NUMBER IV.
The preparation of electrical Paint.
The electrician will very frequently have occasion to make use of paint, both for ornament, and convenience. We shall therefore describe a pigment, which, while it looks very well, insulates the instrument, and answers a variety of other purposes.—If a red colour is wished, let a piece of red sealing-wax be dissolved in a sufficient quantity of highly rectified spirits of wine, then let the substance which you intend to colour be warmed, after which the paint may be laid on by means of a hair pencil. Care should be taken to render the instrument clean and dry, especially if it be a glass one.—Two or three coats of this paint, will generally answer every purpose. If a black colour is preferred, black sealing-wax may be used.
If the outside coating of a jar is desired to be coloured, common oil paint will do much better than that above described, for here insulation is not required; a covering of some paint or other is always necessary, in order to prevent the amalgam, which is often scattered about the table where the apparatus is placed, from corroding the tin-foil with which the jar is covered.