Chapter IV: Part 4

_Windows, to Crystallize._--Dissolve epsom-salts in hot ale, or solution of gum arabic, wash it over the window, and let it dry. If you wish to remove any, to form a border or centre-piece, do it with a wet cloth.

_Wax for Bottling._--Rosin, 13 parts; wax, 1 part; melt and add any color. Used to render corks and bungs air-tight by _melting the wax_ over them.

_Whitewash._--Slack half a bushel of lime with boiling water, and cover the vessel to retain the steam. Strain the liquor, and add one peck of salt previously dissolved in warm water, 3 lbs. of rice boiled and ground to a paste, Spanish whiting, 8 oz.; glue, 1 lb.; mix and add hot water, 5 gallons; let it stand a few days, and apply hot. It makes a brilliant wash for inside or outside works.

_To Purify Water for Drinking._--Filter river-water through a sponge, more or less compressed, instead of stone or sand, by which the water is not only rendered more clean, but wholesome; for sand is insensibly dissolved by the water, so that in four or five years it will have lost a fifth part of its weight. Powder of charcoal should be added to the sponge when the water is foul or fetid. Those who examine the large quantity of terrene matter on the inside of tea-kettles, will be convinced all water should be boiled before drunk, if they wish to avoid being afflicted with gravel or stone, etc.

_To Purify the Muddy Waters of Rivers or Pits._--Make a number of holes in the bottom of a deep tub; lay some clean gravel thereon, and above this some clean sand; sink this tub in the river or pit, so that only a few inches of the tub will be above the surface of the water; the river or pit water will filter through the sand, and rise clear through it to the level of the water on the outside, and will be pure and limpid.

_Method of Making Putrid Water Sweet in a Night's Time._--Four large spoonfuls of unslacked lime, put into a puncheon of ninety gallons of putrid water at sea, will, in one night, make it as clear and sweet as the best spring-water just drawn; but, unless the water is afterwards ventilated sufficiently to carbonize the lime, it will be a lime-water. Three ounces of pure unslacked lime should saturate 90 gallons of water.

_To Keep Apples from Freezing._--Apples form an article of chief necessity in almost every family; therefore, great care is taken to protect them from frost; it being well known that they, if left unprotected, are destroyed by the first frost which occurs. They may be kept in the attic with impunity throughout the winter, by simply covering them over with a linen cloth; be sure you have _linen_, for woolen or other cloth is of _no avail_.

_To Preserve Grapes._--Take a cask or barrel which will hold water, and put into it, first a layer of bran, dried in an oven, or of ashes well dried and sifted; upon this place a layer of grapes well cleaned, and gathered in the afternoon of a dry day, before they are perfectly ripe; proceed thus with alternate layers of bran or ashes and grapes, till the barrel is full, taking care that the grapes do not touch each other, and to let the last layer be of bran or ashes; then close the barrel so that the air may not penetrate, which is an essential point. Grapes thus packed will keep for nine or even twelve months. To restore them to freshness, cut the end of the stalk of each bunch of grapes, and put it into red wine, as you would flowers into water. White grapes should be put into white wine.

_To Increase the Laying of Eggs._--The best method is to mix with their food, every other day, about a teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper to each dozen fowl. Whilst upon this subject, it would be well to say, that if your hens lay soft eggs, or eggs without shells, you should put plenty of old plaster, egg-shells, or even oyster-shells broken up, where they can get at it.

_To Preserve Meats._--Beef to pickle for long keeping. First, thoroughly rub salt into it, and let it remain in bulk for twenty-four hours to draw off the blood. Second, take it up, letting it drain, and pack as desired. Third, have ready a pickle prepared as follows: for every 100 pounds of beef use 7 pounds salt; saltpetre and cayenne pepper each, 1 ounce; molasses, 1 quart; and soft water, 8 gallons; boil and skim well, and when cold pour over the beef.

Another method is to use 5 pounds salt, 1 pound brown sugar, and ¼ oz. of saltpetre, to each 100 pounds; dissolve the above in sufficient water to cover the meat, and in two weeks drain all off, and make more same as first. It will then keep through the season. To boil for eating, put into boiling water; for soups, into cold water.

