity of nux-vomica, and throw the bait

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where the fowls come in the evening, or early in the morning: this will intoxicate them so, that a person waiting near the spot may easily take them.

To kill Reptiles.

Take twelve ounces of quick lime in powder, two ounces of Scotch snuff, two ounces of basket salt, two ounces of sulphur vivum, dissolved in ten gallons of water, and thrown on the insects, either in the liquid or powder, will destroy them. An infusion of tobacco in water will also destroy caterpillars.

The use of Sulphur in destroying Insects on Plants, and its benefit to Vegetation.

Tie up some flour of sulphur in a piece of muslin or fine linen, and with this the leaves or young shoots of plants should be dusted ; or it may be thrown on them by means of a common swans-down puff, or even by a dredging box.

Fresh assurances have repeatedly been re- ceived of the powerful influence of sulphur against the whole tribe of insects and worms which infest and prey on vegetables. Sulphur has also been found to promote the health of plants, on which it is sprinkled ; and that peach- trees, in particular, were remarkably improved hy it, and seemed to absorb it. It has likewise been observed, that the verdure and other healthful appearances, were perceptibly increased ; for the quantity of new shoots and leaves formed subsequently to the operation,

ARTS AND SCIENCES. IS7

nn<l having no sulphur on their surfaces, served as a kind of comparative index, and pointed out distinctly, the accumulation of health.

To destroy Bugs.

Take of the highest rectified spirits of wine, (viz. lamp spirits), that will burn all away dry, and leave not the least moisture behind, half a pint; of new distilled oil, or spirits of turpentine, half a pint; mix them together, and break into it, in small bits, half an ounce of camphire, which will dissolve in a few minutes; shake them well together, and, with a sponge, or a brush, dipt in some of it, wet very well the bed or furniture wherein these vermin harbour and breed, and it will infallibly kill and destroy both them and their nits, although they swarm ever so much. But then the bed or furniture must be well and thoroughly wet with it, (the dust upon them being first brushed and shook off), by which means it will neither stain, soil, nor in the least hurt the finest silk or damask bed that is. The quantity here ordered of this curious neat white mixture, which costs about a shilling, will rid any one bed whatever, though it swarms with bugs. Do but touch a live bug with a drop of it, and you will find it die immediately. If any should happen to appear, after once using, it will only be for want of well wetting the lacing, &c. of the bed, or the foldings of the linings or curtains, near the rings, or the joints and holes in and about the bed or head-board ; wherein the bugs or nits nestle and breed, and then their being well wet altogether again with more of

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the same mixture, which dries in as fast as you use it, pouring some of it into the joints or holes where the sponge or brush cannot reach, will never fail absolutely to destroy them all. Some beds that have much wood-work, can hardly be thoroughly cleaned without being first taken down ; but others that can be drawn out, or that you can get well behind, to be done as it should be, may.

Note.—The smell this mixture occasions, will be gone in two or three days, which is yet very wholesome, and to many people agreeable. You must remember always to shake the liquor together very well whenever you use it, which must be in the day-time, not by candle-light, lest the subtlety of the mixture should catch the flame, as you are using it, and occasion damage.

Another method.

Take three pennyworth of oil of bays, and dilute it by heating it in a sauce-pan, in one gill of oil of turpentine, to which add a dessertspoon- ful of oil of vitriol, and when very hot, with a painter’s sash tool anoint well all the crevices and apertures of the article you want to cure, with this ointment, and it will effectually eradicate all kinds of vermin.

Remedies against Fleas.

Fumigation with brimstone, or the fresh leaves of penny royal, sewed in a bag, and laid in the bed, will have the desired effect.


To destroy Fleas on Dogs.

Rub the animal, when out of the house, with the common Scotch snuff, except the nose and eyes. Rub the powder well into the roots of the hair. Clear lime-water destroys the whitish flea-worm, without injuring the skin or hair. Oil of turpentine will likewise do so ; but if .there be any manginess, or the skin be broken, it will give the animal much pain.

THE ART OF PERFUMING, &c.

Orange Flower Water.

Infuse two pounds of orange flower into a quart of water three or four hours, and so distil them in a cold still. This water is good for cleaning stuff, making angel water, or perfuming wash-balls or skins.

