The addition of chloride of lime tends to keep the paste moist, thus allowing the ready removal of the paste without damaging the varnish or polish, while the turpentine serves as a disinfectant and renders the odor less disagreeable during the operation.

The preparation is rapid in its action, and does not affect the varnished or polished surfaces of wood or marble. While energetic in its cleansing action on brass and other metallic objects, it is attended with no corrosive effect.

Rust Removers:

To Remove Rust from Iron or Steel Utensils.—

I.—Apply the following solution by means of a brush, after having removed any grease by rubbing with a clean, dry cloth: 100 parts of stannic chloride are dissolved in 1,000 parts of water; this solution is added to one containing 2 parts tartaric acid dissolved in 1,000 parts of water, and finally 20 cubic centimeters indigo solution, diluted with 2,000 parts of water, are added. After allowing the solution to act upon the stain for a few seconds, it is rubbed clean, first with a moist cloth, then with a dry cloth; to restore the polish use is made of silver sand and jewelers’ rouge.

II.—When the rust is recent it is removed by rubbing the metal with a cork charged with oil. In this manner a perfect polish is obtained. To take off old rust, mix equal parts of fine tripoli and flowers of sulphur, mingling this mixture with olive oil, so as to form a paste. Rub the iron with this preparation by means of a skin.

III.—The rusty piece is connected with a piece of zinc and placed in water containing a little sulphuric acid. After the articles have been in the liquid for several days or a week, the rust will have completely disappeared. The length of time will depend upon the depth to which the rust has penetrated. A little sulphuric acid may be added from time to time, but the chief point is that the zinc always has good electric contact with the iron. To insure this an iron wire may be firmly wound around the iron object and connected with the zinc. The iron is not attacked in the least, as long as the zinc is kept in good electric contact with it. When the articles are taken from the liquid they assume a dark gray or black color and are then washed and oiled.

IV.—The rust on iron and steel objects, especially large pieces, is readily removed by rubbing the pieces with oil of tartar, or with very fine emery and a little oil, or by putting powdered alum in strong vinegar and rubbing with this alumed vinegar.

V.—Take cyanide of calcium, 25 parts; white soap, powdered, 25 parts; Spanish white, 50 parts; and water, 200 parts. Triturate all well and rub the piece with this paste. The effect will be quicker if before using this paste the rusty object has been soaked for 5 to 10 minutes in a solution of cyanide of potassium in the ratio of 1 part of cyanide to 2 parts of water.

VI.—To remove rust from polished steel cyanide of potassium is excellent. If possible, soak the instrument to be cleaned in a solution of cyanide of potassium in the proportion of 1 ounce of cyanide to 4 ounces of water. Allow this to act till all loose rust is removed, and then polish with cyanide soap. The latter is made as follows: Potassium cyanide, precipitated chalk, white castile soap. Make a saturated solution of the cyanide and add chalk sufficient to make a creamy paste. Add the soap cut in fine shavings and thoroughly incorporate in a mortar. When the mixture is stiff cease to add the soap. It should be remembered that potassium cyanide is a virulent poison.

VII.—Apply turpentine or kerosene oil, and after letting it stand over night, clean with finest emery cloth.

VIII.—To free articles of iron and steel from rust and imbedded grains of sand the articles are treated with fluorhydric acid (about 2 per cent) 1 to 2 hours, whereby the impurities but not the metal are dissolved. This is followed by a washing with lime milk, to neutralize any fluorhydric acid remaining. {199}

II.—Make a solution of 1 part of kerosene in 200 parts of benzine or carbon tetrachloride, and dip the instruments, which have been dried by leaving them in heated air, in this, moving their parts, if movable, as in forceps and scissors, about under the liquid, so that it may enter all the crevices. Next lay the instruments on a plate in a dry room, so that the benzine can evaporate. Needles are simply thrown in the paraffine solution, and taken out with tongs or tweezers, after which they are allowed to dry on a plate.

III.—Pour olive oil on the rust spots and leave for several days; then rub with emery or tripoli, without wiping off the oil as far as possible, or always bringing it back on the spot. Afterwards remove the emery and the oil with a rag, rub again with emery soaked with vinegar, and finally with fine plumbago on a piece of chamois skin.

