Part 286

«Laces, Curtains, etc.»—I.—To give lace curtains, etc., a cream color, take 1 part of chrysoidin and mix with 2 parts of dextrin and dissolve in 250 parts of water. The articles to be washed clean are plunged in this solution. About an ounce of chrysoidin is sufficient for 5 curtains.

II.—Washing curtains in coffee will give them an ecru color, but the simplest way to color curtains is with “Philadelphia yellow” (G. or R. of the Berlin Aktiengesellschaft’s scale).

LAUNDRY SOAP: See Soap.

LAVATORY DEODORANT: See Household Formulas.

LAXATIVES FOR CATTLE AND HORSES: See Veterinary Formulas.

«LEAD:»

See also Metals.

«Simple Test for Red Lead and Orange Lead.»—Take a little of the sample in a test tube, add pure, strong nitric acid and heat by a Bunsen burner until a white, solid residue is obtained. Then add water, when a clear, colorless solution will be obtained. A white residue would indicate adulteration with barytes, a red residue or a yellow solution with oxide of iron. The presence of iron may be ascertained by adding a few drops of a solution of potassium ferrocyanide (yellow prussiate of potash) to the solution, when a blue precipitate will be obtained if there be the least trace of iron present.

LEAD, TO TAKE BOILING, IN THE MOUTH: See Pyrotechnics.

LEAD ALLOYS: See Alloys.

LEAD PAPER: See Paper.

LEAD PLATE, TINNED: See Plating.

LEAKS, IN BOILERS, STOPPING: See Putties.

«LEAKS:»

«To Stop Leakage in Iron Hot-Water Pipes.»—Take some fine iron borings or filings and mix with them sufficient vinegar to form a sort of paste, though the mixture is not adhesive. With this mixture fill up the cracks where the leakage is found, having previously dried the pipe. It must be kept dry until the paste has become quite hard. If an iron pipe should burst, or there should be a hole broken into it by accident, a piece of iron may be securely fastened over it, by bedding it on in paste made of the borings and vinegar as above, but the pipe should not be disturbed until it has become perfectly dry.

«To Prevent Wooden Vessels from Leaking.» (See also Casks.)—Wooden {447} vessels, such as pails, barrels, etc., often become so dry that the joints do not meet, thus causing leakage. In order to obviate this evil stir together 60 parts hog’s lard, 40 parts salt, and 33 parts wax, and allow the mixture to dissolve slowly over a fire. Then add 40 parts charcoal to the liquid mass. The leaks in the vessels are dried off well and filled up with putty while still warm. When the latter has become dry, the barrels, etc., will be perfectly tight. If any putty is left, keep in a dry place and heat it to be used again.

«Leather»

(See also Shoes.)

«Artificial Leather.»—Pure Italian hemp is cut up fine; 1 part of this and 1⁠/⁠2 part of coarse, cleaned wool are carded together and formed into wadding. This wadding is packed in linen and felted by treatment with hot acid vapors. The resulting felt is washed out, dried, and impregnated with a substance whose composition varies according to the leather to be produced. Thus, good sole leather, for instance, is produced according to a Danish patent, in the following manner: Mix together 50 parts of boiled linseed oil; 20 parts of colophony; 25 parts of French turpentine; 10 parts of glycerine, and 10 parts of vegetable wax, and heat over a water bath with some ammonia water. When the mass has become homogeneous, add 25 parts of glue, soaked in water, as well as a casein solution, which latter is produced by dissolving 50 parts, by weight, of moist, freshly precipitated casein in a saturated solution of 16 parts of borax and adding 10 parts of potassium bichromate, the last two also by weight. Finally, mineral dyestuffs as well as antiseptic substances may be added to the mass. The whole mixture is now boiled until it becomes sticky and the felt is impregnated with it by immersion. The impregnated felt is dried for 24 hours at an ordinary temperature; next laid into a solution of aluminum acetate and finally dried completely, dyed, and pressed between hot rollers.

«Black Dye for Tanned Leather.»—This recipe takes the place of the ill-smelling iron blacking, and is not injurious to the leather. Gallnuts, pulverized, 150 parts; vitriol, green or black, 10 parts; rock candy, 60 parts; alum, 15 parts; vinegar, 250 parts; cooking salt, 20 parts. Dissolve with 4,000 parts of distilled water.