The Queen of Hungary's Water.

Put a quart of the best spirits of wine into a strong glass bottle, and two large handfuls of rosemary flowers, a handful of thyme, and half a handful of sweet marjorum, the leaves only, and as much sage ; keep the bottle close stopped, and expose it to the sun a month, and then you may dissolve the size of a bean of orcanot, bruising it with a little spirit of wine, and put it into the bottle; then expose it four or five days more to the sun, and it will be of a fine red colour, and a pleasant scent.

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Honey Water. Take a pint of spirits of wine, and three

drachms of essence of ambergris; shake them well daily.

An excellent Water to prevent Hair from falling off, and to thicken it.

Put four pounds of unadulterated honey into a still, with twelve handfuls of the tendrils of vines, and the same quantity of rosemary tops. Distil as cool and as slowly as possible. The liquor may be allowed to drop until it begins to taste sour.

Lavender Water. Take a pint of spirits as above ; essential oil of

lavender, one ounce, essence of ambergris, two drachms; put all into a quart bottle, and shake it extremely well.

Powder of Mushed Roses. To do this well, you must put the musked

roges into the powder, and leave them there twenty-four hours in a loose box ; so you must shift them three times, and they will give an excellent scent.

To perfume Gloves, Fans, or Skins, with Floivers. Grind on a smooth clean marble stone, two

drachms of civet; add three drops of the essence of orange and other flowers, made with bean oil; add a few more drops of millefleur water ; grind by itself gum tragacanth, about the size of a hazle nut, mixed with orange flower water: after

ARTS AND SCIENCES 191

that mix your civet, dropping a little of the millefleur water; and so on till all are well mixed : then put your composition into a mortar, and pour more water; stir it till it comes to a quarter of a pint; lay it very even on your gloves, skins, &c.; dry them in the air; open and order them for colouring; and by this rule, you may perfume them with any scents.

To make common Wash-Balls.

Take a pound of white cake soap, scrape it and beat well in a mortar; take out the crumbles that are not well incorporated, and put in a pound of starch well powdered, an ounce of the essence of orange, half a pint of macanet: water prepared : stir them gently with a pestle, then beat it till they are well mixed : make the paste up into balls, and let them dry.

Genuine Windsor Soap.

To make this famous soap for washing the hands, shaving, &c., nothing more is necessary, than to slice the best white soap as thin as possible; melt it in a pan over a slow fire, scent it well with oil of caraway, and then pour it into a frame or mould made for that purpose, or a small drawer, adapted in size and form to the quantity. When it has stood three or four days in a dry situation, cut it into square pieces, and it is ready for use. By this simple mode, sub- stituting any more favourite scent for that of caraway, all persons may suit themselves with a good perfumed soap at the most trifling expense.

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Shaving boxes may be at once filled with the melted soap, instead of the mould.

To make Soft Pomatum.

Beat half a pound of unsalted fresh lard in common water; then soak and beat it in rose water; drain it, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy; let it drain from this ; add to it some essence of lemon, and keep it in small pots.

Another way.

Soak half a pound of clear beef marrow, and a pound of unsalted fresh lard, in water, two or three days, changing and beating it every day; put it into a sieve, and when dry, into ajar, and the jar into a sauce-pan of water. When melted, pour it into a basin, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy; drain off the brandy, and then add essence of lemon, bergamot, and other scent that is like.

Hard Pomatum.

Prepare equal quantities of beef marrow and mutton suet as before, using the brandy to preserve it, and adding the scent; then pour it into moulds, or if you have none, into phials of the size you choose the rolls to be.

When cold, break the bottles, clear away the glass carefully, and put the paper round the rolls.


SYMPATHETIC INK, &c.

Secret method of Writing. Sympathetic, or secret inks, are those which are

not perceived till the paper upon which they are used Ijbs undergone some preparation to render the characters visible. A great number of compositions of this kind are known.

A letter of common business may be written with sal-ammoniac dissolved in water, or with the juice of a lemon. These letters will not be visible till they are held by the fire ; but a letter so written, will in a short time discover itself, from the corroding acid and moisture of the liquid. So a letter written in dissolved alum, will not be dis- cernible till the paper is dipt in water.

