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
111. _To make Imitation Rosewood._--Brush the wood over with a strong
decoction of logwood, while hot; repeat this process three or four
times; put a quantity of iron-filings amongst vinegar; then with a
flat open brush, made with a piece of cane, bruised at the end, or
split with a knife, apply the solution of iron-filings and vinegar
to the wood in such a manner as to produce the fibres of the wood
required. After it is dry, the wood must be polished with turpentine
and bees'-wax.
112. _Imitation of Ebony._--Pale-colored woods are stained in
imitation of ebony by washing them with, or steeping them in a strong
decoction of logwood or galls, allowing them to dry, and then washing
them over with a solution of the sulphate or acetate of iron. When
dry, they are washed with clean water, and the process repeated, if
required. They are, lastly, polished or varnished.
113. _Cheap Coloring for Rooms._--Boil any quantity of potatoes,
bruise them, and pour on them boiling water until a pretty thick
mixture is obtained, which is to be passed through a sieve; then mix
whiting with boiling water, and add it to the potato mixture. To
color it, add either of the ochres, lampblack, &c.
114. _Cheap Paint._--Tar mixed with yellow ochre makes an excellent
green paint, for coarse wood-work, iron fencing, &c.
115. _Weather-proof Composition._--Mix a quantity of sand with double
the quantity of wood ashes, well sifted, and three times as much
slaked lime; grind these with linseed oil, and use the composition
as paint; the first coat thin, the second thick; and in a short time
it will become so hard as to resist weather and time.
Or, slake lime in tar, and into it dip sheets of the thickest brown
paper, to be laid on in the manner of slating.
116. _Artificial Marble._--Soak in a solution of alum a quantity of
plaster of Paris. Bake it in an oven, and grind it to a powder. When
wanted, mix it with water to about the consistency of plaster. It
sets into an exceedingly hard composition, and takes a high polish.
It may be mixed with various colored minerals or ochres to represent
the various marbles, and is a valuable receipt.
117. _To give Wooden Stairs the Appearance of Stone._--Paint the
stairs, step, by step, with white paint, mixed with strong drying
oil. Strew it thick with silver sand.
It ought to be thoroughly dry next morning, when the loose sand is to
be swept off. The painting and sanding is to be repeated, and when
dry, the surface is to be done over with pipe-clay, whiting, and
water; which may be boiled in an old saucepan, and laid on with a bit
of flannel, not too thick, otherwise it will be apt to scale off.
A penny cake of pipe-clay, which must be scraped, is the common
proportion to half a lump of whiting.
The pipe-clay and whiting is generally applied once a week, but that
might be done only as occasion requires.