KISS-ME-QUICK.—Spirits one gallon, Essence of Thyme one-fourth ounce, Essence of Orange Flowers two ounces, Essence of Neroli one-half ounce, Otto of Roses thirty drops, Essence of Jasmine one ounce, Essence of Balm Mint one-half ounce, Petals of Roses four ounces, Oil of Lemon twenty drops, Calorous Aromaticus one-half ounce, Essence Neroli one-fourth ounce. Mix and strain.
HOW TO TEST THE RICHNESS OF MILK.—Procure any long glass vessel—a cologne bottle or long phial. Take a narrow strip of paper, just the length from the neck to the bottom of the phial, and mark it off with 100 lines at equal distances, or into fifty lines, and count each as two, and paste upon the phial so as to divide its length into 100 equal parts. Fill it to the highest mark with milk fresh from the cow, and allow it to stand in a perpendicular position 24 hours. The number of spaces occupied by the cream will give you its exact percentage in the milk without any guess work.
FINE PEPPERMINT LOZENGES.—Best powdered White Sugar seven pounds, pure Starch one pound, Oil of Peppermint to flavor. Mix with Mucilage.
HOW TO FASTEN RUBBER TO WOOD AND METAL.—As rubber plates and rings are nowadays used almost exclusively for making connections between steam and other pipes and apparatus, much annoyance is often experienced by the impossibility or imperfection of an air-tight connection. This is obviated entirely by employing a cement which fastens alike well to the rubber and to the metal or wood. Such cement is prepared by a solution of Shellac in Ammonia. This is best made by soaking pulverized Gum Shellac in ten times its weight of strong Ammonia, when a slimy mass is obtained, which in three or four weeks will become liquid without the use of hot water. This softens the rubber and becomes, after volatilization of the Ammonia, hard and impermeable to gases and fluids.
TO TRANSFER PRINTED MATTER AND PRINT FROM IT AGAIN.—Take your picture or print and soak it for a short time in a weak solution of Caustic Potash, then remove it carefully, and let it dry on a sheet of clean paper. Then take a piece of copper, zinc, or steel, which has previously been well cleaned, and dip it into hot white wax. Let the first coat set, then dip again. Having got the plate thoroughly coated and set, lay the matter to be transferred on the plate, and rub it gently all over on the back; now raise it up, and it will be transferred on to the wax on the plate. Now take needles of a different thickness, and scrawl all over the wax, following the lines of the engraving. Having got the picture all traced out, pour upon it some weak acid if you use zinc, which is too soft to print many from, therefore it is better to use copper or steel. If you use copper, make the following solution to pour over it: Verdigris four parts, Salt four parts, Sal Ammoniac four parts, Alum one part, Water sixteen parts, Sour Vinegar twelve parts. Dissolve by heat. For steel, use Pyroligneous Acid five parts, Alcohol one part, Nitric Acid one part. Mix the first two, then add the Nitric Acid. Pouring the preparations over the plates where the traces of the pictures are, it will eat into the metal plate without affecting the wax. Let it stand till it has eaten a sufficient depth, then wash the plate with cold water, dry it and place it near the fire till all the wax is melted off. You can now print as many as you please from the plate by rubbing on it printer's ink, so as to fill all the fine spaces; which, when done, wipe it over smoothly with clean cloths to remove the superfluous ink which is on the face of the plate. Now take damp paper or cardboard, and press it on the plate, either with a copying press or the hand, and you get a fine impression, or as many as you want by repeating the inking process. I would recommend beginners to try their skill with valueless prints before attempting to make transfers of fine engravings, as the picture to be transferred is destroyed by the process.
I.X.L. BAKING POWDER.—Take one pound Tartaric Acid in Crystals, one and one-half pounds Bi-Carbonate of Soda, and one and one-half pounds of Potash Starch. Each must be powdered separately, well dried by a slow heat, well mixed through a sieve. Pack hard in tinfoil, tin or paper glazed on the outside. The Tartaric Acid and Bi-Carbonate of Soda can of course be bought cheaper of wholesale druggists than you can make them, unless you are doing things on a large scale, but Potato Starch any one can make. It is only necessary to peel the potatoes and to grate them up fine into vessels of water, to let them settle, pour off the water, and make the settlings into balls, and dry them. With these directions anyone can make as good baking-powder as is sold anywhere. If he wants to make it very cheap, he can take Cream of Tartar and common Washing (Carbonate) Soda, instead of the articles named in the recipe, but this would be advisable only where customers insist on excessively low prices in preference to quality of goods.
EVERLASTING FENCE POSTS.—I discovered many years ago that wood could be made to last longer than iron in the ground, but thought the process so simple and inexpensive that it was not worth while to make any stir about it. I would as soon have poplar, basswood, or quaking ash as any other kind of timber for fence posts. I have taken out basswood posts after having been set seven years, which were as sound when taken out as when they were first put in the ground. Time and weather seem to have no effect on them. The posts can be prepared for less than two cents apiece. This is the recipe: Take boiled Linseed Oil and stir it in pulverized Charcoal to the consistency of paint. Put a coat of this over the timber, and there is not a man that will live to see it rot.
LIQUID GLUE.—To one ounce of Borax in one pint of boiling water, add two ounces of Shellac, and boil until the Shellac is dissolved.
TO MEND TINWARE BY THE HEAT OF A CANDLE.—Take a phial about two-thirds full of Muriatic Acid and put into it little bits of Sheet Zinc as long as it dissolves them; then put in a crumb of Sal Ammoniac and fill up with water and it is ready to use. Then with the cork of the phial, wet the place to be mended with the preparation; then put a piece of Zinc over the hole and hold a lighted candle or spirit lamp under the place, which melts the solder on the tin, and causes the zinc to adhere without further trouble. Wet the zinc also with the solution; or a little solder may be put on instead of the zinc or with the zinc.
TO WHITEN AND SOFTEN THE HANDS.—Take one-half lb. Mutton Tallow, one ounce Camphor Gum, one ounce Glycerine; melt, and when thoroughly mixed, set away to cool. Rub the hands with this every night.