Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts
John Stuart Mill · en
67. _Plate Powder._--In most of the articles sold as plate
powders, under a variety of names, there is an injurious mixture
of quicksilver, which is said sometimes so far to penetrate and
render silver brittle, that it will even break with a fall. Whiting,
properly purified from sand, applied wet, and rubbed till dry, is
one of the easiest, safest, and certainly the cheapest of all plate
powders: jewelers and silversmiths, for small articles, seldom use
any thing else. If, however, the plate be boiled a little in water,
with an ounce of calcined hartshorn in powder to about three pints
of water, then drained over the vessel in which it was boiled, and
afterwards dried by the fire, while some soft linen rags are boiled
in the liquid till they have wholly imbibed it; these rags will,
when dry, not only assist to clean the plate, which must afterwards
be rubbed bright with leather, but also serve admirably for cleaning
brass locks, finger-plates, &c.
68. _To cleanse Gold._--Wash the article in warm suds made of
delicate soap and water, with ten or fifteen drops of sal-volatile.
(The sal-volatile will render the metal brittle. This hint may be
used or left, at pleasure.)
69. _To clean Brass and Copper._--Rub it over slightly with a bit
of flannel dipped in sweet oil; next, rub it hard with another bit
dipped in finely-powdered rotten stone; then make it clean with a
soft linen cloth, and finish by polishing it with a plate-leather.
70. _Obs._--The inside of brass or copper vessels should be scoured
with fullers' earth and water, and set to dry, else the tinning will
be injured.
71. _Another way to clean Brass and Copper._--Put one pennyworth of
powdered rotten stone into a dry, clean quart bottle; nearly fill it
up with cold soft water; shake it well, and add one penny-worth of
vitriol. Rub it on with a rag, and dry it with a clean, soft cloth,
and then polish it with a plate-leather. This mixture will keep for
a long time, and becomes better the longer it is kept. But the first
method gives the most lasting polish, as well as the finest color.
72. _To clean Brass Ornaments._--Wash the ornament in a strong
solution of boiled roche-alum, in the proportion of an ounce to a
pint of water. When dry, rub them with fine tripoli powder.
73. _Polishing Paste for Britannia metal, tins, brasses, and
coppers_, is composed of rotten-stone, soft soap, and oil of
turpentine.
The stone must be powdered and sifted through a muslin or hair sieve:
mix with it as much soft soap as will bring it to the stiffness
of putty: to about half-a-pound of this, add two ozs. of oil of
turpentine. It may be made up in balls, or put in gallipots; it
will soon become hard, and will keep any length of time. Method of
using:--The articles to be polished should be perfectly freed from
grease and dirt. Moisten a little of the paste with water, smear it
over the metal, then rub briskly with dry rag or wash-leather, and it
will soon bear a beautiful polish.