1. Qualities from good to super-excellent may be made from any of the preceding formulæ, by simply omitting the final dilution with the vinegar, sour beer, or water, therein ordered at the end of the process.
2. (Bryant and James’s India-rubber Paste Blacking.—Patent dated 1836.) Of india-rubber oil, ivory black, treacle, and gum-arabic, the same as for their liquid blacking (see I, 4, above), but dissolving the last in only 12 lbs. (say 5 quarts), instead of 20 galls. of vinegar; grinding to a smooth paste in a colour-mill, and then adding of oil of vitriol, 12 lbs. as before. The mass is to be stirred daily for a week, when it will be fit for use, or potting.[196] Excellent.
[196] The final addition of the 3 lbs. of powdered gum, ordered in the formula of their liquid blacking, is not mentioned by the patentees; and we therefore presume they do not intend it to be made. If made, it should be at the end of the week, and the daily stirring must then be continued for another week. This addition, or omission, enables us to produce two qualities from the same formula.
3. Ivory-black, 1 cwt.; treacle, 28 lbs.; rape oil (or other cheap oil), 1 gall.; mix, as before; then add of oil of vitriol, 21 lbs.; (diluted with) water, 2 galls.; mix them quickly and thoroughly by forcible stirring with a strong wooden spatula, and as soon as admixture is complete, but whilst still fuming, put the cover on the tub, and leave it till the next day, when (without further stirring) it will be fit for use or sale.[197] Good ordinary. Used for packets and tins.
[197] The object here is to make the product as spongy and light as possible, so that the purchaser may fancy he has a great deal for his money.
4. As the last; but adding with the ivory-black, &c., 14 to 28 lbs. of coal-soot[198] (sifted), omitting one half of the oil, and diluting the vitriol with an extra gall. of water. Inferior. Chiefly used for 1d. and 1⁄2d. packets.[199]
[198] This is also to give bulk.
[199] A still more common article is vended in the north of England, and in Scotland, in which the oil is omitted altogether. The sale of such blackings (?) is disreputable, when it is remembered that a really good article may be made for 2d. to 21⁄2d. per lb.
5. (German Blacking). Ivory-black, 1 part; treacle, 1⁄2 part; sweet oil, 1⁄8 part; mix, as before; then stir in a mixture of hydrochloric acid, 1⁄8 part; oil of vitriol, 1⁄4 part (each separately diluted with twice its weight of water before mixing them). This forms the ordinary paste-blacking of Germany, according to Liebig.
6. (Without Vitriol.) As I, 5 (antè); but with the omission of the last 1⁄2 gall. of ‘vinegar.’