Boil this solution slowly and the blacking is done. When it has cooled and settled, pour through linen, thus obtaining a pure, good leather blacking.

«Bronze Leather.»—All sorts of skins—sheepskins, goatskins, coltskins, and light calfskins—are adapted for the preparation of bronze leather. In this preparation the advantage lies not only in the use of the faultless skins, but scarified skins and those of inferior quality may also be employed. The dressing of the previously tanned skin must be carried out with the greatest care, to prevent the appearance of spots and other faults. After tanning, the pelts are well washed, scraped, and dried. Then they are bleached. For coloring, it is customary to employ methyl violet which has previously been dissolved in hot water, taking 100 parts, by weight, of the aniline color to 8,000 parts, by weight, of water. If in the leather-dressing establishment a line of steam piping be convenient, it is advisable to boil up all the coloring dyes, rather than simply to dissolve them; for in this way complete solution is effected. Where steam is used no special appliance is required for boiling up the dyes, for this may take place without inconvenience in the separate dye vats. A length of steam hose and a brass nozzle with a valve is all that is needed. It may be as well to add here that the violet color for dyeing may be made cheaper than as above described. To 3,000 parts, by weight, of pretty strong logwood decoction add 50 parts, by weight, of alum and 100 parts, by weight, of methyl violet. This compound is almost as strong as the pure violet solution, and instead of 8,000 parts, by weight, we now have 30,000 parts, by weight, of color.

The color is applied and well worked in with a stiff brush, and the skins allowed to stand for a short time, sufficient to allow the dye to penetrate the pores, when it is fulled. As for the shade of the bronze, it may be made reddish, bluish, or brownish, according to taste.

For a reddish or brownish ground the skins are simply fulled in warm water, planished, fulled again, and then dyed. According to the color desired, the skins are treated with cotton blue and methyl violet R, whereupon the application of the bronze follows.

The bronze is dissolved in alcohol, and it is usual to take 200 parts, by weight, of bronze to 1,000 of alcohol. By means of this mixture the peculiar component parts of the bronze are dissolved. For a fundamental or thorough {448} solution a fortnight is required. All bronze mixtures are to be well shaken or agitated before using. Skins may be bronzed, however, without the use of the bronze colors, for it is well known that all the aniline dyes present a bronze appearance when highly concentrated, and this is particularly the case with the violet and red dyes. If, therefore, the violet be applied in very strong solutions, the effect will be much the same as when the regular bronze color is employed.

Bronze color on a brown ground is the most beautiful of all, and is used to the greatest advantage when it is desirable to cover up defects. Instead of warm clear water in such a case, use a decoction of logwood to which a small quantity of alum has been added, and thus, during the fulling, impart to the skins a proper basic tint, which may, by the application of a little violet or bronze color, be converted into a most brilliant bronze. By no means is it to be forgotten that too much coloring matter will never produce the desired results, for here, as with the other colors, too much will bring out a greenish tint, nor will the gloss turn out so beautiful and clear. Next rinse the skins well in clean water, and air them, after which they may be dried with artificial heat. Ordinary as well as damaged skins which are not suitable for chevreaux (kid) and which it is desirable to provide with a very high polish, in order the more readily to conceal the defects in the grain, and other imperfections, are, after the drying, coated with a mixture, compounded according to the following simple formula: Stir well 1 pint of ox blood and 1 pint of unboiled milk in 10 quarts of water, and with a soft sponge apply this to the surface of the skin. The blood has no damaging effect upon the color. Skins thus moistened must not be laid one upon another, but must be placed separately in a thoroughly well-warmed chamber to dry. When dry they are glossed, and may then be pressed into shagreen or pebbled. The thin light goatskins are worked into kid or chevreaux. Properly speaking, they are only imitation chevreaux (kid), for although they are truly goatskins, under the term chevreaux one understands only such skins as have been cured in alum and treated with albumen and flour.

After drying, these skins are drawn over the perching stick with the round knife, then glossed, stretched, glossed again, and finally vigorously brushed upon the flesh side with a stiff brush. The brushing should be done preferably by hand, for the brushing machines commonly pull the skins out of all shape. Brushing is intended only to give the flesh side more of a flaky appearance.

During the second glossing care must be taken that the pressure is light, for the object is merely to bring the skin back into its proper shape, lost in the stretching; the glossing proper should have been accomplished during the first operation.