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Water-Proofing

the color of the gold, they employ this glue, to which the gold-leaf adheres exceedingly well.

Another. The qualities of the following are fit for every kind of application, and particularly to metals: Expose boiled oil to a strong heat in a pan; when a black smoke is disengaged from it, set it on fire, and extinguish it a few moments after by putting on the cover of the pan. Then pour the matter still warm into a heated bottle, and add to it a little essence of turpentine. This mordant dries very speedily; it has body and adheres to, and strongly retains, gold-leaf, when applied to wood, metals, and other substances. To Prepare a Composition for making Colored Drawings and Prints Resemble Paintings in Oil.

Take of Canada balsam, 1 oz.; spirit of turpentine, 2 oz.; mix them together. Before this composition is applied, the drawing or print should be sized with a solution of isinglass in water, and when dry, apply the varnish with a camel's-hair brush.

A Varnish to Color Baskets.

Take either red, black, or white sealing-wax. whichever color you wish to make; to every 2 oz. of sealing-wax, add 1 oz. of spirit of wine; pound the wax fine, then sift it through a fine lawn sieve, till you have made it extremely fine; put it into a large phial with the spirit of wine, shake it, let it stand near the fire 48 hours, shaking it often; then, with a little, brush the baskets all over with it; let them dry, and do them over a second time.

To Prepare Anti-attrition.

According to the specification of the patent, this mixture consists of 1 cwt. of plumbago, to 4 cwt. of hog's lard, or other grease; the two to be well incorporated. The application is to prevent the affects of friction in all descriptions of engines or machines; and a sufficient quantity must be rubbed over the surface of the axle, spindle, or other part where the bearing is.

Liard, A French lubricating compound, is thus made:

Into 50 parts of the finest rape-oil put 1 part of India-rubber, cut into strips, and apply a gentle heat until nearly dissolved.

Varnish for Pales and Coarse Wood-work.

Take any quantity of tar, and grind it with as much Spanish-brown as it will bear, without rendering it too thick to be used as a paint or varnish, and then spread it on the pales, or other wood, as soon as convenient, for it quickly hardens by keeping.

This mixture must be laid on the wood to be varnished by a hard brush, or house-painter's tool; and the work should then be kept as free from dust and insects as possible, till the varnish is thoroughly dry. It will, if laid on smooth wood, have a very good gloss, and is an excellent preservative of it against moisture; on which account, as well as its being cheaper, it is far preferable to painting, not only for pales, but for weather-boarding, and all other kinds of woodwork for grosser purposes. Where the glossy brown color is not liked, the work may be made of a grayish-brown, by mixing a small proportion of white lead, or whiting and ivory black, with the Spanish-brown. Boiled coal-tar is extensively used for the same purpose. wax is dissolved; lay it on warm with a fine soft hair-brush, before a fire or in the sun. It gives a good stiffness to old straw hats, and a beautiful gloss, equal to new, and resists wet.

Flexible Paint.

Take of good yellow soap, cut into slices, 2+ lbs.; boiling water, 1½ galls. Dissolve, and grind the solution while hot with 11 cwt. of good oil-paint.

Used to paint on canvas.

Porous Water-proof Cloth.

This quality is given to cloth by simply passing it through a hot solution of weak glue and alum.

To apply it to the cloth, make up a weak solution of glue, and while it is hot add a piece of alum (about 1 oz. to 2 qts.), and then brush it over the surface of the cloth while it is hot, and it is afterwards dried. Cloth in pieces may be run through this solution, and then run out of it and dried.

By adding a few pieces of soap to the glue, the cloth will feel much softer. Goods in pieces may be run through a tubfull of weak glue, soap, and alum, and squeezed between rollers. This would be a cheap and expeditious mode of preparing them. Woollen goods are prepared by brushing them with the above mixture first in the inside, then with the grain or nap of the cloth; after which it is dried. It is the best to dry this first in the air, and then in a stove-room at a low heat; but allow the cloth to remain for a considerable time, to expel the moisture completely. This kind of cloth, while it is sufficiently water-proof to keep out the moisture and rain, being quite impervious to water, is pervious to the air.

