For Cheaply Gilding Bronzes, Etc.
A mixture for cheaply gilding bronzes, gas-fittings, etc.:—Two and one-half pounds cyanide of potash, five ounces carbonate of potash and two ounces cyanate of potass, the whole diluted in five pints of water, containing in solution one-fourth ounce chloride of gold. The mixture must be used at boiling heat, and, after it has been applied, the gilt surface must be varnished over.
How To Clean a Chamois Skin.
When a chamois skin gets into a dirty condition, rub plenty of soft soap into it, and allow it to soak for a couple of hours in a weak solution of soda and water. Then rub it until it appears quite clean. Now take a weak solution of warm water, soda and yellow soap, and rinse the leather in this liquor, afterward wringing it in a rough towel, and drying it as quickly as possible. Do not use water alone, as that would harden the leather and make it useless. When dry brush it well and pull it about; the result will be that the leather will become almost as soft as fine silk, and will be, to all intents and purposes, far superior to most new leathers.
Hints on Dressing the Store Windows.
In dressing store windows avoid as far as possible placing cards or note sheets flat; endeavor in some manner to have them erect, leaning against a box or placed upon a small easel. Neither crowd your window nor place things in exact rows. Give each article plenty of space in your window; then you do not need so much to fill up, and on the following week put in the pieces you might have displayed the previous week had you crowded your window.
A Varnish for Paper.
A varnish for paper which produces no stains, may be prepared as follows:—Clear damar resin is covered in a flask, with four and a half to six times its weight of acetone, and allowed to stand for fourteen days at a moderate temperature, after which the clear solution is poured off. Three parts of this solution are mixed with four parts of thick collodian, and the mixture allowed to become clear by standing. It is applied with a soft hair brush in vertical strokes. At first the coating looks like a thin, white film, but on complete drying it becomes transparent and shining. It should be laid on two or three times. It retains its elasticity under all circumstances, and remains glossy in every kind of weather.