Metal Cleaning:

Instead of potassium cyanide alone, a mixture of that and potassium carbonate may be used. After treatment in this way, delicate objects of silver become less brittle. Another way is to put the article in molten sodium carbonate and remove the silver carbonate thus formed, by acetic acid of 50 per cent strength. This process produces the finest possible polish.

The potassium-cyanide process may be used with all small iron objects. For larger ones molten potassium rhodanide is recommended. This converts the iron oxide into iron sulphide that is easily washed off and leaves the surface of a fine black color.

Old coins may be cleansed by first immersing them in strong nitric acid and then washing them in clean water. Wipe them dry before putting away.

Restoring Tarnished Gold.—

Mix well and apply with a soft brush.

A very small quantity of the solution is sufficient, and it may be used either cold or lukewarm. Plain articles may be brightened by putting a drop or two of the liquid upon them and lightly brushing the surface with fine tissue paper. {200}

Cleaning Copper.—

I.—Use Armenian bole mixed into a paste with oleic acid.

Dissolve the soap in the smallest quantity of water that will effect solution over a water bath. Add the other ingredients to the solution while still hot, stirring constantly.

Solutions For Cleaning Metals.—

Rub up the stearine with the ammonia, add the benzine and then the alcohol, and agitate until homogeneous. Put in wide-mouthed vessels and close carefully.

Gold-ware Cleaner.—

Mix the acids and water and stir in the rouge, after first rubbing it up with a portion of the liquid. With a clean cloth, wet with this mixture, go well over the article. Rinse off with hot water and dry.

Powder the alum and rub up with the other ingredients, and cork tightly. When required for use wet sufficient of the powder and with soft linen rags rub the article, being careful not to use much pressure, as otherwise the thin layer of plating may be cut through. Rinse in hot suds, and afterwards in clear water, and dry in sawdust. When badly blackened with silver sulphide, if small, the article may be dipped for an instant in hydrochloric acid and immediately rinsed in running water. Larger articles may be treated as coins are—immersed for 2 or 3 minutes in a 10 per cent aqueous solution of sulphuric acid, or the surface may be rapidly wiped {201} with a swab carrying nitric acid and instantly rinsed in running water.

Mix. Rinse in running water.

Professor Weber proposed a diluted alkali, and it has been found that after employing this remedy the dirt layer is loosened and the green platina reappears. Potash has been found to be an efficacious remedy, even in the case of statues that had apparently turned completely black.

Go over every part carefully, using a brush to get into the minute crevices. When this dries on, brush off with a fine linen cloth or a supple chamois skin.

Or the following plan may be used: Remove grease, etc., as directed above, dry and go over the spots where the gilt surface is discolored with a brush dipped in a solution of two parts of alum in 250 parts of water and 65 parts of nitric acid. As soon as the gilding reappears or the {202} surface becomes bright, wash off, and dry in the direct sunlight.

Still another cleaner is made of nitric acid, 30 parts; aluminum sulphate, 4 parts; distilled or rain water, 125 parts. Clean of grease, etc., as above, and apply the solution with a camel’s-hair pencil. Rinse off and dry in sawdust. Finally, some articles are best cleaned by immersing in hot soap suds and rubbing with a soft brush. Rinse in clear, hot water, using a soft brush to get the residual suds out of crevices. Let dry, then finish by rubbing the gilt spots or places with a soft, linen rag, or a bit of chamois.

There are some bronzes gilt with imitation gold and varnished. Where the work is well done and the gilding has not been on too long, they will deceive even the practiced eye. The deception, however, may easily be detected by touching a spot on the gilt surface with a glass rod dipped in a solution of corrosive sublimate. If the gilding is true no discoloration will occur, but if false a brown spot will be produced.

The best treatment for wrought steel is to wash it very clean with a stiff brush {203} and ammonia soapsuds, rinse well, dry by heat, oil plentifully with sweet oil, and dust thickly with powdered quicklime. Let the lime stay on 2 days, then brush it off with a clean, very stiff brush. Polish with a softer brush, and rub with cloths until the luster comes out. By leaving the lime on, iron and steel may be kept from rust almost indefinitely.

Before wetting any sort of bric-a-brac, and especially bronzes, remove all the dust possible. After dusting, wash well in strong white soapsuds and ammonia, rinse clean, polish with just a suspicion of oil and rotten stone, and rub off afterwards every trace of the oil. Never let acid touch a bronze surface, unless to eat and pit it for antique effects.

