Important: Safety Warning
This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Steel
To Protect Iron from Rust
left in the end of the trough, to allow of a bar A mastic or covering for this purpose, propos- being drawn out for examination. When a…
Steel Made from Iron Scraps
in a crucible, with 8 ounces charcoal, and 4 Take iron scraps in small pieces, put 40 pounds
To Clean Steel and Iron
Make 1 ounce soft soap and 2 ounces emery into a ounces black oxide of manganese; expose the paste; rub it on the article with wash-leather…
To Convert Iron into Steel
preference. The work must be covered over with them, and carefully watched; when the color is sufficiently heightened, the work is with a…
To Remove Scale from Steel
| surface is obtained; then damp the surface Scale may may be removed from steel articles by with a little oil, and lay the file on a piece…
To Restore Burnt Cast-Steel
to about the color of straw, plunge in cold Take 1½ pounds borax, 1/2 pound sal-ammoniac, + pound prussiate of potash, 1 ounce resin. Pound…
To Anneal Steel
For a small quantity. Heat the steel to a cherry red in a charcoal fire, then bury it in sawdust, in an iron 3290. Το Make Polished Steel…
To Temper Mill Picks
After working the steel carefully, prepare a bath of lead heated to the boiling point, which will be indicated by a slight agitation of the…
Tempering Tools
The steel is generally first hardened by heating it to a cherry red, and then plunging it into cold water. Afterward the temper is drawn by…
To Temper Drills
Heat the best steel to a cherry red, and hammer until nearly cold, forming the end into the requisite flattened shape, then heat it again…
To Temper Gravers
These may be tempered in the same way as drills; or the red hot instrument may be pressed into a piece of lead, in which a hole about 1/2…
To Temper Spiral Springs
Heat to a cherry red in a charcoal fire, and harden in oil. To temper, blaze off the oil 3 times, the same as for flat springs. mill picks…
Bath for Hardening Mill Picks
Take 2 gallons rain water, 1 ounce corrosive sublimate, 1 of sal-ammoniac, 1 of saltpetre, 14 pints rock salt. The picks should be heated…
Tempering Steel
Mr. N. P. Ames, late of Chicopee, Mass., after expending much time and money in experiments, found that the most successful means of…
To Straighten Hardened Steel
To straighten a piece of steel already hardened and tempered, heat it lightly, not enough to draw the temper, and you may straighten it on…
To Temper Old Files
Grind out the cuttings on one side, until a bright of times on each side of the magnet. If the magnet is of good steel, this produces a…
To Case-Harden with Charcoal
The goods, finished in every respect but polishing, are put into an iron box, and covered with animal or vegetable charcoal, and cemented…
To Case-Harden
Make a paste with a concentrated solution of prussiate of potash and loam, and coat the iron therewith; then expose it to a strong red…
To Clean a Shot Gun
Wrap clean tow around the cleaning rod; then take a bucket of tepid water-soap-suds if procurable-and run the rod up and down the barrel…
To Case-Harden Polished Iron
The iron, previously polished and finished, is to be heated to a bright red and rubbed or sprinkled over with prussiate of potash. As is…
To Protect Polished Steel (flowers of zinc)
It is very soluble in dilute from Rust. Nothing is equal to pure sulphuric and muriatic acid, with the evoluparaffine for preserving the…
Purification of Zinc
Granulate zinc by melting, and pouring it, while very hot, into a deep vessel filled with water. Place the granulated zinc in a Hessian…
To Remove Rust from Steel
Rust may be removed from steel by immersing the article in kerosene oil for a few days. The rust will become so much loosened that it may…
New Mode of Removing Rust
Plunge the article in a bath of 1 pint hydrochloric (muriatic) acid diluted with 1 quart water. Leave it there 24 hours; then take it out…
Tests for the Purity of Tin
strength of the acids employed. The plates, It is almost entirely dissolved by hydrochloric after the application of the acids, are plunged…
Frosted Tin
A frosted appearevaporation. If there be a residuum, and bichloride of tin. dilution with water occasions a heavy white 3322. Το Make a Tin…
Grain Tin
This is made from block tin. The blocks are heated until they become brittle, and then allowed to fall from a considerable height, by which…
Tin Powder or Filings
Melt acid, but it is freely soluble in the latter. grain tin (see No. 3316) in an iron vessel, pour Nickel does not oxidize or tarnish at…
Powdered Tin
Take Cornish grain tin; melt it, and pour it into a wooden gentle heat, cool, edulcorate with water, disbox, well rubbed on the inside with…
To Make Feathered Tin
The object of feathering is to bring the tin into a state of minute subdivision, which permits it ash, wash, dry, mix the precipitate with…
Test for the Purity of Mercury
Metallic mercury may be known by its volatility; and when in a finely divided or pulverulent state, by the microscope, or by stain- the…
To Purify Mercury (As imported is usually very)
Mercury, as imported, is usually very pure. It may be prepared for medical purposes by putting 6 parts into a retort and…
To Purify Mercury (One of the quickest and best)
One of the quickest and best means of purifying mercury is to agitate it with a concentrated solution of nitrate of mercury, at a heat of…
To Purify Mercury (Distill equal parts of mercury)
Distill equal parts of mercury and iron filings in an iron retort, into a vessel containing water. The
To Polish Aluminum
The substances generally employed for polishing aluminum are of no utility. Mouray recommends the use of an emulsion of equal parts of rum…
To Purify Mercury (Following simple method)
The following simple method of purifying quicksilver be taken not to make use of too strong a lye. is by Dr. Miller: Put the quicksilver…
To Purify Platinum
The native alloy (crude platinum) is acted upon, as far as possible, with nitro-muriatic acid, containing an excess of muriatic acid, and…
Platinated Asbestos
Dip asbestos in a solution of chloride of platinum, and heat it to redness. It causes the inflammation of hydrogen in the same manner as…
Tests for Antimony
An acid solution of antimony gives, in combination with sulphuretted hydrogen, an orange-red precipitate, sparingly soluble in ammonia, but…
Spongy Platinum
Dissolve separately crude bichloride of platinum, and sulphur in excess; and the liquor containing hydrochlorate of ammonia in proof…
To Obtain Metallic Antimony
ed with zinc, becomes brass, and possesses a Mix together 16 parts sulphuret of antimony different density, hardness, and color to either…
To Purify Bismuth
Dissolve crude bismuth in nitric acid, and concentrate the solution by evaporation. Then pour the clear solution into a large bulk of…
Table of the Principal Alloys of Copper
This table of the alloys of copper is from Dr. Ure. The bronze for statues is the composition used by Keller Brothers, the from Dr. Ure…
Properties of Metals (Form part of the elements)
metals form part of the elements of nature, are undecompounded bodies, and distinguished from the other elements by their lustre, weight…