Part 322

I.—Glue 3 1⁠/⁠2 ounces Glycerine 8 ounces Water, a sufficient quantity.

Pour upon the glue more than enough water to cover it and let stand for several hours, then decant the greater portion of the water; apply heat until the glue is dissolved, and add the glycerine. If the mixture is too thick, add more water.

II.—Glue 6 ounces Alum 30 grains Acetic acid 1⁠/⁠2 ounce Alcohol 1 1⁠/⁠2 ounces Water 6 1⁠/⁠2 ounces

Mix all but the alcohol, digest on a water bath till the glue is dissolved, allow to cool, and add the alcohol.

«Papier Maché.»—The following are the ingredients necessary to make a lump of papier maché a little larger than an ordinary baseball and weighing 17 ounces:

Wet paper pulp, dry paper, 1 ounce; water, 3 ounces; 4 ounces (avoirdupois); dry plaster Paris, 8 ounces (avoirdupois); hot glue, 1⁠/⁠2 gill, or 4 1⁠/⁠2 tablespoonfuls.

While the paper pulp is being prepared, melt some best Irish glue in the glue pot and make it of the same thickness and general consistency as that used by cabinet makers. On taking the paper pulp from the water squeeze it gently, but do not try to dry it. Put in a bowl, add about 3 tablespoonfuls of the hot glue, and stir the mass up into a soft and very sticky paste. Add the plaster of Paris and mix thoroughly. By the time about 3 ounces of the plaster have been used, the mass is so dry and thick that it can hardly be worked. Add the remainder of the glue, work it up again until it becomes sticky once more, and then add the remainder of the plaster. Squeeze it vigorously through the fingers to thoroughly mix the mass, and work it until free from lumps, finely kneaded and sticky enough to adhere to the surface of a planed board. If it is too dry to stick fast add a few drops of either glue or water, and work it up again. When the paper pulp is poor and the maché is inclined to be lumpy, lay the mass upon a smooth board, take a hammer and pound it hard to grind it up fine.

If the papier maché is not sticky enough to adhere firmly to whatever it is rubbed upon, it is a failure, and requires more glue. In using it the mass should be kept in a lump and used as soon as possible after making. Keep the surface of the lump moist by means of a wet cloth laid over it, for if you do not, the surface will dry rapidly. If it is to be kept overnight, or longer, wrap it up in several thicknesses of wet cotton cloth, and put under an inverted bowl. If it is desired to keep a lump for a week, to use daily, add a few drops of glycerine when making, so that it will dry more slowly.

The papier maché made according to this formula has the following qualities: When tested by rubbing between the thumb and finger, it was sticky and covered the thumb with a fine coating. (Had it left the thumb clean, it would have been because it contained too much water.) When rubbed upon a pane of glass it sticks tightly and dries hard in 3 hours without cracking, and can only be removed with a knife. When spread in a layer as thin as writing paper it dries in half an hour. A mass actually used dried hard enough to coat with wax in 18 hours, and, without cracking, became as hard as wood; yet a similar quantity wrapped in a wet cloth and placed under an inverted bowl kept soft and fit for use for an entire week.

«Parchment Paper.»—I.—Dip white unsized paper for half a minute in strong sulphuric acid, specific gravity, 1.842, and afterwards in water containing a little ammonia.

II.—Plunge unsized paper for a few seconds into sulphuric acid diluted with half to a quarter its bulk of water (this solution being of the same temperature as the air), and afterwards wash with weak ammonia.

«Razor Paper.»—I.—Smooth unsized paper, one of the surfaces of which, while in a slightly damp state, has been rubbed over with a mixture of calcined peroxide of iron and emery, both in impalpable powder. It is cut up into {503} pieces (about 5 x 3 inches), and sold in packets. Used to wipe the razor on, which thus does not require stropping.

II.—From emery and quartz (both in impalpable powder), and paper pulp (estimated in the dry state), equal parts, made into sheets of the thickness of drawing paper, by the ordinary process. For use, a piece is pasted on the strop and moistened with a little oil.

«Safety Paper.»—White paper pulp mixed with an equal quantity of pulp tinged with any stain easily affected by chlorine, acids, alkalies, etc., and made into sheets as usual, serves as a safety paper on which to write checks or the like. Any attempt to wash out the writing affects the whole surface, showing plainly that it has been tampered with.

«Tracing Paper.»—Open a quire of smooth, unsized white paper, and place it flat upon a table. Apply, with a clean sash tool to the upper surface of the first sheet, a coat of varnish made of equal parts of Canada balsam and oil of turpentine, and hang the prepared sheet across the line to dry; repeat the operation on fresh sheets until the proper quantity is finished. If not sufficiently transparent, a second coat of varnish may be applied as soon as the first has become quite dry.

