This section is from the "Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas Recipes Processes" encyclopedia, by Norman W. Henley and others.
To give a copper article a black covering, clean it with emery paper, heat gently in a Bunsen or a spirit flame, immerse for 10 seconds in solution of copper filings in dilute nitric acid, and heat again.
A fine red color may be given to copper by gradually heating it in an air bath. Prolonged heating at a comparatively low temperature, or rapid heating at a high temperature, produces the same result. As
soon as the desired color is attained the metal should be rapidly cooled by quenching in water. The metal thus colored may be varnished.
Polished copper acquires an orange-like color leaning to gold, when dipped for a few seconds into a solution of crystallized copper acetate. A handsome violet is obtained by placing the metal for a few minutes in a solution of antimony chloride and rubbing it afterwards with a piece of wood covered with cotton. During this operation the copper must be heated to a degree bearable to the hand. A crystalline appearance is produced by boiling the article in copper sulphate.
Take nitric acid, 100 parts; kitchen salt, 2 parts; calcined soot, 2 parts; or nitric acid, 10 parts; sulphuric acid, 10 parts; hydrochloric acid, 1 part. As these bleaching baths attack the copper quickly, the objects must be left in only for a few seconds, washing them afterwards in plenty of water, and drying in sawdust, bran, or spent tan.
Water, 1,000 parts; oxalic acid, 30 parts; spirit of wine, 100 parts; essence of turpentine, 50 parts; fine tripoli, 100 parts.
Water, 1,000 parts; oxalic acid, 30 parts; alcohol, 50 parts; essence of turpentine, 40 parts; fine tripoli, 50 parts.
Sulphuric acid, 300 parts; sulphate of alumina, 80 parts; water, 520 parts.
Objects made of copper may be satisfactorily tempered by subjecting them to a certain degree of heat for a determined period of time and bestrewing them with powdered sulphur during the heating. While hot the objects are plunged into a bath of blue vitriol; after the bath they may be heated again.
See Alloys.
See Cleaning Preparations and Methods.
See Etching.
See Pood.
See Lacquers.
See Paper, Metallic.
See Plating.
See Polishes.
See Gold.
See Solders.
See Varnishes.
 
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