Benzoline

A product of the fractional distillation of American rock oil, sold for sponge lamps. At a temperature less than 100° F. it will ignite if brought near a light, so that great care must be taken with it, and it should not be kept in quantity.

Beverages, and Powders for Preparing them

See further back.

Bird Lime

Boil the middle bark of the holly 7 or 8 hours in water; drain it, and lay it in heaps in the ground, covered with stones, for 2 or 3 weeks, till reduced to a mucilage. Beat this in a mortar, wash it in rain-water, and knead it till free from extraneous matters. Put it into earthern pots, and in 4 or 5 days it will be fit for use. An inferior kind is made by boiling linseed oil for some hours, until it becomes a viscid paste.

Blacking for Dress Boots

1. Gum 8 oz., treacle 2 oz., ink a pint, vinegar 2 oz., spirit of wine 2 oz. Dissolve the gum and treacle in the ink and vinegar, strain, and add the spirit.

2. To the above add 1 oz. of sweet oil, and 1/4 oz. lampblack. [These are applied with a sponge, and allowed to dry out of the dust. They will not bear the wet.]

3. Beat together the whites of 2 eggs, a tablespoonful of spirit of wine, a lump of sugar, and a little finely powdered ivory-black to thicken.

Blacking without Polishing

Treacle 4 oz., lamp-black 1/2 oz., yeast a tablespoonful, 2 eggs, olive oil a teaspoon-ful, oil of turpentine a teaspoonful. Mix well. To be applied with a sponge, without brushing.

India Rubber (Patent) Blacking

Ivory-black 60 lbs., treacle 45 lbs., vinegar (No. 24) 20 gallons, powdered gum 1 lb., India-rubber oil 9 lbs. (The latter is made by dissolving by heat, 18 oz. of India rubber in 9 lbs. of rape oil.) Grind the whole smooth in a paint mill, then add, by small quantities at a time, 12 lbs. of oil of vitriol, stirring it strongly for half an hour a day for a fortnight.

Paste Blacking

1. These pastes may be made with the ingredients of liquid blacking, using sufficient vinegar, in which a little gum has been dissolved, to form a paste. Make it into cakes, and dry it.

2. German Blacking. Powdered bone-black is mixed with half its weight of molasses and one eighth of its weight of olive oil; and to this is added afterwards one eighth of its weight of hydrochloric acid, and one fourth of its weight of strong sulphuric acid. The whole is to be then mixed up with water into a sort of unctuous paste. - Liebig.

3. Bailey's Blacking Balls. Bruised gum tragacanth

1 oz., water 4 oz.; mix, and add 2 oz. of neat's foot-oil,

2 oz. of fine ivory-black, 2 oz. of Prussian blue, 4 oz. of sugar-candy; mix, and evaporate to a proper consistence.

For Heel Ball, see Balls, further back

Blacking for Harness

1. Isinglass or gelatine 1/4 oz., powdered indigo 1/4 oz., soft soap 4 oz., logwood 4 oz., glue 5 oz. Boil together in 2 pints of vinegar till the glue is dissolved; then strain through a cloth, and bottle for use. This appears an unchemical composition; but is inserted (as are many similar ones) because it is in actual use. The next is of a different character. 2. Melt 8 oz. of bee's-wax in an earthen pipkin, and stir into it 2 oz. of ivory-black, 1 oz. of Prussian blue ground in oil, 1 oz. of oil of turpentine, and 1/4 oz. of copal varnish. Make it into balls. To be applied with a brush and polished with an old handkerchief.

3. Treacle 1/2 lb., lamp black 1 oz., yeast a spoonful, sugar-candy, olive oil, gum tragacanth, isinglass, each 1 oz., a cow's gall. Mix all together with 2 pints of stale beer, and let it stand before the fire for an hour.