A letter may be written with the yolk of an egg; but when the letters are quite dry,the paper must be blackened all over with ink, and the con- federate, by scraping the paper gently with a knife, will expose the letters written with an egg, while the rest of the paper continues black.

Invisible Inks. If a weak tincture of galls be written with, the

characters will be invisible till wetted with a weak solution of sulphate of iron : or vice versa, a weak solution of sulphate of iron, will not appear till moistened with the solution of galls.

Another. Dissolve bismuth in nitrous acid. When the

writing with this fluid is exposed to the vapour of liver of sulphur, it will become quite black.

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Another. If diluted sulphuric acid is employed, the writ*

ing is not visible till the paper is heated, when the characters become black.

Another. If you write with a clean pen dipt in com-

mon milk, the writing will not be visible till the paper is held to the fire, when it appears of a brown colour.

As it is disagreeable to write with a colourless fluid, any of these inks may be mixed with cork, first burnt and finely powdered. When the writing is performed, the blackness may be removed by the use of Indian rubber, unless the paper has been scratched.

Secret Correspondence, by means of invisible Ink. A person wishing to carry on a correspondence

with another, and who is fearful of having his letter opened or intercepted, can adopt the following plan :—W’rite any unimportant matter with common ink, and let the lines be very wide apart: then between these lines, write the communication you wish to make, with any of the above invisible inks.

Your correspondent is to be previously apprized of the method of making the characters visible; and writing in common ink will serve to lull the suspicions of those who might intercept the letter; and who not finding any thing important in it, will either forward or keep it. In either case there can be no danger, as the writing will not be visible without the proper application.

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 1U5

Secret correspondence by means of common Ink.

Take two pieces of card, pasteboard, or stiff paper, through which you cut iong squares at different distances. One of these you keep yourself, and the other you give to your correspondent. You lay the pasteboard on a paper, and, in the spaces cut out, write what you would have under- stood by him only; then fill the intermediate spaces with any words that will connect the whole together, and make a different sense. When he receives it, he lays his pasteboard over the whole, and those words which are between crotchets [ form the intelligence you wish to communicate. For example : suppose you want to express these words:—

“ Don’t trust Robert: I have found him a villain.” “ [Don’t] fail to send my books. I [trust]

they will be ready when [Robert] calls on you. [I have] heard that you have [found] your dog. I call [him a villain] who stole him.” You may place a pasteboard of this kind three other ways, —the bottom at top,—the top at bottom, or by turning it over: but in this case you must previously apprize your correspondent, or it may give him some trouble to decipher your meaning.

USEFUL ARTS, &c. ' i

To Bronze Plaster Figures.

Lay the figure over with isinglass size, till it holds out, or without any part of its surface be-

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coming dry or spotted ; then, with a brush, such as is termed by painters a sash tool, go over the whole, observing carefully to remove any of the size, (while it is yet soft,) that may lodge on the delicate or sharp places, and set it aside to dry: when it has become so, take a little thin oil gold size, and with as much of it as just damps the brush, go over the figure, allowing no more of this size to remain than what causes it to shine. Set it apart in a dry place, free from smoke; and after it has remained there for forty-eight hours, the figure is prepared for bronzing.

The bronze, which is almost an impalpable powder, (and may be had at the colour shops, of all metallic colours), should be dabbed on with a little cotton wool; after having touched over the whole figure, let it stand another day; then with a soft dry brush, rub off the loose powder, and the figure will resemble the metal it is intended to represent, and possess the quality of resisting the weather.

Composition to take off Casts of Metal.

Melt eight ounces of sulphur over a gentle fire, and with it mix a small quantity of fine vermilion : stir it well together, and it will dissolve like oil; then cast it into the mould, which is first to be rubbed over with oil. When cool, the figure may be taken and touched over with aquafortis, and it will look like fine coral.

To Cut Glass.

Take a red-hot shank of a tobacco-pipe, lay it on the edge of your glass, which will then begin


to crack; then draw the shank a little gently forward, and it will follow any way you draw your hand.

Indelible Ink, for marking Linen, t$c.

