Banknote or mouth glue. Dissolve by the aid of heat a fine quality of glue or gelatine with about a quarter or one-third of its weight of brown sugar, in as small a quantity of water as possible. Then when perfectly liquid cast the mixture into thin cakes on a flat surface very slightly oiled, and when cold cut up into pieces of convenient size. When required for use moisten one end. A piece of this glue kept in the desk will be found very convenient for many purposes.
Paste for cardboard. Dissolve 3½ ozs. of best French glue in 6½ ozs. of water by soaking and heating. Then add a solution of ½ drachm of shellac in 3½ drachms of alcohol and stir as long as the solution is warm. Next dissolve 2 drachms of dextrine in 1¾ ozs. of alcohol and 14 drachms of water, stir, and place the vessel in warm water until solution is complete. Mix this solution with that of the glue, and pour the whole into a suitable vessel, in which it may solidify. When wanted for use cut off a small piece and liquefy it by warming.
Paste for attaching cloth or leather to table tops. Wheat flour 1 lb., powdered rosin 2 tablespoonfuls, powdered alum 1 tablespoonful. Heat and stir to a stiff consistency.
Caseine mucilage. Separate the caseine from milk with a little tartaric acid, and treat the caseine while still warm with a solution of 6 parts borax to 100 parts water and warm gently while stirring, which will cause the caseine to be dissolved. Of the borax solution enough should be used to leave only a little undissolved caseine behind.
Very adhesive paste which may be used for wood and parchment. Gum arabic 60 parts, fine wheat starch 45, sugar 15. Dissolve the gum in as much water as is required for boiling the quantity of paste to be made. Then add the starch and sugar and boil it in a vessel suspended in boiling water until the mixture is clear and has the consistency of liquid tar. Keep in a well-closed vessel protected from mould by the addition of a few drops of oil of cloves.
Paste for pads. Glue 4 parts by weight, glycerine 2, linseed oil ½, sugar 4, aniline dye sufficient to color. Soften the glue by soaking in cold water, then dissolve together with the sugar in the glycerine by the aid of heat over the water-bath, then add the dye and stir in the oil. Use the paste hot.
Paste for fastening paper on tin-foil. Make a paste by dissolving rye flour in a solution of caustic soda; dilute with water, stirring constantly. Add to this paste a few drops of Venice turpentine for each ½ lb. flour used. This paste adheres to all kinds of metal, tin-foil, glass, etc.
Paste for attaching labels to glass, porcelain, and metal. Gum arabic 15 parts, pulverized tragacanth 7½, glycerin 45, thymol 0.3, alcohol 3¾, water 120. Dissolve the gum arabic in 15 parts of water and triturate the tragacanth with 30 parts of water. Mix the two fluids and strain. Then add the glycerine and finally the thymol dissolved in the alcohol.
Preparation of arabol-gum. Mix intimately 44 lbs. of wheat starch with 176 lbs. of water. Bring the mass into a water-bath, mix it with a solution of 4.4 lbs. of oxalic acid in 44 lbs. of water and heat for four hours at 194° F., stirring frequently. The conversion of the starch is as a rule effected during this time, but should such not be the case, continue heating, constantly replacing the evaporated water, until the mass is clear and liquid. While still hot, neutralize the mass with marble dust, allow to settle, filter, and evaporate the clear solution in a water-bath to a solid gum containing about 15 per cent. of water.
Preparation of an adhesive substance from desaccharized beet-root slices (German patent 96316 f. G. Eichelbaum). The insoluble metarabin contained in the slices is converted into soluble arabin by treating the slices under pressure with hot aqueous sulphurous acid or with aqueous solutions of the bisulphites of the alkalies or alkaline earths.