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MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION 
 
 IN 
 
 HARD SOLDERING 
 
 E. & F. N. SPON & CO., 
 
 12 OOKTLANDT STREET, ISTeW YoRK. 
 
 London, 125 Strand. 
 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction. 
 Chapter I. — Utensils and Chemicals. 
 
 THE FLAME 8 
 
 LAMP 8 
 
 CHARCOAL 9 
 
 MATS 9 
 
 BLOWPIPES 10 
 
 WASH-BOTTLE 10 
 
 BINDING WIRE 12 
 
 BORAX 13 
 
 CHEMICALS 14 
 
 Chapter II. — Alloys for Hard Soldering. 
 
 SPELTER 14 
 
 SILVER SOLDER 15 
 
 GOLD SOLDER 17 
 
 Chapter III. — Oxidation, 
 
 OXIDATION OF METALS IS 
 
 FLUXES 19 
 
 ANTI-OXIDIZERS 20 
 
 Chapter IV. — Structure of Flame. 
 
 OXIDATION OF GASES 2L 
 
 THE CONE 22 
 
 OXIDIZING FLAME 22 
 
 REDUCING FLAME 23 
 
 Chapter V. — Heat. 
 
 TRANSMISSION 25 
 
 CON nUCTION 26 
 
 CAPACITY OF METALS 27 
 
 RADIATION 27 
 
 APPLICATION 2S 
 
 ra-\ ■ 
 
IV. 
 
 Chapter VI. — The Process. 
 
 THE WORK TABLE 20 
 
 THE JOINT ..!""/.!y..""Z'"..... 80 
 
 APPLYING SOLDER ' 30 
 
 APPLYING HEAT 31 
 
 THE USE OF THE BLOWPIPE 31 
 
 MAKING A FERRULE 32 
 
 JOINTS 84 
 
 TO REPAIR A SPOON 35 
 
 DIFFICULTIES 86 
 
 Chapter VII.— The Process— Continued. 
 
 TO REPAIR A WATCH CASE 87 
 
 HARD SOLDERING WITH A FORGE OR HEARTH 40 
 
 HARD SOLDERING WITH TONGS « 
 
 Chapter VIII.— Technical Notes. 
 
 PRESERVING THIN EDGES 42 
 
 SILVERSMITH'S PICKLE 43 
 
 RESTORING COLOR TO GOLD 43 
 
 CHROMIC ACID 44 
 
 STEEL SPRINGS, TO MEND 45 
 
 SWEATING METALS TOGETHER 45 
 
 RETAINING WORK IN POSITION 46 
 
 MAKING JOINTS 46 
 
 APPLYING HEAT 47 
 
 PREVENTING THE LOSS OF HEAT 48 
 
 EFFECT OF SULPHUR, LEAD AND ZINC 49 
 
 TO PRESERVE PRECIOUS STONES 60 
 
 ANNEALING AND HARDENING 51 
 
 BURNT IRON 52 
 
 TO HARD SOLDER AFTER SOFT SOLDER 52 
 
 Chapter IX. — Properties op Metals. 
 
 TABLE OF SPECIFIC GRAVITY 53 
 
 TABLE OF TENACITY 63 
 
 TABLE OF FUSIBILITY 64 
 
 FUSIBILITY OF ALLOYS 64 
 
 Index, 
 
A knowledge of the uses of heat makes the nation civ- 
 ilized; enables man to progress. Just in proportion as 
 the knowledge of the processes depending upon the laws of 
 heat have become disseminated, so have nations grown in 
 importance and advanced in civilization. 
 
 In our age, in construction of forms in metal, heat is indis- 
 pensable. The fundamental processes of casting, anneal- 
 ing, welding and soldering metals underly the other arts 
 and depend upon scientific research for improvement. 
 The products of these arts, as shown in the tools of the 
 artisan, instruments of the surgeon, engineer, astronomer, 
 and the apparatus of the chemist, add to the facilities for 
 investigating the laws of nature, a knowledge of which in 
 turn enables the maker of implements and manipulator of 
 processes to also improve. 
 
 To unite pieces of metal already having solidity and 
 form, in a firm and substantial manner, making the whole 
 as one solid piece, has always been one of the processes 
 most useful to man. Although not particularly hard to 
 acquire, a thorough knowledge of it has been enjoyed by 
 few in comparison with its every day usefulness and im- 
 portance. 
 
 The rapid changes that are taking place in mechanical 
 
6 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 engineering cause a demand for men who understand the 
 arts of construction, men who have a scientific knowledge 
 of the laws that underlie their skill, and who are able to 
 adapt the state of the art to new wants. Having no rigid 
 system of apprenticeship in this country, and but few 
 schools where the mechanical arts are taught practically, 
 the young man is often left to accidental resources to ac- 
 quire a knowledge of the useful arts. 
 