Dissolve in nitric acid any quantity of silver. This solution, if the silver has been alloyed with copper, will be of a sapphire blue.

In order to separate the copper from the silver, add to the solution twelve times its weight of distilled water, or, for want of it, rain water, and suspend in it a thin plate of copper. In proportion as this plate dissolves, the silver will precipitate itself perfectly pure, in the form of a white powder. When no more of this powder will precipitate itself, the liquor should be decanted. The powder is then washed in a great quantity of water, until the water thrown upon it is no longer of a blue cast, but remains perfectly limpid. The powder thus obtained is silver in its purest state.

If this powder weighs one ounce, dissolve as much gum Senegal, and two drachms of white glue (glue prepared from white leather or parchment will answer) in two ounces of distilled water. Mix this solution with three drachms of lamp- black well calcined in a close crucible.

To manufacture this mixture properly, it should be triturated in a glass mortar.

This operation being finished, the solution of silver, diluted in eight times its weight of distilled water, is poured upon the above mixture : the whole is then well stirred with a spatula, and the ink is made.

The ink is fixed upon the cloth by means of a

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mordant which is thus prepared:—Dissolve two ounces of white glue, and as much isinglass, in six ounces of alcohol, and as much distilled water. This solution will be made in two days. The balneum marice is made use of for the purpose; and care must be taken to stir the two kinds of glue from time to time.

After the whole is dissolved, it must be filtered through flannel, in order to keep back all its mucilaginous particles. The liquid thus filtered, is preserved for use in a bottle well corked.

The part of the linen intended to be marked, must be wetted with this mordant, which must be allowed to become perfectly dry on it. The part must then be rubbed smooth with an instrument called a polisher, which may be a piece of glass shaped like a pestle, or even the bottom edge of a common phial. The writing is then to be made with the ink, using a common hard-nibbed pen. Soap, or any other material used in washing, will take out the lamp-black, which is merely to give a stronger colour to the fluid when it is written with ; but it never has any effect upon the ink, or nitrate of silver, which itself forms a strong black, after it has been a short time written with, and exposed to the light.

To Preserve Meat by Treacle.

This experiment has been successfully tried in the following mannerA gentleman put a piece of beef into treacle, and turned it often. At the end of a month he ordered it to be washed and boiled, and had the pleasure to find it quite good, and more pleasant than the same piece would have


been in salt for that time. But the expense of this method must confine it to the opulent.

To preserve Beef and Mutton in a sound state, in a voyage to the West Indies.

As soon as the meat is cold it must be cut up in quarters, and sprinkled with the following ingredients : lignum vitse, in fine chips, one pound, common salt, four ounces, coarse sugar, four ounces, salt prunella, half an ounce ; when it has been well sprinkled in, close the whole in sheet lead, lay it in a chest, and fill it with fresh saw dust. Meat so prepared, has been kept two months in the finest order. When taken out to be dressed, it should be wiped and scraped clean, and roasted as quickly as possible.

The useful properties of Charcoal for sweetening the Breath, cleaning the Teeth, fyc.

All sorts of glass vessels, and other utensils, may be purified from long retained smells of every kind in the easiest and most perfect manner, by rinsing them out well with charcoal powder, after the grosser impurities have been scoured off with sand and potash. Rubbing the teeth, and washing out the mouth with fine charcoal powder, will render the teeth beautifully white, and the breath perfectly sweet, where an offensive breath has been owing to a scorbutic disposition of the gums. Putrid water is immediately deprived of its offensive smell by charcoal.

To sweeten Meat, Fish, Sfc. that is tainted.

\\ hen meat, fish, &c. from intense heat or long Q

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keeping, are likely to pass into a state of corrup- tion, a simple and pure mode of keeping them sound and healthful, is by putting a few pieces of charcoal, each the size of an egg, into a pot or saucepan, wherein the fish or flesh is to be boiled. Among others, an experiment of this kind was tried upon a turbot, which appeared too far gone to be eatable : the cook, as advised, put three or four pieces of charcoal, each the size of an egg, under the strainer in the fish kettle ; after boiling the proper time, the turbot came to the table perfectly sweet and firm.

