II.—The walls must be well cleaned before painting. If the plaster should be worn and permeated with saltpeter in places it should be renewed and smoothed. These clean surfaces are coated twice with a water-glass solution, 1.1, using a brush and allowed to dry well. Then they are painted 3 times with the following mixture: Dissolve 100 parts, by weight, of mastic in 10 parts of absolute alcohol; pour 1,000 parts of water over 200 parts of isinglass; allow to soak for 6 hours; heat to solution and add 100 parts of alcohol (50 per cent). Into this mixture pour a hot solution of 50 parts of ammonia in 250 parts of alcohol (50 per cent), stir well, and subsequently add the mastic solution and stand aside warm, stirring diligently. After 5 minutes take away from the fire and painting may be commenced. Before a fresh application, however, the solution should be removed.
When this coating has dried completely it is covered with oil or varnish paint, preferably the latter. In the same manner the exudation of so-called saltpeter {401} in fresh masonry or on the exterior of façades, etc., may be prevented, size paint or lime paint being employed instead of the oil-varnish paint. New walls which are to be painted will give off no more saltpeter after 2 or 3 applications of the isinglass solution, so that the colors of the wall paper will not be injured either. Stains caused by smoke, soot, etc., on ceilings of rooms, kitchens, or corridors which are difficult to cover up with size paint, may also be completely isolated by applying the warm isinglass solution 2 or 3 times. The size paint is, of course, put on only after complete drying of the ceilings.
To Protect Papered Walls From Vermin.
Care Of Refrigerators.
Dust Preventers.
According to other sources of information, these evil tendencies of the application vanish altogether, or are reduced to a minimum, if (1) entirely fresh, or at least, not rancid oils be used; (2) if, after each oiling, a few days be allowed to elapse before using the chamber or hall, and finally (3), if resort is not had to costly foreign special preparations, but German goods, procurable at wholesale in any quantity, and at very low figures.
The last advice (to use low-priced preparations) seems sensible since according to recent experiments, none of the oils experimented upon possess any especial advantages over the others.
An overwhelming majority of the laboratories for examination have given a verdict in favor of oil as a dust-suppressing application for floors, and have expressed a desire to see it in universal use. The following is a suggestion put forth for the use of various preparations:
This dust-absorbing agent has for its object to take up the dust in sweeping floors, etc., and to prevent its development. The production is as follows: Mix in an intimate manner 12 parts, by weight, of mineral sperm oil with 88 parts, by weight, of Roman or Portland cement, adding a few drops of mirbane oil. Upon stirring a uniform paste forms at first, which then passes into a greasy, sandy mass. This mass is sprinkled upon the surface to be swept and cleaned of dust, next going over it with a broom or similar object in the customary manner, at which operation the dust will mix with the mass. The preparation can be used repeatedly.
HUNYADI WATER: See Water.