How To Renew Manuscripts

Take a hair pencil and wash the part that has been effaced with a solution of prussiate of potash and water, and the writing will again appear if the paper has not been destroyed.

Tracing Paper

1. Wash very thin paper with the following mixture: Spirits turpentine, 6 parts, by weight, resin 1 part, boiled nut oil 1 part. Apply with a soft sponge.

2. Brush over one side of a good, thin, unsized paper with a varnish made of equal parts of Canada balsam and turpentine. If required to take water-color, it must be washed over with ox-gall and dried before being used.

3. Open a quire of double-crown tissue paper, and brush the first sheet with a mixture of mastic varnish and oil of turpentine, equal parts; proceed with each sheet similarly, and dry them on lines by hanging them up singly. As the process goes on, the under sheets absorb a portion of the varnish, and require less than if single sheets were brushed separately.

Transfer Paper - is made by rubbing white paper with a composition consisting of 2 oz. tallow, 1/2 oz. powdered black-lead, 1/4 pint linseed oil, and sufficient lamp-black to make it of the consistency of cream. These should be melted together and rubbed on the paper while hot. When dry it will be fit for use.

Soap-Bubbles

Few things amuse children more than blowing bubbles. Dissolve 1/4 of an oz. of castile or oil soap, cut up in small pieces, in 3/4 of a pt. of water, and boil it for two or three minutes; then add five oz. of glycerine. When cold, this fluid will produce the best and most lasting bubbles that can be blown.

How To Prevent Rusting

1. Boiled linseed oil will keep polished tools from rusting if it is allowed to dry on them. Common sperm oil will prevent them from rusting for a short period. A coat of copal varnish is frequently applied to polished tools exposed to the weather. Woolen materials are the best for wrappers for metals. 2. Iron and steel goods of all descriptions are kept free from rust by the following: Dissolve 1/2 oz. of camphor in 1 lb. of hog's lard, take off the scum, and mix as much black-lead as will give the mixture an iron color. Iron and steel and machinery of all kinds, rubbed over with this mixture, and left with it on for 24 hours, and then rubbed with a linen cloth, will keep clean for months. If the machinery is for exportation it should be kept thickly coated with this during the voyage.

How To Prevent Lead Exploding

Many mechanics have had their patience sorely tried when pouring melted lead around a damp or wet joint to find it explode, blow out, or scatter from the effects of steam generated by the heat of the lead. The whole trouble may be stopped by putting a piece of resin the size of the end of a man's thumb into the ladle and allowing it to melt before pouring. Simple as the secret is, many have paid $20 for the privilege of knowing it.

How To Repair Rubber Hose

Cut the hose apart where it is defective, obtain from any gas-fitter a piece of iron pipe two or three inches long, twist the hose over it until the ends meet, wrap with strong twine, well waxed, and it will last a long time.

How To Keep Wagon Tires On The Wheel

A practical mechanic suggests a method of so putting tires on wagons that they will not get loose and require resetting. He says he ironed a wagon some years ago for his own use, and before putting on the tires, he filled the felloes with linseed oil, and the tires have worn out and were never loose. This method is as follows: Use a long cast-iron heater made for the purpose; the oil is brought to a boiling heat, the wheel is placed on a stick, so as to hang each felloe in the oil an hour. The timber should be dry, as green timber will not take oil. Care should be taken that the oil is not made hotter than a boiling heat, or the timber will be burned. Timber filled with oil is not susceptible of injury by water, and is rendered much more durable by this process.

Alloy For Journal Boxes

Copper 3 lbs., tin 3 lbs., and antimony 1 lb. Melt the copper first, then add the tin, and lastly the antimony. It should be first run into ingots, then melted and cast in the form required for the boxes.

To Mend Amber

Smear the parts which are to be united with linseed oil, hold the oiled part carefully over a small charcoal fire, a hot cinder, or a gas-light, being careful to cover up all the rest of the object loosely with paper; when the oiled parts have begun to feel the heat, so as to be sticky, pinch or press them together, and hold them so till nearly cold. Only that part where the edges are to be united must be warmed, and even that with care, lest the form or polish of the other parts should be disturbed; the part joined generally requires a little re-polishing.

Bronzing Wood

The wood is first covered with a uni-form coating of glue, or of drying oil, and when nearly dry the bronze powder, contained in a small bag, is dusted over it. The surface of the object is afterward rubbed with a piece of moist rag, or the bronze powder may be previously mixed with the drying oil, and applied with a brush. The bronze powder can be procured at almost any drug store, and at some paint stores.

How To Print A Picture From The Print Itself

The page or picture is soaked in a solution, first of potassa, and then of tartaric acid. This produces a perfect diffusion of crystals of bitartarate of potassa through the texture of the unprinted part of the paper. As this salt resists oil, the ink roller may now be passed over the surface, without transferring any part of its contents except to the printed part.