To cure tainted Fish. Tainted fish may be much restored to its proper

flavour, by mixing a quantity of vinegar and salt in the water in which the fish is to be boiled.

To prevent Water and Meat from putrefaction in long Voyages.

The crews of the two Russian ships, that lately sailed round the world, were extremely healthy. During the whole three years of their voyage only two men died of the crew of the Neva, and the Neveshda did not lose a single man. It is already known that their fresh water was preserved in charred casks ; but it is not generally known that they used the same precaution for preserving their salted provisions. The beef they carried out with them tasted as pleasantly upon their return, as it did three years before, when first salted.

To detect Dampness in a Bed.

Let your bed be first well warmed, and immediately as the warming pan is taken out, introduce


between the sheets, in an inverted direction, a clear glass goblet: after it has remained in that situation a few minutes, examine it; if found dry, and not tarnished with drops of wet, (for there will often appear a slight cloud of steam,) the bed is safe ; but if drops of wet or damp adhere to the inside of the glass, it is a certain sign of a damp bed. Even wearing apparel, when on a person, will, in most parts of England, by the application of a warming pan, stain glass with a slight steam, but not drops of wet. Or, take off the sheets and sleep in the blankets.

Improvement in the Management of Bees.

The improvement is that of having double skeps or hives, the one on the top of the other. When the lower skep is filled with honey, it is to be removed, after the bees are admitted (through a passage which is made to be opened) into the upper skep : into this skep food must be put, and the bees will remain there, and go on with their work in it. When it is filled with honey, the former skep, with food in it, may be replaced, and the bees again admitted into it. The full skep is then to be taken away. This change of the skeps must always be made about midsummer; and by thus annually removing the full one, more honey will be collected than is usual, and the bees will not be destroyed.

Approved method of removing Bees.

Set the hive where there is only a glimmering light: turn it up ; the queen first makes her appearance ; once in possession of her, you are

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master of all the rest: put her into an empty hive, whither she will be followed by the other bees.

Useful method of preserving Bees, as lately adopted in America.

Instead of destroying the whole swarm in their hives, to get the honey when the hives are full, they clear them out into a fresh hive, while they take the combs out of the old one; and thus prevent their perishing in winter, by putting a great quantity of honey into a very wide earthen vessel, covering its surface with paper exactly fitted on, and prickled full of holes with a large pin: this being pressed by the weight of the bees, keeps a fresh supply constantly arising. Their most fatal destruction by severe cold, they prevent, by taking as many large tubs as they have hives, and knock- ing out the heads, then set the other end in the ground, laying a bed of dried earth or chopped hay in it, of six inches deep : over this they place the head knocked out, and then make a small wooden trough for the passage of the bees ; this is transfixed through a hole cut through each side of the tub, at such a height as to lay on the false bottom, on which is placed the covered dish of honey, for the food of the bees, leaving a proper space over this, covered with strong matting: they then fill up the tub with more dried earth, or chopped hay, heaping it up in the form of a cone, to keep out the rain, and wreathing it over with straw on account of the warmth. This method is so secure, that out of a hundred tubs, a few win- ters since when this experiment was tried, not one was known to fail. I he quantity of honey, this


way obtained, has been amazing, and besides, must every year increase, wherever the example shall be followed.

Improved Corks for preserving Wine, or Chemical Liquors.

Melt together two parts of white wax and one part of beef suet: dip your corks in this mixture, and immediately dry them in a stove upon an iron plate: repeat this operation twice, and the corks, thus prepared, will preserve any liquor well, without imparting any ill flavour thereto.

New method of making Flour without Grain.

Take turnips, potatoes, parsnips, and white beet, and grind or grate them flne: then put the substance into water, and let it remain therein several hours; then strain off the water, and add fresh water, in quantity sufficient to cover the substance. Continue to repeat this process, until the water pours off quite clear. Then strain and press the water from the vegetable substance, which is to be dried on a kiln, or other proper convenience. When the substance is quite dry, grind it in a corn, or other proper mill, until it becomes fine flour. Either of the above vegetables alone, or any two or more of them mixed together, and prepared as specified, will answer for the purpose. The foregoing description is for the making coarse or common flour : when the best or fine flour is to be made, pare or peel the rind off the vegetables before they are ground or grated. Then pursue the same process as with the coarse or common flour. The writer has been informed that a mill

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for this purpose has been established near New Ross, in the county of Wexford, which has been productive of much profit to the proprietor. Potatoes produce a flour as fair and white as wheat.

