Common Solder.—Put into a crucible 2 lbs. of lead, and when melted throw in 1 lb. of tin. This alloy is that generally known by the name of solder. When heated by a hot iron and applied to tinned iron with powdered rosin, it acts as a cement or solder.
Tempering Steel.—For tempering many kinds of tools, the steel is first hardened by heating it to a cherry red, and plunging it into cold water. Afterward the temper is drawn by moderately heating the steel again. Different degrees of hardness are required for different purposes, and the degree of heat for each of these, with the corresponding color, will be found in the annexed table:
Very pale straw color, 430°—the temper required for lancets.
A shade of darker yellow, 450°—for razors and surgical instruments.
Darker straw-yellow, 470°—for penknives.
Still darker yellow, 490°—chisels for cutting iron.
A brown yellow, 500°—axes and plane-irons.
Yellow, slightly tinged with purple, 520°—table-knives and watch-springs.
Tempering Liquid.—1. To 6 quarts of soft water put in corrosive sublimate, 1 oz.; common salt, 2 handfuls; when dissolved it is ready for use. The first gives toughness to the steel, while the latter gives the hardness. Be careful with this preparation, as it is a dangerous poison.—2. Salt, ½ teacup; saltpetre, ½ oz.; alum, pulverized, 1 tea-spoon; soft water, 1 gallon; never heat over a cherry red, nor draw any temper.—3. Saltpetre, sal-ammoniac, and alum, of each 2 oz.; salt, 1½ lbs.; water, 3 gallons, and draw no temper.—4. Saltpetre and alum, each 2 oz.; sal-ammoniac, ½ oz.; salt, 1½ lbs.; soft water, 2 gallons. Heat to a cherry red, and plunge in, drawing no temper.
Bayberry, or Myrtle Soap.—Dissolve two and a quarter pounds of white potash in five quarts of water, then mix it with ten pounds of myrtle wax, or bayberry tallow. Boil the whole over a slow fire till it turns to soap, then add a teacup of cold water; let it boil ten minutes longer; at the end of that time turn it into tin molds or pans, and let them remain a week or ten days to dry; then turn them out of the molds. If you wish to have the soap scented, stir into it an essential oil that has an agreeable smell, just before you turn it into the molds. This kind of soap is excellent for shaving, and for chapped hands: it is also good for eruptions on the face. It will be fit for use in the course of three or four weeks after it is made, but it is better for being kept ten or twelve months.
Chemical Soap, (for taking Oil, Grease, etc., from Cloth).—Take five pounds castile soap, cut fine; one pint alcohol; one pint soft water; two ounces aquafortis; one and a half ounces lampblack; two ounces of saltpetre; three ounces potash; one ounce of camphor; and four ounces of cinnamon, in powder. First dissolve the soap, potash and saltpetre, by boiling; then add all the other articles, and continue to stir until it cools; then pour into a box and let it stand twenty-four hours and cut into cakes.
Cold Soap.—Mix twenty-six pounds of melted and strained grease with four pailfuls of ley, made of twenty pounds of white potash. Let the whole stand in the sun, stirring it frequently. In the course of the week, fill the barrel with weak ley.
Genuine Erasive Soap.—Two pounds of good castile soap; half a pound of carbonate of potash; dissolve in half a pint of hot water. Cut the soap in thin slices, and boil the soap with the potash until it is thick enough to mould in cakes; also add alcohol, half an ounce; camphor, half an ounce; hartshorn, half an ounce; color with half an ounce of pulverized charcoal.
Hard White Soap.—To fifteen pounds of lard or suet, made boiling hot, add slowly six gallons of hot ley, or solution of potash, that will bear up an egg high enough to leave a piece big as a shilling bare. Take out a little, and cool it. If no grease rise it is done. If any grease appears, add ley, and boil till no grease rises. Add three quarts of fine salt, and boil up again. If this does not harden well on cooling, add more salt. If it is to be perfumed, melt it next day, add the perfume, and run it in molds or cut in cakes.
Labor-Saving Soap.—Take two pounds of sal-soda, two pounds of yellow bar soap, and ten quarts of water. Cut the soap in thin slices, and boil together for two hours; strain, and it will be fit for use. Put the clothes in soak the night before you wash, and to every pail of water in which you boil them, add a pound of soap. They will need no rubbing; merely rinse them out, and they will be perfectly clean and white.