Important: Safety Warning
This page describes practices involving highly flammable materials in ways that create a serious risk of fire or explosion.
This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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House Cleaning: Black
Or first scrub the grate with soap and water and apply rotten stone moistened with sweet oil. Black and polish.
To Black Grates. - Melt 21 pounds of asphaltum and add 1 pound of boiled oil. Remove from the fire, and when cool add 2 quarts of spirits of turpentine, stirring vigorously. Apply with a brush. Or melt 6 pounds of asphaltum; add 1 pound of litharge and 1 gallon of boiled oil. Boil until the mixture falls in strings from the stirrer. To test, put a little on a glass plate. If on cooling it becomes quite hard, remove the mixture from the fire, and when cold, thin to any desired consistency by adding 3 or more gallons of spirits of turpentine.