Method of curing had Tub Butter.

A quantity of tub butter was brought to market in the West Indies, which, on opening, was found to be very bad, and almost stinking. A native of Pennsylvania undertook to cure it, which he did, in the following manner:—He started the tubs of butter in a large quantity of hot water, which soon melted the butter: he then skimmed it off as clean as possible, and worked it over again in a churn, and with the addition of salt and fine sugar, the butter was sweet and good.

Method of tailing the Ranhness and disagreeable Taste from Irish and English Salt Butter.

The quantity proposed to be made use of either for toasts or melting, must be put into a bowl filled with boiling water, and when the butter is melted, skim it quite off. By this method it is so separated from any gross particles, that it may require a small addition of salt, which may be put into the cold water that is made use of in melting butter for sauce : and though the butter is oiled by hot water, it becomes a fine cream in the boiling for sauce.

The virtues of Coffee.

Coffee accelerates digestion, corrects crudities, removes cholic and flatulencies. It mitigates


headaches, cherishes the animal spirits, takes away listlessness and languor, and is serviceable in all obstructions arising from languid circulation. It is a wonderful restorative to emaciated consti- tutions, and highly refreshing to the studious and sedentary.

The habitual use of coffee would greatly promote sobriety, being in itself a cordial stimulant; it is a most powerful antidote to the temptation of spirituous liquors.

It will be found a welcome beverage to the robust labourer, who would despise a lighter drink.

Turkish or Arabian mode of ’preparing Coffee.

The coffee, ground or beaten to an impalpable powder, is preserved by closely pressing it down in a wooden box, and the quantity required for use is scraped from the surface by means of a wooden spoon. Two small coffee-pots are employed : in one is boiled the water, generally mixed with the remaining coffee of a former meal: in the other is put the fresh powder, which is sometimes placed near the fire to become heated before the boiling water is added to it. The mixture is then boiled two or three times, taking care to pour a few drops of cold water upon it the last time, or to place a cloth dipped in cold water over it: then it is allowed to subside, and afterwards poured into the coffee-pot which contained only the boiling water.

N. B. The quantity of coffee powder, necessary to make a fine strong tincture of coffee, may be estimated at one coffee cup of coffee powder, for three dishes of proper coffee liquor for the table.

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To make British Herb Tea.

Take of hawthorn leaves dried, two parts, sage and balm, one part; mix these well together, and they will make an excellent and pleasant sanative tea, particularly wholesome to nervous people.

British substitute for foreign Tea.

Betony, if gathered when just going to flower, has the taste of tea, and all the good qualities of it, without the bad ones ; and, moreover, it cures inveterate headaches.

The virtues of Sage.

This valuable herb was held in such high esteem among the ancients, that they have left ns a Latin verse, which signifies,

“ Why should a man die whilst he has sage in his garden.**

It is reckoned admirable as a cordial, and to sweeten and cleanse the blood. It is good in nervous cases, and is given in fevers, with a view to promote perspiration. With the addition of a little lemon juice, it is very grateful and cooling. Some choose to make it dry, alleging that the surface of the leaves of green sage abound with animalcules, which are very visible through a microscope: and so there are in many articles of common food. But we may be as- sured, even if this is the case, that as they are nourished with the sage, they are of no harm ; and, at all events, a little hot water will destroy them.


Manner of preserving Eggs perfectly fresh for twelve months.

Having provided small casks, like oyster barrels, fill them with fresh laid eggs; then pour into each cask, the head of which is supposed to have been first taken out, as much thick cold lime water as will fill up the void spaces between the eggs, and likewise completely cover them. The thicker the lime water is, the better, provided it will fill up all the interstices, and be liquid at the top of the casks : this done, lay on the head lightly. No farther care is necessary, than merely to prevent the lime from growing too hard, by adding occasionally a little common water on the surface, should it seem so disposed, and keeping the cask from heat and frost. The eggs when taken out for use, are to be washed from the adhering lime with a little cold water, when they will have both the appearance and qualities of fresh laid eggs, the lime preserving them from stinking or putridity.

