Squeezer
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
Important: Safety Warning
This page contains a formula or preparation using substances now known to be dangerously toxic, such as arsenic, mercury, lead, or cyanide compounds. Exposure to these substances can cause severe poisoning, permanent injury, or death.
In addition, 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.
See ROTARY SQUEEZER. Stains for Metals.--Metals may be stained or bronzed almost any color by simply immersing the article in a suitable liquid bronze. The action is in most cases immediate. Brass may be stained: brown and intermediate shades to black, by immersing in a liquid composed of water 1 pint, nitrate of iron 5 drachms; black--water 1 pint, permuriate of iron 2 pints, muriate of arsenic 10 ounces; brown to red--water 1 pint, nitrate of iron 16 drams, hyposulphite of soda 16 drams; steel color--water 1 pint, muriate of arsenic 1 ounce; yellow to red--water 1 pint, tersulphide of arsenic 30 grains, pearl-ash solution 6 drams; blue--water 1 pint, hyposulphite of soda 20 drams; orange--water 1 pint, potash solution of sulphur 1 dram; olive-green--water 2 pints, permuriate of iron 1 pint. Copper may be stained: brown to black by immersing in a liquid composed of water 1 pint, nitrate of iron 5 drams; brown to drab--water 1 pint, nitrate of iron 5 drams, sulphocyanide of potassium 2 drams; red--water 1 pint, sulphide of antimony 2 drams, peal-ash 1 ounce; red to black--water 1 pint, sulphur 1 dram, pearl-ash 1 ounce; steel color--water 1 pint, muriate of arsenic 1 dram; the liquid in this case must be heated to 180 deg. Zinc may be stained: purple by boiling in logwood infusion; red, by boiling in garancine infusion; black--immerse in water 1 pint, nitrate of iron 5 drams; copper color--water 1 pint, sulphate of copper 8 drams, hyposulphite of soda 8 drams (this will need some agitation); dark gray--water 1 pint, protochloride of tin 1 dram, sulphocyanide of potassium 1 dram; green to gray--water 2, muriate of iron 1. See PICKLING; DIPPING; LACQUERING.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The squeezer of 1892 was a machine for wringing slag out of puddled balls of wrought iron, and it vanished with the trade it served: puddling was displaced by Bessemer and open-hearth steel, and the last commercial puddling forge in Britain, at Bolton, shut in the 1970s. Genuine wrought iron is now a specialty product made from recycled stock, so rotary squeezers survive mainly in museums. The bronzing recipes appended here have fared differently. Ferric nitrate ('nitrate of iron') is still the standard brown patina on the sculptor's bench, but the arsenic and sulphocyanide solutions have been driven out by workplace-exposure law, and no modern shop would mix muriate of arsenic in an open pint of water.
Written for this edition, 2026.