«Strengthened Filter Paper.»—When ordinary filter paper is dipped into nitric acid (specific gravity, 1.42), thoroughly washed and dried, it becomes a tissue of remarkable properties, and one that deserves to be better known by chemists and pharmacists. It shrinks somewhat in size and in weight, and gives, on burning, a diminished ash. It yields no nitrogen, nor does it in the slightest manner affect liquids. It remains perfectly pervious to liquids, its filtering properties being in no wise affected, which, it is needless to say, is very different from the behavior of the same paper “parchmented” by sulphuric acid. It is as supple as a rag, yet may be very roughly handled, even when wet, without tearing or giving way. These qualities make it very valuable for use in filtration under pressure or exhaust. It fits closely to the funnel, upon which it may be used direct, without any supports, and it thus prevents undue access of air. As to strength, it is increased upward of 10 times. A strip of ordinary white Swedish paper, 1⁠/⁠5 of an inch wide, will sustain a load of from 1⁠/⁠2 to 3⁠/⁠4 of a pound avoirdupois, according to the quality of the paper. A similar strip of the toughened paper broke, in 3 trials, with 5 pounds, 7 ounces, and 3 drachms; 5 pounds, 4 ounces, and 36 grains; and 5 pounds, 10 ounces respectively. These are facts that deserve to be better known than they seem to be to the profession at large.

«Blotting Paper.»—A new blotting paper which will completely remove wet as well as dry ink spots, after moistening the paper with water, is produced as follows: Dissolve 100 parts of oxalic acid in 400 parts of alcohol, and immerse porous white paper in this solution until it is completely saturated. Next hang the sheets up separately to dry over threads. Such paper affords great advantages, but in its characteristic application is serviceable for ferric inks only, while aniline ink spots cannot be removed with it, after drying.

«Carbon Paper.»—Many copying papers act by virtue of a detachable pigment, which, when the pigmented paper is placed between two sheets of white paper, and when the uppermost paper is written on, transfers its pigment to the lower white sheet along lines which correspond to those traced on the upper paper, and therefore gives an exact copy of them on the lower paper.

The pigments used are fine soot or ivory black, indigo carmine, ultramarine, and Paris blue, or mixtures of them. The pigment is intimately mixed with grain soap, and then rubbed on to thin but strong paper with a stiff brush. Fatty oils, such as linseed or castor oil, may be used, but the grain soap is preferable. Graphite is frequently used for black copying paper. It is rubbed into the paper with a cotton pad until a uniform light-gray color results. All superfluous graphite is then carefully brushed off.

It is sometimes desired to make a copying paper which will produce at the same time a positive copy, which is not required to be reproduced, and a negative or reversed copy from which a number of direct copies can be taken. Such paper is covered on one side with a manifolding composition, and on the other with a simple copying composition, and is used between 2 sheets of paper with the manifolding side undermost.

The manifolding composition is made by mixing 5 ounces of printers’ ink with 40 of spirits of turpentine, and then mixing it with a fused mixture of 40 ounces of tallow and 5 ounces of stearine. When the mass is homogeneous, 30 ounces of the finest powdered protoxide of iron, first mixed with 15 ounces of pyrogallic {504} acid and 5 ounces of gallic acid, are stirred in till a perfect mixture is obtained. This mass will give at least 50 copies on damp paper in the ordinary way. The copying composition for the other side of the prepared paper consists of the following ingredients:

Printers’ ink 5 parts Spirits of turpentine 40 parts Fused tallow 30 parts Fused wax 3 parts Fused rosin 2 parts Soot 20 parts

It goes without saying that rollers or stones or other hard materials may be used for the purpose under consideration as well as paper. The manifolding mass may be made blue with indigotin, red with magenta, or violet with methyl violet, adding 30 ounces of the chosen dye to the above quantities of pigment. If, however, they are used, the oxide of iron and gallic acids must be replaced by 20 ounces of carbonate of magnesia.

«Celloidin Paper.»—Ordinary polished celluloid and celloidin paper are difficult to write upon with pen and ink. If, however, the face is rubbed over with a chalk crayon, and the dust wiped off with a clean rag, writing becomes easy.

«Cloth Paper.»—This is prepared by covering gauze, calico, canvas, etc., with a surface of paper pulp in a Foudrinier machine, and then finishing the compound sheet in a nearly similar manner to that adopted for ordinary paper.

«Drawing Paper.»—The blue drawing paper of commerce, which is frequently employed for technical drawings, is not very durable. For the production of a serviceable and strong drawing paper, the following process is recommended. Mix a solution of

Gum arabic 2 parts Ammonia iron citrate 3 parts Tartaric acid 2 parts Distilled water 20 parts

After still adding 4 parts of solution of ammonia with a solution of