Flour Paste. The best paste for general purposes is simply wheat flour beaten into cold water to perfect smoothness, and the whole just brought to a boil, while being constantly stirred to prevent burning. The addition of a few drops of creosote, or a few grains of corrosive sublimate, or a little carbolic acid, or bisulphite of lime (especially the first and second), will prevent insects from attacking it, and preserve it (in covered vessels) for years. Should it get too hard it may be softened with water.

2272. Paper Hangers' Paste

2272. Paper Hangers' Paste. Beat up 4 pounds of good white wheat flour in cold water - enough to form a stiff batter (sifting the flour first); beat it well, to take out all lumps; then add enough cold water to make it the consistence of pudding batter; add about 2 ounces of well pounded alum. Be sure and have plenty of boiling water ready ; take it quite boiling from the fire, and pour gently and quickly over the batter, stirring rapidly at the same time; and when it is observed to swell and lose the white color of the flour, it is cooked and ready. This will make about 3/4 of a pail of solid paste; do not use it while hot; allow it to cool and it will go further; about a pint of cold water may be put over the top of it, to prevent it skinning; before using, thin this with cold water to spread easily and quickly under the brush. This paste will keep a long while without fermenting, when it is useless; mould on the top does not hurt it; remove it, the remainder is good. (See No. 2273 (Strongly Adhering Paste).)

2273. Strongly Adhering Paste

2273. Strongly Adhering Paste. Where great adhesiveness is required, such as papering over varnished paper or painted walls, it will be necessary to add 1/2 an ounce of finely powdered resin to each 1/2 gallon of the batter in the last receipt. As the resin does not dissolve so readily, set the pan containing the ingredients over a moderate fire, constantly stirring until it boils and thickens, and a short time after put out to cool. Re-duce the paste with thin gum-arabic water. In hanging "flock" papers with crimson in them, omit the alum, as it will injure the color.

2274. To Make a Fine Paste

2274.    To Make a Fine Paste. A solution of 21/2 ounces gum-arabic in 2 quarts warm water, is thickened to a paste with wheat flour; to this is added a solution of alum and sugar of lead, 11/2 ounces each in water ; the mixture is heated and stirred about to boil, and is then cooled. It may be thinned, if necessary, with a gum solution.

2275. To Make Paste for Laying Cloth or Leather on Table Tops

2275.    To Make Paste for Laying Cloth or Leather on Table Tops. To 1 pint best wheaten flour add resin, very finely powdered, about 2 large spoonfuls; of alum, 1 spoonful, in powder; mix them all well together, put them into a pan, and add by degrees soft or rain water, carefully stirring it till it is of the consistence of thinnish cream ; put it into a saucepan over a clear fire, keeping it constantly stirred, that it may not get lumpy. When it is of a stiff consistence, so that the spoon will stand upright in it, it is done enough. Be careful to stir it well from the bottom, for it will bum if not well attended to. Empty it out into a pan and cover it over till cold, to prevent a skin forming on the top, which would make it lumpy. This paste is very superior for the purpose, and adhesive.

2276. To Paste Leather or Cloth on Table Tops

2276.     To Paste Leather or Cloth on Table Tops. To use paste in the last receipt, for cloth or baize, spread the paste evenly and smoothly on the top of the table, and lay your cloth on it, pressing and smoothing it with a flat piece of wood; let it remain till dry; then trim the edges close to the cross-banding. If you cut it close at first, it will, in drying, shrink and look bad where it meets the banding all around. If" used for leather, the leather must be first previously dampened, and then the paste spread over it; next lay it on the table, and rub it smooth and level with a linen cloth, and cut the edges close to the banding with a short knife. Some lay their table-covers with glue instead of paste, and for cloth perhaps it is the best method; but for leather it is not proper, as glue is apt to run through. In using it for cloth, great care must be taken that the glue is not too thin, and that the cloth be well rubbed down with a thick piece of wood made hot at the fire, for the glue soon chills. You may, by this method, cut off the edges close to the border at once.