| Slacked lime | 100 |
| Stirred ox-blood | 75 |
| Alum | 2 |
This is commended as being very strong and durable. It is probable that a slight increase of the alum in solution, or an addition of strong infusion of gall-apples, would improve it.
A water-proof cement for wooden casks is made as follows:—
| Strong solution of glue | 10 |
| Linseed-oil varnish | 5 |
| Oxide of lead | 1 |
Boil together for ten minutes. This cement must not be brought into connection with lye (Lehner).
A good, strong, cheap cement for joining wood with metal or stone is made with
| Carpenters’ glue | 50 |
| Sifted wood-ashes | 100 |
While the glue is soft stir into it the wood-ashes in greater or lesser quantity, according to their quality and fineness, till a syrupy mass is formed. Clay can also be combined with this mixture to make casts.
Common peat of fine quality (for there are different kinds or degrees of it), carefully cleaned from sticks and fibres, combined with common glue infused freely with nitric acid, submitted to strong pressure, is said to form a valuable substitute for wood, which may be used not only for repairing, filling chinks in trees, making up decayed timber, &c., but also to form blocks and planks.
I have elsewhere mentioned that shavings are utilised in Germany. Combined with glue, infused with glycerine, and submitted to pressure, they form boards which are even less brittle than many which are in ordinary use. The peculiar advantage of this artificial timber is the limitless length of the boards which can be thus made, which is often a great desideratum in flooring, or indeed in any building where piecing should be avoided. A canoe can thus be made on another as mould, in which case the shaving-cement is to be hardened by rollers. There is a book on this subject, elsewhere mentioned.