Part 465

II.—Stir up for some time best olive oil with water kept at the boiling point; then after the two fluids have separated, decant the oil and shake up with a little freshly burned lime. Let the mixture stand for some weeks in a bottle exposed to the sunlight and air, but protected from wet and dirt. When filtered, the oil will be nearly colorless, perfectly limpid, and will never thicken or become rancid.

«To Weaken a Balance Spring.»—A balance spring may need weakening; this is effected by grinding the spring thinner. Remove the spring from the collet and place it upon a piece of pegwood cut to fit the center cod. A piece of soft iron wire, flattened so as to pass freely between the coils and charged with a little powdered oilstone, will serve as a grinder, and with it the strength of the spring may soon be reduced. Operations will be confined to the center coil, for no other part of the spring will rest sufficiently against the wood to enable it to be ground, but this will generally suffice. The effect will be rather rapid; therefore care should be taken or the spring may be made too weak.

«To Make a Clock Strike Correctly.»—Pry the plates apart on the striking side, slip the pivots of the upper wheels out, and having disconnected them from the train, turn them partly around and put them back. If still incorrect, repeat the experiment. A few efforts at most will get them to work properly. The sound in cuckoo clocks is caused by a wire acting on a small bellows which is connected with two small pipes like organ pipes.

«To Reblack Clock Hands.»—One coat of asphaltum varnish will make old rusty hands look as good as new, and will dry in a few minutes.

«To Tighten a Ruby Pin.»—Set the ruby pin in asphaltum varnish. It will become hard in a few minutes and be much firmer and better than the gum shellac, generally used.

«To Loosen a Rusty Screw in a Watch Movement.»—Put a little oil around the screw; heat the head lightly by means of a red-hot iron rod, applying the same for 2 or 3 minutes. The rusty screw may then be removed as easily as though it had just been put in.

«Gilding Watch Movements.» (See also Gilding.)—In gilding watch movements, the greatest care must be observed with regard to cleanliness. The work is first to be placed into a weak solution of caustic potash for a few minutes, and then rinsed in cold water. The movements are now to be dipped into pickling acid (nitrous acid) for an instant, and then plunged immediately into cold water. After being finally rinsed in hot water, they may be placed in the gilding bath and allowed to remain therein until they have received the required coating. A few seconds will generally be sufficient, as this class of work does not require to be very strongly gilt. When gilt, the movements are to be rinsed in warm water, and scratch-brushed; they may then be returned to the bath, for an instant, to give them a good color. Lastly, rinse in hot water and place the movements in clean box sawdust. An economical mode of gilding watch movements is to employ a copper anode—working from the solution, add 10 parts of cream of tartar and a corresponding quantity of elutriated chalk to obtain a pulp that can be put on with the brush. The gilding or silvering obtained in this manner is pretty, but of slight durability. At the present time this method is only seldom employed, since the electroplating affords a means of producing gilding and silvering in a handsome and comparatively cheap manner, the metallic coating having to be but very thin. Gold and silver for this kind of work are used in the form of potassium cyanide of gold or potassium cyanide of silver solutions, it being a custom to copper the zinc articles previously by the aid of a battery, since the appearance will then be much handsomer than on zinc alone. Gilding or silvering with leaf metal is done by polishing the surface of the zinc bright and coating it with a very tough linseed-oil varnish diluted with 10 times the quantity of benzol. The metallic leaf is then laid on and polished with an agate. {739}

WATCHMAKERS’ CLEANING PREPARATIONS: See Cleaning Preparations and Methods.

WATCH MOVEMENTS, PALLADIUM PLATING OF: See Plating.

«Water, Natural and Artificial»

In making an artificial mineral water it must be remembered that it is seldom possible to reproduce the water by merely combining its chemical components. In other words, the analysis of the water cannot serve as a basis from which to prepare it, because even though all of the components were put together, many would be found insoluble, and others would form new chemical combinations, so that the result would differ widely from the mineral water imitated.

For example, carbonate of magnesia and carbonate of lime, which are important ingredients in most mineral waters, will not make a clear solution unless freshly precipitated. Hence, when these are to be reproduced in a mineral water it is customary to employ other substances, which will dissolve at once, and which will, upon combining, produce these salts. The order in which the salts are added is also a very important matter, for by dissolving the salts separately and then carefully combining them, solutions may be effected which would be impossible were all the salts added together to the water in the portable fountain.

In this connection the following table will be found useful:

Group I

Ammonium carbonate. Ammonium chloride. Sodium borate (borax). Potassium carbonate. Potassium chloride. Potassium nitrate. Potassium sulphate. Sodium bromide. Sodium carbonate. Sodium chloride. Sodium fluoride. Sodium iodide. Sodium nitrate. Sodium phosphate. Sodium pyrophosphate. Sodium silicate. Sodium sulphate.

Group 2

Lithium carbonate.

Group 3

Aluminum chloride. Barium chloride. Calcium bromide. Calcium chloride. Calcium nitrate. Magnesium nitrate. Strontium chloride. Lithium chloride.

Group 4

Magnesium sulphate. Alum (potassa or soda alum).

Group 5

Lime carbonate. Magnesium carbonate hydrate. Lime sulphate precipitate.

Group 6

Lithium carbonate. Acid hydrochloric. Acid sulphuric. Iron chloride. Iron pyrophosphate. Iron sulphate. Manganese chloride. Manganese sulphate.

Group 7

Sodium arseniate, or sodium sulphide, or acid hydrosulphuric.

Explanation of Groups.—The explanation of the use of these groups is simple. When about to prepare an artificial mineral water, first ascertain from the formula which of the ingredients belong to group 1. These should be dissolved in water, and then be filtered and added to distilled water, and thoroughly agitated. Next the substance or substances belonging to group 2 should be dissolved in water, then filtered and added to the water, which should again be agitated. And so the operation should proceed; whatever ingredients are required from each group should be taken in turn, a solution made, and this solution, after being filtered, should be separately added to the fountain, and the latter be well agitated before the following solution is added.