 With the rapid development of new inventions comes a 
 class of young men having the genius for mechanical in- 
 vention who desire to be able to construct the devices for 
 their experiments, but who do not want to serve a term ot 
 years at any one trade. Since hard soldering or brazing 
 is often a fundamental process in the construction of 
 models, they are often left to weak or clumsy devices to 
 bridge over a lack of knowledge of that process. 
 
 Among the jewelers, gunsmiths, makers of surgical, 
 mathematical, optical and philosophical instruments, watch- 
 makers and occasionally the dentists, it has been handed 
 down from one generation to another, each one teaching it 
 as adapted to his own requirements, so useful is it in nearly 
 all branches of mechanical construction. 
 
 Much that is published in this little work may be new 
 only to the beginner, and may not add materially to the 
 skill of the experienced workman in his own department 
 of industry, nevertheless it is well to compare notes, and 
 if only one little point is gained it will be worth to the 
 practitioner the cost of so inexpensive a volume. To the 
 persoa having use for, and seeking such information as it 
 contains I hope it may prove invaluable. I ask of the ap- 
 prentice or amateur into whose hands it may fall that they 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 7 
 
 study it thoroughly, and then use the information gained 
 as a stepping stone to the acquisition of further informa- 
 tion and improvement hy observation and experiment. 
 Pleasure in work is derived from the ability to do it well. 
 Be thorough, persevering, observing. 
 
8 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 rXENSIIvS AND CHEMICAI.S. 
 
 Any clear flame may be used for hard soldering with a 
 blowpipe. That of illuminating gas is to be preferred if 
 obtainable. Away from cities where gas is common, the 
 alcohol lamp is most used. Several kinds of lamps are 
 now sold that are adapted to the wants of the trade, but 
 if these are not at hand a tinner can soon make one. It 
 should hold at least 4 oz. of alcohol, and have a wick tube 
 attached near the bottom not much less than one-half inch 
 in diameter. The top of the wick tube should be cut off 
 obliquely, the left side, as it sits facing you, being the 
 lowest. The wick, when saturated, should be so tight that, 
 although it may be moved up or down in the tube, it will 
 remain in any position. The wick tube must have a cap 
 fitting snugly, to cover the end of the wick when not in 
 use. The size of the lamp should correspond with the 
 size of the work and amount of heat requiretl. Blast 
 lamps, furnaces and hearths are now sold, a description of 
 which I leave to the manufacturers. 
 
 The lamp should never be filled quite full of alcohol, it 
 being liable at any time when in use to become warm, thus 
 expanding the alcohol and causing it to overflow or blow 
 out the wick. 
 
 The beginner should form the habit of covering the wick 
 as soon as it is blown out. If left exposed to the air the 
 alcohol evaporates, leaving the water it contains at the end 
 of the wick, rendering it hard to light. 
 
UTENSILS AND CHEMICALS. 
 
 9 
 
 For gas, the Bunsen burner, with blowpipe tube, is to 
 be obtained from dealers in chemical wares. 
 
 A few pieces of charcoal should be provided on which 
 to lay the work to be soldered. Select that which is well 
 burned and is not too strong through the grain of the wood. 
 The charcoal made from the softer close grained woods or 
 roots is best, since if it is well burned it is not liable to 
 crack and throw sparks with the first heat. Some pieces 
 of coal will continue to burn when laid away if a spark of 
 fire be left unextinguished. The workman will therefore 
 be careful when leaving his work to examine the coal he 
 has been using, and as a further safeguard to cover the 
 table top with sheet metal or slate, where the coal is laid. 
 
 For some kinds of work a mat made of old pieces of 
 binding wire, on which to lay the work, is used. Its ad- 
 vantage is that it presents a uniform surface to lay work 
 on, and in not burning away. Asbestos cloth answers 
 the same purpose. Charcoal, on the other hand, has sev- 
 eral useful qualities peculiar to itself. Pins may be stuck 
 into it to retain in position the pieces to be united. It 
 may be cut into shape to fit the work or to hold melted 
 metals. In burning, it unites with the surplus oxygen 
 surrounding the work, and increasing the beat. 
 
 Blowpipe. — Those oiFered for sale are so cheap and an- 
 swer the purpose so well that others are not commonly 
 used. They are described as "plain" and "with ball." 
 Some prefer a plain one, and for soft soldering, or jobs re- 
 quiring but a short blast are advantageous, since they dry 
 out quicker than those with a bulb. For a long continued 
 
 blast, those with a bulb are preferable, since the chamber 
 2 
 
10 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 holds for a time the condensed vapor from the breath. II 
 the bulb does not unscrew to empty, and a series of long 
 continued blasts are to be made, after each blast the bulb 
 should be held over the flame until the moisture is ex- 
 pelled. 
 