_Flies, to Destroy._--Boil some quassia-chips in a little water, sweeten with syrup or molasses, and place it in saucers. It is destructive to flies, but not to children.

_Walnuts, to Pickle._--Take 100 young walnuts, lay them in salt and water for two or three days, changing the water every day. (If required to be soon ready for use, pierce each walnut with a larding pin that the pickle may penetrate). Wipe them with a soft cloth, and lay them on a folded cloth for some hours. Then put them in a jar, and pour on them sufficient of the above spiced vinegar, hot, to cover them. Or they may be allowed to simmer gently in strong vinegar, then put into a jar with a handful of mustard-seed, 1 oz. of ginger, ¼ oz. mace, 1 oz. allspice, 2 heads of garlic, and 2 split nutmegs; and pour on them sufficient boiling vinegar to cover them. Some prefer the walnuts to be gently simmered with the brine, then laid on a cloth for a day or two till they turn black, put into a jar, and hot spiced vinegar poured on them.

_To Pickle Cucumbers and Gherkins._--Small cucumbers, but not too young, are wiped clean with a dry cloth, put into a jar, and boiling vinegar, with a handful of salt, poured on them. Boil up the vinegar every three days, and pour it on them, till they become green: then add ginger and pepper, and tie them up close for use, or cover them with salt and water (as above) in a stone jar; cover them, and set them on the hearth before the fire for two or three days, till they turn yellow; then put away the water, and cover them with hot vinegar, and set them near the fire, and keep them hot for eight or ten days, till they become green; then pour off the vinegar, cover them with hot spiced vinegar, and cover them close.

_Mushroom Ketchup._--Pickled mushrooms, 4 lbs.: salt, 2 lbs. Sprinkle it on the mushrooms; and, when they liquefy, remove the juice; acid pimento, 6 oz.; cloves, 1 oz.; boil gently and strain: the remaining liquor, if any, may be treated with pepper, mace and ginger for a second quality.

_Tomato Ketchup._--Proceed as for mushroom ketchup, and add a little Chili pepper vinegar.

_To Take Fac-Similes of Signatures._--Write your name on a piece of paper, and while the ink is wet sprinkle over it some finely-powdered gum arabic, then make a rim round it, and pour on it some fusible alloy, in a liquid state. Impressions may be taken from the plates formed in this way, by means of printing-ink and the copperplate-press.

_To Copy Letters without a Press._--A black copying ink, which flows easily from the pen, and will enable any one to obtain very sharp copies without the aid of a press, can be prepared in the following manner: One ounce of coarsely broken extract of logwood and two drachms of crystallized carbonate of soda are placed in a porcelain capsule with eight ounces of distilled water, and heated until the solution is of a deep red color, and all the extract is dissolved. The capsule is then taken from the fire. Stir well into the mixture one ounce of glycerine of specific gravity of 1.25, fifteen grains of neutral chromate of potash, dissolved in a little water, and two drachms of finely pulverized gum arabic, which may be previously dissolved in a little hot water so as to produce a mucilaginous solution. The ink is now complete and ready for use. In well closed bottles it may be kept for a long time without getting mouldy, and, however old it may be, will allow copies of writing to be taken without the aid of a press. It does not attack steel pens. This ink cannot be used with a copying press. Its impression is taken on thin moistened copying paper, at the back of which is placed a sheet of writing paper.

_To Obtain Fresh Blown Flowers in Winter._--Choose some of the most perfect buds of the flowers you would preserve, such as are latest in blowing and ready to open; cut them off with a pair of scissors, leaving to each, if possible, a piece of stem about three inches long; cover the end of the stem immediately with sealing wax, and when the buds are a little shrunk and wrinkled, wrap each of them up separately in a piece of paper, perfectly clean and dry, and lock them up in a dry box or drawer; and they will keep without corrupting. In winter, or at any time when you would have the flowers blow, take the buds at night and cut off the end of the stem sealed with wax, and put the buds into water wherein a little nitre or salt has been diffused, and the next day you will have the pleasure of seeing the buds open and expanding themselves, and the flowers display their most lively colors, and breathe their agreeable odors.

