Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes

How to silver a mirror, brew ginger beer, kill moths, make fireworks, tan a hide, bronze iron, cure a ham and clean a straw hat: William B. Dick's numbered encyclopedia answered the questions a nineteenth-century household actually had.

Electroplating

6 receipts in this part of Practical Receipts and Processes.

To Coat Busts and Figures

Busts and figures, and other complicated the surface takes a bronze tinge by the reworks of art, which cannot be perfectly coated duction…

Electrotyping on Wood

Dip the wood in melted wax, then brush over with black-lead until polished; insert a wire of copper, and see that it is also covered with…

First, or Whitening Solution

with silver it is diluted, and the silver is pre- Dissolve 24 troy pounds cyanide of potassium, cipitated by a solution of common salt; the…

Second, or Finishing Solution

Dissolve 4½ troy ounces cyanide of potassium, been polished; it is therefore a necessary and 14 ounces cyanide of silver, in 1 gallon…

Plating on Iron or Steel

Take 2 quarts rain water, dissolve 2 pounds cyanide receiving the silver deposit, and its solution, of potassium, and filter. In order to…

Dead Silvering for Medals

The perfect smoothness which a medal generally possesses on the surface, renders it very difficult to obtain a coating of dead silver upon…

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