How To Take Impressions Of Butterflies' Wings

Clip the wings of the butterfly. Lay them on clean paper, in the form of a butterfly, when flying. Spread some thick clean gum water on another piece of paper, press it on the wings, and it will take them up; lay a piece of white paper over it, and rub it gently with your finger. Then draw the body in the space left between the wings.

Clothes Balls

Take four ounces of fuller's earth, dried so as to crumble into powder, and mix with it half an ounce of pearlash. Wet it with a sufficiency of lemon-juice to work it into a stiff paste. Then form it into balls, and dry them in the sun, or on the top of a moderately warm stove. When quite dry put them away for use. They will be found efficacious in removing grease spots and stains from articles of clothing, first wetting the spot with cold water, and then rubbing on the ball; afterwards drying the place in the sun or by the fire, and then washing it off with a sponge and clean water.

Fine Home-Made Candles

Take ten ounces of fresh mutton fat or suet, a quarter of a pound of bleached white wax, a quarter of an ounce of camphor, and two ounces of alum. Cut or break up all these articles, and then melt them together, skimming them well. Have ready the wicks (which should be previously soaked in lime-water and saltpetre, and then thoroughly dried), fix them in the moulds, and pour in the melted liquid, proceeding as in making common mould candles. Candles made in this manner of the above materials, are hard and durable, and will not run; burning also with a very clear light.

Packing Household Articles

In packing for the removal of a family to a distant place, let all the boxes and trunks be numbered, and the numbers put down in a book; let some one who overlooks the whole of the packing, set down every article, denoting the exact box or trunk in which it is placed, and the order in which the things are put in, beginning with those at the bottom. By this means, after arriving at the place of destination, you will know, by consulting your book, where to find whatever you want; and which of the boxes it will be best to open first. Also, in a long sea voyage, if there is occasion to have a trunk brought from the hold to get out of it any particular article, your book will tell exactly in which of your trunks the article is.

How To Wash Vials

Put into a washkettle some sifted ashes, and pour on it cold water. Then put in the vials (without corks), place the kettle over the fire, and let it gradually come to a boil. After it has boiled awhile, take it off. and set it aside; letting the vials remain in it till cold. Then take them out, rinse, drain them, and wipe the outsides. You may wash black bottles in the same manner. If you have occasion to wash a single vial or bottle, pour into it through a small funnel either some lye, or some lukewarm water in which a little pearlash has been dissolved; shake, let it stand awhile to soak. Then rinse it well in cold water, two or three times. If it still smells of the former contents, soak it in more pearl-ash water (with the addition of a little lime), or in more lye.

Cleaning Kettles And Saucepans

A receipt for cleaning the inside of kettles or saucepans of the hard, stony substance, resulting from continually boiling hard water:- In a kettle of boiling water, put about the sixteenth part of an ounce of sal-ammonia. Let it boil one hour, and then the substance will be dissolved, and is readily disengaged from the metal.

How To Remove Black Stains From The Skin

Half an ounce each of cream of tartar and oxalic acid, mixed and pounded together, kept in a covered cup in the drawer, and marked "poison." To use it, wet the black stains with the corner of a towel, dipped in water, rub on a little of the mixture. Then immediately wash it off with water, and afterwards with soap and water, and the black stains will be visible no longer. This mixture will also remove ink, and all other stains from the fingers, and from white clothes. It is more speedy in its effects, if applied with warm water.

For Cleaning Wainscots, And Other Painted Woods

Four ounces of potash and four ounces of powdered quick-lime are to be mixed together, and boiled for half an hour in three quarts of water; this mixture is to stand until it is cold, and quite clear; the clear liquid is then poured off, and a painter's brush, dipped into it, is to be passed over the surface of the wood, in the same way as for painting, immediately afterwards washing with cold water. This mode of cleaning will frequently render a new coat of paint unnecessary, and it has the advantage of being destructive to the eggs of insects which may be deposited in the interstices of the wood; where there is reason to suspect that bugs are m the wood, it may be well, as an additional precaution, to add to the mixture two drachms of corrosive sublimate.

Balloons From Turkey's Crops

Free the crop from a thick coat of fat; turn the inside out, and wash the food away; soak it in water for a day or two, then lay it on a cloth, and with a bone or knife scrape off the internal coat of the stomach; wash it well and dry it with a clean cloth; then turn the crop, and make an incision through the external coats, taking particular care not to cut through the membrane; draw the coats at once over the neck, which must be cut long: for greater convenience in using the balloon when finished. Proceed with the other neck in the same way; tie it firm with silk, and cut it close to the body of the balloon; it must be then distended with wind and hung up to dry. It may then be painted and varnished, but will not require it if properly prepared. It may be made large enough to contain a gallon of gas, and so light as to weigh only thirty grains.

Black Bayer For Drawing Patterns

Mix lamp-black and sweet oil; with a bit of flannel cover a sheet or two of large writing-paper with this mixture; then dab the paper dry with a bit of fine linen, and keep it for using in the following manner:- Put the black side on another sheet of paper, and fasten the corners together with small pins. Lay on the back of the black paper the pattern to be drawn, and go over it with the point of a steel pencil; the black paper will then leave the impression of the pattern on the under sheet, on which you must draw it with ink.