Etching Varnishes

1. White wax 2 oz., asphaltum 2 oz., melt the wax in a clean pipkin, add the asphaltum in powder, and boil to a proper consistence. Pour it into warm water, and form it into balls, which must be kneaded, and put into taffeta for use.

2. White wax 2 oz., Burgundy pitch and black pitch each 1/2 oz.; melt together, and add by degrees 2 oz. of asphaltum in powder, and boil till a drop cooled on a plate becomes brittle.

3. Equal quantities of linseed oil and mastic, melted together.

How To obviate Rancidity in Fats

Add oil of pimento or balsam of peru, 2 drops to the ounce of lard or other fat. - Mr. T. B. Groves.

Filtering Powder

Fullers' earth washed, dried, and coarsely powdered; mixed with prepared bone black (see Charcoal, Animal) coarsely powdered.

Filter for Corrosive Liquids

Powdered glass or asbestos, or gun-cotton loosely packed in the neck of a funnel.

for Gin Finings

Carbonate of potash 4 oz., roche alum 8 oz. Brewers' finings consist of isinglass dissolved in stale beer.

How To Extinguish Fires

Dr. Clanny's Solution consists of 5 oz. of sal ammoniac to a gallon of water. The compound used in Phillips's Fire Annihilator is said to consist of dried prussiate of potash, sugar, and chlorate of potash.

Coloured Fires

The ingredients for these compounds must be dry, not too finely powdered, and mixed very uniformly. The nitrate of strontian requires to be gently heated in an iron pan till its falls to powder. The ingredients should always be reduced to powder separately, and mixed very lightly with the other powders; the whole must then be passed through a sieve once or twice. Great caution is required when dealing with chlorate of potash.

White Fires

1. Nitre 30, sulphur 10, black antimony 5; mix.

2. Nitre 48, sulphur 13i, black antimony 5 parts; mix.

3. Nitre 12, sulphur 16, black antimony 4, charcoal 1/4, white arsenic 1/4; mix.

4. Nitre 46 1/4, sulphur 23, meal powder 12 1/2, zinc filings 18.

5. For stars. Nitre 57, sulphur 28, zinc filings 15. Blue and Purple Fires. 1. Chlorate of potash 9, dried verdigris 2, sulphur 1 oz.; mix.

2. Nitre 12, sulphur 16, black antimony 4, charcoal 1/4, orpiment 1/4.

3. Chlorate of potash 9, sulphur 12, refiner's blue ver-diter 3 oz.; mix.

4. Purple. Chlorate of potash 5, nitrate of strontian 16, realgar 1, sulphur 2, lamp black 1; mix.

5. Nitre 5, sulphur 2, metallic antimony 1; mix.

6. Purple. Chlorate of potash 2 oz., sulphur 1 drachm, oxide of copper 1 oz.; mix.

7. Violet. Chlorate of potash 1 dr., pure copper 1/2 dr., sulphur a scruple, charcoal 16 grs.; mix.

Lilac Fire

Chlorate of potash 49, sulphur 25, dry chalk 20, black oxide of copper 6 parts. For pans.

Fire-proofing

For Paper, see Paper. For dresses, etc. A strong solution of sulphate of ammonia. The dresses of stage dancers may be soaked in a weak solution of chloride of zinc. The tungstate of soda is said to be the only perfect fire-proofer.

Liquor of Flints

Soluble glass. Mix 70 parts of pearl-ash, 54 of washing soda, and 152 of siliceous sand, and fuse the mixture in a crucible. It is soluble in water, and the filtered solution evaporated to dryness leaves a transparent glass. It has been proposed to render wood, muslins, etc, incombustible by means of the solution. Dr. Turner directs 3 parts of carbonate of potash, and 1 of silica. See Glass, Soluble.

Flowers, Compound for Promoting the Blowing of. Sulphate of ammonia 4 oz., nitre 2 oz., sugar 1 oz., hot water a pint. Keep it in a well-corked bottle. For hyacinth glasses add 8 or 10 drops of the liquid to the water, changing the water every 10 or 12 days. For flowering plants in pots, add a few drops to the water employed to moisten them.