Pulverize the acid and the rotten stone and mix thoroughly with the rouge. Sift to remove all grit, then make into a paste with the oil and petrolatum. A little nitro-benzol may be added to scent the mixture.

Melt the oleine, ceresine, and mineral oil together, and stir in the tripoli; next, grind evenly in a paint mill.

II.—Stripping silvered articles of the silvering may be accomplished by the following mixture: Sulphuric acid, 60° B., 3 parts; nitric acid, 40° B., 1 part; heat the mixture to about 166° F., and immerse the articles by means of a copper wire. In a few seconds the acid mixture will have done the work. A thorough rinsing off is, of course, necessary.

II.—Boil common alum in soft, pure water, and immerse the article in the solution, or rub the spot with it, and dry with sawdust.

III.—For cleaning picture frames, {204} moldings, and, in fact, all kinds of gilded work, the best medium is liquor potassæ, diluted with about 5 volumes of water. Dilute alcohol is also excellent. Methylated wood spirit, if the odor is not objectionable, answers admirably.

II.—Wash the aluminum with coal-oil, gasoline or benzine, then put it in a concentrated solution of caustic potash, and after washing it with plenty of water, dip it in the bath composed of ²/₃ nitric acid and ¹/₃ water. Next, subject it to a bath of concentrated nitric acid, and finally to a mixture of rum and olive oil. To render aluminum capable of being worked like pure copper, ²/₃ of oil of turpentine and ¹/₃ stearic acid are used. For polishing by hand, take a solution of 30 parts of borax and 1,000 parts of water, to which a few drops of spirits of ammonia have been added.

II.—An efficacious preparation is obtained by mixing beech-wood ashes, 2 parts; Venetian soap, ⁴/₁₀₀ part; cooking salt, 2 parts; rain water, 8 parts. Brush the silver with this lye, using a somewhat stiff brush.

III.—A solution of crystallized potassium permanganate has been recommended.

IV.—A grayish violet film which silverware acquires from perspiration, can be readily removed by means of ammonia.

V.—To remove spots from silver lay it for 4 hours in soapmakers’ lye, then throw on fine powdered gypsum, moisten the latter with vinegar to cause it to adhere, dry near the fire, and wipe off. Next rub the spot with dry bran. This not only causes it to disappear, but gives extraordinary gloss to the silver.

VI.—Cleaning with the usual fine powders is attended with some difficulty and inconvenience. An excellent result is obtained without injury to the silver by employing a saturated solution of hyposulphite of soda, which is put on with a brush or rag. The article is then washed with plenty of water.

VII.—Never use soap on silverware, as it dulls the luster, giving the article more the appearance of pewter than silver. When it wants cleaning, rub it with a piece of soft leather and prepared chalk, made into a paste with pure water, entirely free from grit.

Grind the chloride of lime with a little water to a thin paste, in a porcelain vessel, and add the remaining chemicals. Wash the objects with the aid of a soft brush with the solution, rinse several times in water, and dry in fine sawdust. {205}

II.—After removing the grease spots, let dry and pass over all the damaged parts a pencil dipped in the following mixture: Alum, 2 parts; nitric acid, 65; water, 250 parts. When the gilding becomes bright, wipe, and dry in the sun or near a fire.

III.—Wash in hot water containing a little soda, dry, and pass over the gilding a pencil soaked in a liquid made of 30 parts nitric acid, 4 parts of aluminum phosphate, and 125 parts of pure water. Dry in sawdust.

IV.—Immerse the objects in boiling soap water, and facilitate the action of the soap by rubbing with a soft brush; put the objects in hot water, brush them carefully, and let them dry in the air; when they are quite dry rub the shining parts only with an old linen cloth or a soft leather, without touching the others.

Oil-, Grease-, Paint-spot Eradicators:

Grease- and Paint-spot Eradicators.—

Dissolve the soap in the warm water, using from 50 to 60 parts. Mix the benzol and benzine, and add the soap solution, a little at a time, shaking up well after each addition. If the mixture is slow in emulsifying, add at one time from 50 to 100 parts of warm water, and shake violently. Set the emulsion aside for a few days, or until it separates, then decant the superfluous water, and pour the residual pasty mass, after stirring it up well, into suitable boxes.

Triturate the quillaia and borax together, incorporate the ox gall, and, finally, add the tallow soap and mix thoroughly by kneading. The product is a plastic mass, which may be rolled into sticks or put up into boxes.