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.

Tests Or Reagents

24 receipts in this part of Practical Receipts and Processes.

Nelson's Patent Gelatine

This is made from cuttings of the hides of cattle, and skins of calves. These, freed from hair, flesh, fat, &c., are washed and scoured…

Gelatine Wafers

Dissolve fine glue or isinglass in water, SO that the solution, or isinglass in water, so that the solution, when cold, may be consistent…

Tests for Gelatine

Gelatine pots, is detected by this experiment. ture. Cider, being passed through brass dissolved in water is recognized by forming a jelly…

To Detect Watered Milk

The corrosive sublimate throws down a whitish, milk is by adding water, and we may readily flocculent precipitate; a solution of tannin…

Asbestos

A natural substance, resembling flax, capable of withstanding unconsiderable degree of heat; it may, therefore , be cleansed or purified by…

To Detect Chalk in Milk

Di- . Diany, will settle to the bottom in an hour or two; put to the sediment an acid, vinegar for instance, and if effervescence take…

How to Know Good Flour

is called testing. For this purpose they are holds together in a mass when squeezed by the commonly added drop by drop to the liquid to be…

To Test Slates

The test of a superior slate is its ability to remain unbroken, after being made red hot in a furnace and suddenly immersed in cold water…

Test for Starch

The old and is white; the stem is white, solid, and cylin- , and cylinfamiliar test for starch is the blue color which drical. Introduce a…

To Test Arrow-Root

Genuine arrow-root is odorless and tasteless, and produces a sort of crackling noise when pressed or rubbed, and emits no peculiar odor…

To Test the Purity of Borax

4384. Το Detect Gum Arabic in Gum Tragacanth. Make the gum into a clear Its strength is best ascertained by the quantimucilage, and filter…

To Test the Purity of Musk

presence of organic matter. In time of epi- Musk is often largely adulterated with dried blood, the presence of which may be detected by…

Test for the Presence of Blood

Gunning has discovered in acetate of zinc a reagent that precipitates the slightest traces of the coloring matter of blood from solutions…

To Detect Sulphur in Coal-Gas

The presence of sulphur in coal-gas can be proved in the following simple manner: Let a platinum basin be filled with a pint of water, and…

Test for Benzole

For distinguishing genuine benzole, or that made of coal tar, from that prepared from petroleum, Brandberg recommends us to place a small…

To Detect Cotton in Linen (Unravel a piece of the fabric)

Unravel a piece of the fabric, both warp and weft, and plunge it into a solution of aniline and fuchsine. This will dye the whole red. Take…

Test for Rum

Dr. Wiederbold compound (which is sulphuret of lime), 2 proposes the following method for distinguishdrachms tartaric acid; powder, mix…

Paris Test for Lead in Wine

tinguished. If, on the contrary, the rum is Expose equal parts of sulphur and powdered not genuine, contact with sulphuric acid oyster…

Brazil-wood Test Paper

Made by preparing the paper with a decoction of Brazil-wood. Alkalies turn it purple or violet; strong acids, red.

Buckthorn Test Paper

From a decoction of the berries; is reddened by acids.

Cherry-juice Test Paper

From the juice of cherries; has the same properties as buckthorn paper.

Dahlia Test Paper

Made from an infusion of the petals of the violet dahlia

To Detect Logwood in Wine

M. Lapcymere, having observed that hæmatine, the coloring principle of logwood, gives a sky-blue color in the presence of salts of…

Indigo Test Paper

From a solution of indigo; loses its color in contact with chlorine. 4414. Iodide of Potassium Test Paper. From a solution of it in…

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