Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/416

408 to steep for about twelve hours, add about 6 quarts of water, and allow the mixture to boil down to 1 quart, strain, and allow to cool.

Smell of Paint, To get rid of. Place a vessel full of lighted charcoal in the middle of the room, and throw on it two or three handfuls of Juniper berries, shut the windows, the chimney, and the door, twenty-four hours afterwards the room may be opened, when it will be found that the sickly and unwholesome smell will have left. The smoke of the Juniper berries possesses this advantage, that should anything be left in the room, such as tapestry, it will not be in any way injured.

Plunge a handful of hay into a pail of water, and let it stand in the newly painted room.

Fill three or four tubs with about eight gallons of water, and an ounce of vitriol, and place them in the newly painted room near the wainscot. The water will absorb the effluvia from the paint in about three days, but it should be renewed each day during that time.

Soft Putty. This is made of whiting and boiled linseed oil, with white lead in the proportion of one-tenth of the whiting, a small quantity of salad oil is then to be added in order to prevent the white lead from hardening and cracking off, as common putty often does in certain situations.

Varnish, Green transparent. Thin some copal varnish with turpentine, grind well together equal quantities of Chinese blue and chromate of potash, and mix them thoroughly with the diluted varnish.

The precise shade of green may be varied by the different proportions in which the Chinese blue and chromate of potash are used.

For Venetian blinds, give the wood a couple of coats of light lead-color, and allow it to become perfectly hard. Grind some dry white lead in spirit of turpentine, and add to it one-third of its quantity of verdigris or navy green,