X.—Good glue is said to be obtained by dissolving 1 part of powdered sugar in 4 parts of soda water glass.

XI.—A glue for bottle labels is prepared by dissolving borax in water; soak glue in this solution and dissolve the glue by boiling. Carefully drop as much acetic acid into the solution as will allow it to remain thin on cooling. Labels affixed with this agent adhere firmly and do not become moldy in damp cellars.

XII.—Dissolve some isinglass in acetic acid and brush the labels over with it. There will be no cause to complain of their coming off, nor of striking through the paper. Take a wide-mouthed bottle, fill about two-thirds with commercial acetic acid, and put in as much isinglass as the liquid will hold, and set aside in a warm place until completely dissolved. When cold it should form a jelly. To use it place the bottle in hot water. The cork should be well-fitting and smeared with vaseline or melted paraffine.

How To Paste Labels On Tin.
Druggists’ Label Paste.
Wheat flour 4 ounces
Nitric acid 1 drachm
Boric acid10 grains
Oil of cloves 5 drops
Carbolic acid   1/2 drachm

Stir flour and water together, mixing thoroughly, and add the other ingredients. After the stuff is well mixed, heat it, watching very carefully and removing the instant it stiffens.

To Attach Glass Labels To Bottles.
Photographic Mountants (see also Photography).

This gum (also called gum tragacanth) is usually in the form of curls (i.e., leaf gum), which take a long time to properly dissolve in water—several weeks, in fact—but during the past few years there has been put on the market a powdered gum dragon which does not occupy so many days in dissolving. To make a mucilage from gum dragon a very large volume of water is required. For example, 1 ounce of the gum, either leaf or powder, will swell up and convert 1 gallon of water into a thickish mucilage in the course of 2 or 3 weeks. Only cold water must be used, and before using the mucilage, all whitish lumps (which are particles of undissolved gum) should be picked out or else the mucilage strained. The time of solution can be considerably shortened (to a few hours) by acidifying the water in which the gum is placed with a little sulphuric or oxalic acid; but as the resultant mucilage would contain traces of their presence, such acids are not permissible when the gum-dragon mucilage is to be used for mounting photographs.