To Thicken Linen Cloth for Screens and Bedtesters.

Grind whiting with zinc (white), and to prevent its cracking add a little honey to it; then take a soft brush and lay it upon the cloth, and so do 2 or 3 times, suffering it the meanwhile to dry between layings on; and for the last laying, smooth it over with Spanish white ground with linseed-oil; the oil being first heated and mixed with a small quantity of the litharge of gold, the better to endure the weather; and so it will be lasting.

Common Wax, or Varnished Cloth.

The manufacture of this kind of cloth is very simple. The cloth and linseed-oil are the principal articles required for the establishment. Common canvas, of an open and coarse texture, is extended on large frames placed under sheds, the sides of which are open, so as to afford a free passage to the external air. The manner in which the cloth is fastened to these frames is as follows: it is fixed to each side of the frame by hooks which catch the edge of the cloth, and by pieces of strong packthread passing through holes at the other extremity of the hooks, which are tied around movable pegs in the lower edge of the frame. The mechanism by which the strings of a violin are stretched or unstretched, will give some idea of the arrangement of the pegs employed for extending the cloth in this apparatus. By these means the cloth can be easily stretched or relaxed, when the oily varnish has exercised an action on its texture in the course of the operation. The whole being thus arranged, a liquid paste made with drying-oil, which may be varied at pleasure, is applied to the cloth.

To make Liquid Paste with Drying-oil.

Mix Spanish white, or tobacco-pipe clay, or any other argillaceous matter with water, and leave it at rest some hours; which will be sufficient to separate the argillaceous parts, and to produce a A Black Varnish for Old Straw or Chip Hats.

Take of best black sealing-wax, oz.; rectified spirit of wine, 2 oz.; powder the sealing-wax, and put it with the spirit of wine into a 4 oz. phial; digest them in a sand-heat, or near a fire, till the I sediment. Stir the sediment with a broom, to complete the division of the earth; and after it has rested some seconds, decant the turbid water into an earthen or wooden vessel. By this process the earth will be separated from the sand and other foreign bodies, which are precipitated and which must be thrown away. If the earth has been washed by the same process on a large scale, it is divided by kneading it. The supernatant water is thrown aside and the sediment placed in sieves, on pieces of cloth, where it is suffered to drain; it is then mixed up with oil rendered drying by a large dose of litharge, that is about a fourth of the weight of the oil. The consistence of thin paste being given to the mixture, it is spread over the cloth by means of an iron spatula, the length of which is equal to that of the breadth of the cloth. This spatula performs the part of a knife, and pushes forward the excess of matter above the quantity sufficient to cover the cloth.

When the first stratum is dry, a second is applied.

The inequalities produced by the coarseness of the cloth, or by an unequal extension of the paste, are smoothed down with pumice-stone. The pum ice-stone is reduced to powder and rubbed over the cloth with a piece of soft serge or cork dipped in water. The cloth must then be well washed in water to clean it; and after it is dried, a varnish of gum-lac dissolved in linseed-oil boiled with turpentine, is to be applied to it.

This preparation produces yellowish varnished cloth. When wanted black, mix lampblack with the Spanish white or tobacco-pipe clay, which forms the basis of the liquid paste. Various shades of gray may be obtained, according to the quantity of lampblack which is added. Umber, Cologneearth, and different ochry argillaceous earths, may be used to vary the tints, without causing any addition to the expense.

To prepare Varnished Silk.

Varnished silk, for making umbrellas, capots, coverings for hats, etc., is prepared in the same manner as the varnished and polished cloths already described, but with some variation in the liquid paste or varnish.

