Dissolve 2 oz. soft soap, 4 oz. potash, in boiling water, add 1/2 lb. quicklime. Apply hot, and leave for twelve to twenty-four hours. This will enable the old paint to be washed off with hot water.

This is a quicker and neater process than either burning or scraping off (see Part II., p. 416).

Cleaning Old Paint is effected by washing with a solution of pearlash in water. If the surface is greasy it should be treated with fresh quicklime mixed in water, washed off, and reapplied repeatedly.

Extract of Lethirium is a ready-made preparation which removes old paint very quickly.

For this purpose the pure extract must be thinly brushed over the surface twice or thrice.

To remove a single coat of paint the extract is diluted with thirty times its bulk of water.

To clean painted surfaces it is diluted with 200 or 300 parts of water.

The extract must be carefully washed off with vinegar and water before laying on another coat of paint.

Marvel Fluid is another patent preparation for washing off old paint.

Mordant to make paint adhere to zinc surfaces is composed as follows : - Soft water, 64 parts.

Chloride of copper, 1 part. Nitrate of ,, 1 „ Sal-ammoniac, 1 ,, Hydrochloric acid, 1 „

The Paperhanger, Painter, Grainer, and Decorator?' Assistant.

2 Spon.