_Cheap Ice Cream._--Sweet milk, two quarts. Scald the milk, pour over four eggs, and stir well. Cool off and add sugar and essence of lemon or vanilla. Pour into a deep, narrow tin pail. Cover, and set into a wooden pail. Fill up the space between the two vessels with pounded ice and salt. In half an hour it will be fit for use. Keep thus in the ice till wanted to use.

_To Take Impressions from Coins._--Make a thick solution of isinglass in water, and lay it hot on the metal; let it remain for twelve hours, then remove it, breathe on it and apply gold or silver-leaf on the wrong side. Any color may be given to the isinglass instead of gold or silver, by simple mixture.

_To Print Pictures from the Print Itself._--The page or print is soaked in a solution first of potass, and then of tartaric acid. This produces a perfect diffusion of crystals of bitartrate of potass through the texture of the unprinted part of the paper. As this salt resists oil, the ink roller may now be passed over the surface, without transferring any of its contents, except to the printed paper.

_To Preserve Steel Knives from Rust._--Never wrap them in woolen cloths. When they are not to be used for some time, have them made bright and perfectly dry; then take a soft rag, and rub each blade with dry wood ashes.--Wrap them closely in thick brown paper, and lay them in a drawer or dry closet. A set of elegant knives, used only on great occasions, were kept in this way for over a hundred years without a spot of rust.

_To Plate and Gild without a Battery._--A very useful solution of silver or gold for plating or gilding without the aid of a battery may be made as follows: Take say, 1 ounce of nitrate of silver, dissolved in one quart of distilled or rain water. When thoroughly dissolved, throw in a few crystals of hyposulphite of soda, which will at first form a brown precipitate, but which eventually becomes redissolved if sufficient hyposulphite has been employed. A slight excess of this salt must, however, be added. The solution thus formed may be used for coating small articles of steel, brass, or German silver, by simply dipping a sponge in the solution and rubbing it over the surface of the article to be coated. I have succeeded in coating steel very satisfactorily by this means, and have found the silver so firmly attached to the steel (when the solution has been carefully made) that it has been removed with considerable difficulty. A solution of gold may be made in the same way, and applied as described. A concentrated solution either of gold or silver thus made, may be used for coating parts of articles which have stripped or blistered, by applying it with a camel hair pencil to the part, and touching the spot at the same time with a thin clean strip of zinc.

_To make a Clock for 25 Cents._--First you get a sheet of stout millboard, such as is used by bookbinders. This will cost you from six to ten cents. Get size twenty-seven by twenty-two inches. Draw two lines the longest way equally distant from the edge and each other. This divides it into three parts of the same size. Now from the top measure off ten inches for the face, and then with your knife partly cut the board through the rest of the lines below the face, and bend them back and glue together by putting a strip of cloth over the edges where they meet. Mark out the face of your clock, and make a hole for the hands. Go to your tinman, and he will make you a funnel-shaped spout, which you must glue on the bottom. Then make a spool like a cone--running to a point on one end--and eight inches across on the other. Wind a string on this cone, commencing at the large end, and winding down just as you would a top. Tie to the end a conical ink bottle filled with sand. Make some wooden hands, and put them on the face. Then fill your box, now made, with sand, and when it is hung up the sand will run out slowly at the bottom, and as the sand goes out the weights lower, and turn the wheel, which makes the hands go around. It will depend upon the size of the hole at the bottom as to how fast it runs. You can paint it, and make it quite an ornament and curiosity in your house.

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Corrections.

The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.

p. 16:

quarter of an ounce of gum arabic
a quarter of an ounce of gum arabic

p. 18:

them two or three days in colorless venegar.
them two or three days in colorless vinegar.

p. 43:

to be corroded with the acid, should be ferfectly
to be corroded with the acid, should be perfectly

p. 45:

cream tartar and castile soap, one uarter of an ounce.
cream tartar and castile soap, one quarter of an ounce.

p. 49:

A little salt improves it flavor;
A little salt improves its flavor;

p. 52:

Our's takes his naps out of doors in the shade
Ours takes his naps out of doors in the shade

p. 53:

The suphate of lead is taken up
The sulphate of lead is taken up

p. 59:

N. B.--It it applied by rubbing
N. B.--It is applied by rubbing