Paper and Printing Recipes / A Handy Volume of Practical Recipes, Concerning the Every-Day Business of Stationers, Printers, Binders, and the Kindred Trades

by John Sawtelle Ford

To Restore the Original Whiteness Of Copper-Plate, Wood Engraving, Etc.

The following process will restore the original whiteness of copper-plate, wood-engraving or printed matter:—Place a piece of phosphorus in a large glass vessel; pour in water of 30° centigrade (that is 86° Fahrenheit) temperature until the phosphorus is half covered. Cork up, but not tightly, the glass vessel, and lay it in a moderately warm place for fourteen hours. Damp the paper that is to be bleached, with distilled water; fasten it to a piece of platinum wire and hang it up inside the glass vessel. The faded paper after a short time will regain its original white color. It should then be taken out and washed in water; next drawn through a weak solution of soda, and finally dipped in pure water and laid on a glass table, and thus made dry and smooth.