6309. To Preserve Soap Grease

6309.      To Preserve Soap Grease. Fill a cask half full of good strong lye and drop all refuse grease therein. Stir up the mixture once a week.

6310. Waterproof Starch

6310.    Waterproof Starch. This is a French pateut, and consists in passing the goods, after being properly starched, through a bath of chloride of zinc at a temperature of about 60° Fahr. The starch will then remain in the clothes after several successive washings.

6311. Cement to Resist Sulphuric Acid

6311.    Cement to Resist Sulphuric Acid. Melt caoutchouc by a gentle heat, add from 6 to 8 per cent, of the weight of tallow, taking care to keep the mass well stirred ; add dry slacked lime, so as to make the fluid mass the consistency of soft paste ; and lastly add 20 per cent, of red lead, whereby the mass, which otherwise remains soft, becomes hard and dry. This cement resists, according to Dr. Wagner, boiling sulphuric acid. A solution of caoutchouc in twice its weight of raw linseed oil, aided by heating, and the addition thereto of an equal weight of pipe-clay, yields a plastic mass which also resists most acids.

6312. Cement for Fixing Glass Letters

6312.     Cement for Fixing Glass Letters. A thick solution of marine glue in wood naphtha will answer perfectly if color is no object. But the glass must be chemically clean, and this is not always easy. The least trace of soap or grease will spoil the adhesion of any cement. Try soda or ammonia, followed by whiting and water, clean cloths, and plenty of rubbing, and let the cement dry on the letters till the surface just begins to be " tacky" before you apply them.

6313. New Process for Rendering: Cloth Waterproof

6313.     New Process for Rendering: Cloth Waterproof. This is a method for rendering fabrics waterproof without destroying their ventilating qualities. Place in a metal vessel of about 6 gallons capacity, 20 pounds sulphate of alumina cut in thin slices; and in another similar receptacle 8 pounds oleic acid and 6 quarts alcohol. Thoroughly dissolve the latter compound, and stir it with a wooden stick for 20 minutes, gradually adding the sulphate of alumina. Leave the whole for about 24 hours to settle. The oleic acid and the spirit will then be at the surface, and can be decanted; the remaining deposit should be filtered through flannel, and pressed into a cake. This can be dried by heat, and ground to a powder. For use on silken or linen clothes, 11/2 pounds to 20 gallons of water will be ample ; wool will not require more than 1 pound. It is as well to strain these solutions, and the fabrics require only to be thoroughly saturated and dried in the air.

6314. To Clarify Quills

6314.    To Clarify Quills. Cut off the small top of the quills, tie them loosely in bundles, fix them nearly upright in a saucepan of water in which a small piece of alum has been dissolved, about the size of a walnut of alum to a quart of water; let them boil slowly until they become clear; add a little turmeric or a small pinch of saffron to the water, to give them the yellow color; dry them in the sun. Tie paper round the feather part of the quills, to keep them from dust. The quantity of alum may bo increased according as you wish the quills more or less brittle.