Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/266

258 merely require washing with clean water, scraping smooth the rough patches, the cracks being stopped and made good, the whole being then passed over with the wood brush. Care should be taken that all the scrapings and other debris are swept away before the walls are finally rubbed down with a cloth and the coloring is commenced. The calcimine is made by mixing whiting, which has previously been allowed to soak for twelve or fourteen hours in water, to about the consistency of cream, care being observed that the mixture is very smooth. One teacupful of size is then to be added to two gallons of the whitewash, or, if a perfectly white wash is required, potato starch may be used. In laying on the wash, a large flat brush is employed, and, if this is not overcharged, a ceiling or walls may, with a certain amount of care, be white or color washed with little or no splashing.

The following mixture will be found useful for common work: $1/2$ bushel of lime, 1 pound common salt, $1/2$ pound of sulphate of zinc, and 1 gallon of sweet milk.

For brickwork exposed to damp: $1/2$ peck of fresh well-burnt lime, with water sufficient to make it into a thin paste, pass through a fine sieve, add a gallon of clear salt which has been dissolved in boiling water. Make a thin paste of 1 pound of rice flour and $1/4$ pound of best glue, mix this paste, whilst hot, with the previously made compound, and add $1/4$ pound of Spanish whiting dissolved in 1 quart of water. Stir all well together, cover over, and let the whole stand for a week, when it is to be applied whilst quite hot.

In order to produce good work, two things are essentially necessary in the mixing of the distemper, namely, clean and well-washed whiting and pure-jellied size. The whiting should be put in to soak with sufficient soft water to cover it well and penetrate its bulk. When the whiting is sufficiently soaked, the water should be poured off, which will remove any rust or foreign matter from the whiting,