To preserve Eggs sound for the space of two years.

For the following process, for keeping and preserving eggs perfectly sound, a patent was granted in February, 1791, to Mr Jayne, of Sheffield, Yorkshire:—Put into a tub or vessel one bushel, Winchester measure, of quick lime, thirty-two ounces of salt, eight ounces of cream of tartar, and mix the same together with as much water as will reduce the composition or mixture to that consistence, that it will cause an

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egg put into it to swim with its top just above the liquid ; then put, and keep the eggs therein, which will preserve them perfectly sound for the space of two years at the least.

This method is not the worse for being simple ; and the still simpler one of keeping eggs in salt, is known by many good housewives to preserve eggs quite sound a considerable time.

Cream preserved in long Voyages.

Mix with a quantity of fresh rich cream, half its weight of white sugar in powder; stir the whole well together, and preserve it in bottles well corked. In this state it is ready to mix with tea or coffee, and has continued in good condition during a voyage to America.

To make artificial Asses’ Milk.

Two ounces of pearl barley, two ounces of hartshorn shavings, three ounces of eringo root candied, nine garden snails; boil these in six quarts of spring water till it come to three ; put two spoonfuls of cow’s milk into half a pint of the above, and drink it lukewarm, about half an hour before you rise in the morning.

N. B. You may leave out the snails if you do not like them, but it is best to use them.

Test method of cleaning fine Block-tin, Dish Covers, Patent Pewter, &jc.

Where the polish is gone off, let the articles be first rubbed over the inside with a little sweet oil, on a piece of soft linen cloth ; then clear it off with dry pure whitening, quite free from


sand, on linen cloths, which will make them look as well as when new. The inside should be rubbed with rags moistened in wet whitening, but without a drop of oil. Always wiping these articles dry, when brought from table, and keeping them free from steam or other damp, greatly lessens the trouble of cleaning them.

To clean Mahogany Furniture.

Three pennyworth of alkanet root, one pint of cold drawn linseed oil, two pennyworth of rose pink ; put these into a pan, and let them stand all night; then take some of this mixture, rub it over the tables or chairs, and let it remain one hour; then take a linen cloth, and rub it well off, and it will leave a beautiful gloss on the furniture.

If the pinky shade occasioned by the alkanet root and pink is disagreeable, they may be omitted in part, or entirely.

To clean Marble. Take a bullock’s gall, a gill of soap-lees, half

a gill of turpentine, and make it into a paste with pipe clay ; then apply it to the marble, and let it dry a day or two ; then rub it off; and, if not clean, apply it a second or third time until it is clean.

Fasy method of cleaning Paper Hangings.

Cut into eight half quarters, a quartern loaf, two days old; it must neither be newer nor staler. With one of these pieces, after having blown off all the dust from the parts to be

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cleaned, by means of a good pair of bellows, begin at the top of the room ; holding the crust in the hand, and wiping lightly downward with the crumb, about half a yard at each stroke, till the upper part of the hangings is completely cleaned all round. Then go again round, with the like sweeping stroke downward, always com- mencing each successive course a little higher than the upper stroke hand extended, till the bottom be finished. This operation, if carefully performed, will frequently make very old paper look almost equal to new. Great caution must be used not by any means to rub the paper hard, nor to attempt cleaning it the cross or horizontal way. The dirty part of the bread, too, must be each time cut away, and the pieces renewed as soon as at all necessary.

To take the Smell of Paint from Rooms.

Let three or four broad tubs, each containing about eight gallons of water, and one ounce of vitriolic acid, be placed in the new painted room, near the wainscot. This water will absorb and retain the effluvia from the paint in three days; but tbe water should be renewed each day during that time.

Method of expeditiously fattening Chickens.

