Gold

1. Venice turpentine 4 oz., fine shell-lac 8 oz., leaf-gold 14 sheets, bronze powder 1/2 oz., magnesia (made into a paste with oil of turpentine) 1 1/2 drs.

2. Use gold talc instead of gold leaf and bronze. - Gray.

Marbled

Melt each coloured wax separately, and just as they begin to grow solid, mix together. - Gray.

Yellow

Venice turpentine 2 oz., shell-lac 4 oz., colophony 1 1/4 oz., King's yellow 3/4 oz., magnesia as before.

Perfumed Wax

Add to any of the above a small quantity of fine benzoin.

Common Bottle Wax

1. Dark resin 18 oz., shell-lac 1 oz., bees'-wax 1 oz. Mix together, and colour with red lead, Venetian red, or lamp black.

2. Resin 19 oz., bees'-wax 1 oz.; colour as before.

Artificial Sea-Water

See Aquarium.

How To Bleach Shell-lac

See Lac, further back.

Silk Cleaner

Mix well together 1/2 lb. of soft soap, a tea-spoonful of brandy, 1/2 pint of methylated spirit and 1/2 pint of water. It is to be spread with a sponge on each side of the silk without creasing it; the silk is then rinsed out two or three times, and ironed on the wrong side.

Silvering Paste

Nitrate of silver 1 part, cyanide of potassium (Liebig's) 3 parts, water sufficient to form a thick paste. Apply it with a rag. A bath for the same purpose is made by dissolving 100 parts of sulphite of sodium, and 15 of nitrate of silver, in water, and dipping the article to be silvered, into it.

Oxidized Silver

Ornaments to which this name is given have a surface of silver which has been acted on by some chemical liquid. A solution of sal ammoniac will give a brownish tint; a still better one is obtained by using equal parts of sulphate of copper and sal ammoniac dissolved in vinegar. A fine black tint may be produced by a slightly warm solution of sulphide of potassium. Solutions of the chlorides of platinum and gold are sometimes adopted in these processes.

Silvering Glass

See Glass.

How To Purify and Reduce Silver

Silver, as used in the arts and coinage, is alloyed with a portion of copper. To purify it, dissolve the metal in nitric acid slightly diluted, and add common salt, which throws down the whole of the silver in the form of chloride. To reduce it into a metallic state several methods are used; - 1. The chloride must be repeatedly washed with distilled water, and placed in a zinc cup; a little diluted sulphuric acid being added, the chloride is soon reduced. The silver when thoroughly washed is quite pure. In the absence of a zinc cup, a porcelain cup containing a zinc plate may be used. The process is expedited by warming the cup.

2. Digest the washed chloride with pure copper and ammonia. The quantity of ammonia need not be sufficient to dissolve the chloride. Leave the mixture for a day, then wash the silver thoroughly. - Hornung.

3. Boil the washed and moist chloride in solution of pure potash, adding a little sugar; when washed it is quite pure.

Solvent for Silver

See further on.

Size

Oil Size is made by grinding yellow ochre or burnt red ochre with boiled linseed oil, and thinning it with oil of turpentine. Water Size (for burnished gilding) is parchment size ground with yellow ochre.