To gild glass these solutions are used in the following proportions by volume:-
16 parts of No. I.
4 parts of No. II.
0.8 parts of No. III.
The glass is first cleaned well with acid and washed with water: it is then rinsed with Solution No. III. If it is desired to gild the inside of a glass vessel, Solution No. III. may be placed in the vessel first, and the walls of the vessel rinsed round carefully. Solutions I. and II. are mixed separately and then added to III. — after about two minutes the whole is well shaken up.
If it be desired to gild a mirror of glass, the glass-plate is suspended face downwards in a dish of the mixed solutions — care being taken to rinse the glass with Solution III. first.
If the mixture darkens in from 7' to 10' in diffuse daylight and at 60°F. it will gild well, and it generally pays to make a few trials in a test tube to arrive at this. If too much reducing solution is present the liquid will get dark more rapidly, and vice versa. The gilding will require several hours — as much as twelve hours may be needed.
The reaction is one of great chemical interest, being one of that class of reactions which is greatly affected by capillarity. Thus it occasionally happens that when the reducing solution is not in the right proportion, gold will be deposited at the surface of the liquid (so as to form a gilt ring on the inside of a test tube), the remainder of the gold going down as mud. The gold deposited is at first transparent to transmitted light and is deeply blue. I thought this might be due to a trace of copper or silver, but on carefully purifying the gold no change of colour was noted. If the reducing solution is present in slightly greater proportions than that given in the formula, the gold comes down with a richer colour, and has a tendency to form a mat surface and to separate from the glass. The gold which is deposited more slowly has a less rich colour but a brighter surface. The operation should be interrupted when a sufficient deposit has been obtained, because it is found that the thicker the deposit, the more lightly is it held to the glass surface.
[§ 75. The Use of the Diamond-cutting Wheel. —]
A matter which is not very well known outside geological circles is the manipulation of the diamond-cutting wheel, and as this is often of great use in the physical laboratory, the following notes may not be out of place. I first became acquainted with the art in connection with the necessity which arose for me to make galvanometer mirrors out of fused quartz, and it was then that I discovered with surprise how difficult it is to obtain information on the point. I desire to express my indebtedness to my colleagues, Professor David and Mr. Smeeth, for the instruction they have given me. In what follows I propose to describe their practice rather than my own, which has been of a makeshift description. I will therefore select the process of cutting a slice of rock for microscopical investigation.