Take, for that purpose, a quantity of rice, and grind or pound it into a fine flour ; mix sufficient for present use with milk and a little coarse sugar; stir the whole well over the fire, till it makes a thick paste ; and feed the chickens, in the day time only, by putting as much of it as


they can eat, but no more, into the troughs belonging to their coops. It must be eaten while warm ; and, if they have also beer to drink, they will soon grow very fat. A mixture of oatmeal and treacle, combined till it crumbles, is said to form a food for chickens, of which they are so fond, and with which they thrive so rapidly, that at the end of two months they become as large as the generality of full-grown fowls fed in the common way.

To prevent excessive Thirst in cases of emergency at Sea, in the Summer time.

When thirst is excessive, as is often the case in summer time, during long voyages, avoid, if possible, even in times of the greatest necessity, the drinking of salt water to allay the thirst, but rather keep thinly clad, and frequently dip in the sea, which will appease both hunger and thirst for a long time, and prevent the disagreeable sensation of swallowing salt water.

Lithography ; or the Art of taking Impressions on Paper from designs made on Stone.

Select a close-grained stone, and draw or write on it with a pen dipt in ink, formed of a solution of lac, in leys of pure soda, to which should be added some soap and lamp-black for colouring. Leave it to harden for a few days, and then take impressions in the following manner :—Dip the surface in water, then dab it with printer’s ink : the ink sticks to the design, and not to the stone, and the impression may be taken with wet paper, by means of a rolling or screw

R

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press, iu the ordinary manner. Several hundred copies may be taken from the same design in this simple manner.

The best method of extracting Currant juice without wasting Spirits on them—a pleasant Acid for Punch.

After the currants are picked clean and dry, put them into a deep crock, covering the top with a cloth, over which put two or three cab- bage leaves, the whole of which must be well tied to keep in the steam : put the crock into a large pot of water to boil; but great care must be taken that the water does not come to the top of the crock, which would spoil the currants. They will take a good while boiling: when they burst they are done sufficiently. When cool, strain them through fine canvas, sweeten as you choose, with lump sugar, and bottle it for use. Raspberries may he done in the same manner.

To observe an Eclipse of the Sun, without injury to the eye.

Take a burning glass, or spectacle glass, that magnifies very much ; hold it before a book or pasteboard, twice the distance of its focus, and you will see the round body of the sun, and the manner in which the moon passes between the glass and the sun, during the whole eclipse.

To construct the Camera Obscura.

Make a circular hole in the shutter of a window, from whence there is a prospect of some


distance ; in this hole place a magnifying glass, either double or single, whose focus is at the distance of five or six feet: no light must enter the room but through this glass. At a distance from it, equal to its focus, place a very white pasteboard, (what is called a Bristol board, if you can procure one large enough, will answer extremely well;) this board must be two feet and a half long, and eighteen or twenty inches high, with a black border round it: bend the length of it inward to the form of part of a circle, whose diameter is equal to double the focal distance of the glass. Fix it on a frame of the same figure, and put it on a moveable foot, that it may be easily placed at that distance from the glass, where the objects appear to the greatest perfection. When it is thus placed, all the objects in front of the window will be painted on the paper in an inverted position, with the greatest regularity, and in the most natural colours. If you place a swing looking-glass outside the window, by turning it more or less, you will have on the paper all the objects on each side of the window.

If, instead of placing the looking-glass outside the window, you place it in the room above the hole (which must then be made near the top of the shutter), you may have the re- presentation on a paper placed horizontally on a table, and draw at your leisure all the objects reflected.

Observe, the best situation is directly north ; and the best time of the day is noon.

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Receipt to av ert Contagion of Typhus Fever, or anil other of a similar kind.

Put one pound of common salt into a basin; pour half an ounce of oil of vitriol on it; stir it for a few minuites with a stick, until the patient’s room is filled with fume; stir it every third hour night and day, and when this composition ceases to emit fume, let fresh salt and vitriol he got. It would be prudent to keep a basin of salt and vitriol in every house and stir it early in the morning, and late at night, and in the course of the day, when fever is apprehended.

Patients in typhus fever should put on a fresh night-cap'every six hours; and let the caps taken off he im mersed in a bucket of cold water instantly.

THE END.

EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY ANDERSON & BRYCE.

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ftfts i-15. sfecontents of drawing, and painting in oil, the introduction to the practice, with...

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