Page:Family receipt book.pdf/24

24 INK.

An excellent ink suitable for writing with steel pens, which it does not corrode, may be made of the following articles :-Sixty grains of caustic soda, a pint of water, and as much In-dian ink as you think fit for making a proper blackness.

BOTTLE WAX.

A good kind of bottle wax or cement may be cheaply made as follows:-Put into an iron ladle half a pound of rosin, two ounces of bees'-wax, and when melted over the fire, stir in Venetian red, lamp-black, or other colouring; and apply while hot. If kept for after use, melt with a candle as usual when applied.

POTATO-STARCH.

Wash and peel a gallon of good potatoes, grate them into a pail of water, stir frequently, and then let them settle. On the following day the starch will be found at the bottom of the pail; when pour off the water, add fresh, stir as before, and let it subside a second time; when pour off the water, and dry the sediment in the sun or a slow oven. An excellent starch may also be made by setting in a cool place the water in which rice has been boiled (though not in a cloth,) which will in twenty-four hours become a strong starch.

POTASNES.

Settlers in the backwoods of America, or other woody regions, have an opportunity of manufacturing potash, an article of great use and considerable value. A vast quantity of this substance is annually made in Canada, and exported to Great Britain. Potashes are made from the ashes of burnt trees. In burning timber to clear the land, the ashes are care-fully preserved, and put in barrels, or other vessels with holes in the bottom; aud water being poured over them, a liquid or alkali is run off; this lcy being boiled in large boilers, the watery particles evaporate, and leave what is called black salts, a sort of residuum, which, when heated to a high degree, becomes fused, and finally, when cool, assumes the character of potash, By these potashes the Canadians make their own soap; the ley of a barrel of ashes, boiled along with ten pounds of tal-low, till it is of a proper consistence, produces about forty pounds of very good soft soap. It is related, that when the land has been covered with heavy timber of a hard nature, there is such a quantity of ashes produced that their value will pay for clearing the land.