Page:Family receipt book.pdf/23

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23

dered; and when melted and well mixed, add a gill of tnrpen-tine. Lay it on the harness with a sponge, and polish off with a brush.

CEMENT.

Various preparations are used for mending broken china, earthenware, and glass. The most successful are as follows: Beat the white of an egg with quicklime, in impalpable powder, into a paste; to which is sometimes added a little whey, made by mixing vinegar and milk. A little isinglass, dissolved in mastie varnish, is another cement. Nature supplies some cements ready to our hands-as the juice of garlic, and the white slime of large snails; and it has been stated in a re-spectable scientific journal, that a broken flint has been joined so effectually with this snail cement, that when dashed upon a stone pavement, the flint broke elsewhere than at the cemented parts. In their anxiety to nnite broken articles, persons generally defeat themselves by spreading the cement too thickly upon the edges of the article, whereas the least possible quantity should be used, so as to bring the edges al-most close together; and this may be aided by heating the fragments to be joined.

PASTE.

Paste is useful in a house for preparing'walls, cupboards, boxes, labelling, &c. Dr. M'Culloch, of Edinbnrgh, employs "paste made of flour in the usual way, but rather thick, with a proportion of brown sugar, and a small quantity of corrosive snblimate. The use of the sugar is to keep it flexible, so as to prevent it scaling off from smooth surfaces; and that of the corrosive sublimate-independent of preserving it from insects is an effectual check against its fermentation. This salt does not, however, prevent the formation of mouldiness; but a drop or two of oil of lavender, peppermint, or anise-seed, is a complete security againgst this.

WATERPROOF STUFF FOR SHOES.

In winter, or during wet weather, shoes may be rendered durable by applying to the soles and seams a composition made of the following materials:-Half a pint of boiled linseed oil, two table-spoonfuls of turpentine, one ounce of bees'-wax, and a quarter of an ounce of Burgundy pitch. Melt the whole together, and apply with a brush before the fire. Repeat the application till the soles will absorb no more. Neats-foot oil, alone, will be found an excellent preservation of shoes in wet weather.