If the surface of the silk be pretty large, it is made fast to a wooden frame furnished with hooks and movable pegs, such as that used in the manufacture of common varnished cloths. A soft paste, composed of linseed-oil boiled with a fourth part of litharge; tobacco-pipe clay, dried and sifted through a silk sieve, 16 parts; litharge, ground on porphyry with water, dried and sifted in the same manner, 3 parts, and lampblack, 1 part. This paste is then spread in a uniform manner over the surface of the silk by means of a long knife, having a handle at each extremity. In summer, 24 hours are sufficient for its desiccation. When dry, the knots produced by the inequalities of the silk are smoothed with pumice-stone. This operation is performed with water, and, when finished, the surface of the silk is washed. It is then suffered to dry, and fat copal varnish is applied. If it be intended to polish this varnish, apply a second stratum, after which polish it with a ball of cloth and very fine tripoli. The varnished silk thus made is very black, exceedingly pliable, and has a fine polish. It may be rumpled a thousand ways without retaining any fold, or even the mark of one. It is light, and therefore proper for coverings to hats, and for making cloaks and caps so useful to travellers in wet weather.

Another Method.

A kind of varnished silk, which has only a yellowish color, and which suffers the texture of the stuff to appear, is prepared with a mixture of 3 parts boiled oil of pinks, or linseed-oil, and 1 part of fat copal varnish, which is extended with a coarse brush or knife. Two strata are sufficient when oil has been freed from its greasy particles over a slow fire, or when boiled with a fourth part of its weight of litharge.

The inequalities are removed by pumice-stone and water, after which the copal varnish is applied. This simple operation gives to white silk a yellow color, which arises from the boiled oil and the varnish This varnished silk possesses all those qualities ascribed to certain preparations of silk which are recommended to be worn as jackets by persons subject to rheumatism.

To Prepare Water-proof Boots. 1. Boots and shoes may be rendered impervious to water by the following composition: Take 3 oz. of spermaceti and melt it in a pipkin, or other earthen vessel, over a slow fire; add thereto 6 drs. of India-rubber, cut into slices, and theso will presently dissolve. Then add, seriatim, of tallow, 8 oz.; hog's lard, 2 oz.; amber varnish, 4 OZ.

Mix, and it will be fit for use immediately.

The boots or other material to be treated are to receive 2 or 3 coats with a common blacking-brush, and a fine polish is the result. 2. Half-pound of shoemaker's dubbing, pt. of linseed-oil; pt. of solution of India-rubber.

Dissolve with a gentle heat (it is very inflammable), and rub on the boots. This will last for several months. India-rubber Varnish.

Digest India-rubber, cut into small pieces, in benzine for several days, frequently shaking the bottle containing the materials. A jelly will be formed, which will separate from the benzine; this dissolved in the fixed and volatile oils, dries fast, does not crack or shine, unless mixed with some resinous substance.

On Chloroformic Solution of Gutta-percha.

Gutta-percha, in small slices, 1½ oz.; chloroform, 12 fluidounces. To 8 fluidounces of the chloroform contained in a bottle, add the guttapercha, and shake occasionally till dissolved; then add the carbonate of lead, previously mixed smoothly with the remainder of the chloroform, and, having shaken the whole thoroughly together several times at intervals of hour, set the mixture aside, and let it stand for 10 days, or until the insoluble matter has subsided, and the solution has become limpid, and either colorless or of a slight straw-color. Lastly, decant, and keep the solution in a glass-stopped bottle.

To make Black Japan.

Boiled oil, 1 gall.; umber, 8 oz.; asphaltum, 3 oz. oil of turpentine, as much as will reduce it to the thinness required.

To Preserve Tiles.

After the adoption of glazing, varnishing, etc., to increase the hardness of tiles, tarring has been found completely to stop their pores, and to render them impervious to water. This process is practicable, and not expensive. Lime and tar, whale-oil or dregs of oil, are equally adapted to the purpose, and still cheaper. Tarring is particularly efficacious when tiles are cracked by the frost. It is calculated that the expense of coaltar for a roof of a middling extent, and supposing such a roof to require one hundredweight, would not exceed 15 dollars.

To Bronze Plaster Figures.

For the ground, after it has been sized and rubbed down, take Prussian blue, verditer and spruce