 Brass, if well nickel plated is preferable to silver, by 
 reason of its being a poorer conductor of heat. The tip 
 should be platinum, having an orifice of a size suitable to 
 the work. It is well to have the mouth piece plated with 
 silver or gold, or if the workman likes he may make a 
 ferrule of horn, ivory, silver or gold and put on. It is 
 sometimes convenient to have the mouth piece square, as 
 it can then be held in position by the teeth for a short 
 time if it is necessary to use both hands. 
 
 I once made a blowpipe in a few minutes by simply 
 bending a piece of glass tube over the flame of the lamp, 
 to the desired angle, then drawing to a point and break- 
 ing off until the aperture was the right size, usually about 
 one-fiftieth of an inch. Its smooth tapering nozzle gave a 
 very nice jet, better than that of any metal one, according 
 to my experience. A form of blowpipe not usual in the 
 Fig. J. trade is described in Eliot and Storer's 
 J=? Chemical Analysis. The construction 
 1 can be seen from the accompanying Fig. 
 I 1. The tip should be drilled out of a 
 solid piece of platinum or brass, and 
 should not be fastened on with a screw. 
 
 Wash-bottle. — Next to the apparatus 
 ^ ^ I for increasing the temperature comes 
 
 that for reducing it. A fine jet of water is often useful 
 
UTENSILS AND CHEMICALS. 
 
 11 
 
 for cooling portions of the work and for putting out the fire 
 on charcoal. For these purposes I find the chemists' wash 
 bottle very convenient. 
 
 To construct one, procure an open mouthed bottle that 
 will hold at least a half pint, a cork to fit, and a piece of 
 quarter inch glass tube, twice as long as the bottle. At 
 about the length of the bottle and two inches more hold 
 the tube over the flame of the lamp, rolling it slowly over 
 in the flame until it becomes red, then pull it out length- 
 wise until it parts. Break the thread from the end of the 
 measured off piece, leaving a hole large enough to insert an 
 ordinary pin. Ram the hole in the tube full of dry sand 
 and hold in the flame about two inches from the small end, 
 rolling over as before until red hot, then bend to an angle 
 of about 60° or somewhat farther than square. 
 
 Cut the tapering point off the other piece with the corner 
 of a file and fill with sand as before. At about two inches 
 from the end, bend to an angle of 120° or not quite square. 
 Cut off the longer end so as to leave it about two and one- 
 half inches long and insert the end in the flame, as also 
 the sharpened end of a slate pencil. When the glass be- 
 comes pliable insert the end of the pencil in the hole in 
 the tube, and rolling both while the 
 pencil is gradually pressed to an angle 
 with the tube, spread the end into a 
 flaring mouthpiece. 
 
 Make two holes in the cork and insert 
 the tubes; the longer end so that it will 
 reach near the bottom of the bottle. 
 See Figures 2 and 3. Insert the other 
 nearly through the cork and leaving the 
 
12 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 bent ends in line, cover the surface of the cork with sealing 
 wax. 
 
 If the bottle be now filled with water, and the cork in- 
 serted, when you blow in the mouthpiece, the pressure of 
 the air on the water will force a stream of water from the 
 nozzle. 
 
 A one-half pint three necked Woulff bottle makes a 
 Fig. 3. good wash bottle, as shown in Figure 3. 
 /^j^ A tube is inserted in each of the 
 
 outer necks while the middle one is 
 tUjM used to fill through, and saves the neces- 
 Hlli'llllJ ^^^^ removing the corks having tubes 
 III 11 ill ^^^^ necessary to replenish. 
 
 _M - It is also an improvement to make a 
 
 .^^^j^i^;^^^ metal elbow for the discharge pipe, 
 from which the nozzle may be removed to clean. Clear 
 water only should be used in the bottle. Floating particles, 
 if larger than the aperture in the nozzle, are caught there 
 and stop or clog the stream. 
 
 Binding Wire. — Get the best annealed iron binding 
 wire. For light work see that it is fine about No. 32, and 
 is not tinned. The tinned wire may be used on steel or 
 brass but should never be used on gold or silver. If no 
 other is convenient, remove the tin by drawing it between 
 pieces of No. 0 emery paper and anneal by drawing it 
 slowly through the flame of the lamp, heating it to a dull 
 red as it passes through. If the work is too heavy for a 
 single wire double and twist the light wire. 
 
UTENSILS AND CHEMICALS. 13 
 
 Borax. (Sodae Boras— Biborate of Soda.) Buy al- 
 ways the best in the market. It should be well crystal- 
 ized and in irregular shaped lumps. The surface should 
 not be white or chalky, as that appearance indicates that 
 either the borax or some of its impurities have commenced 
 to oxydize. 
 
 It is liable to be adulterated with alum or salt, and 
 sometimes contains sulphate of potash, sulphate of soda or 
 sulphate of magnesia from which it has not been properly 
 purified. Any of them are deleterious. The importance 
 of having borax of good quality is so great in proportion 
 to the amount used, that the diflFerence in price is insig- 
 nificant. When good is not to be obtained it may some- 
 times be improved by melting to a glass with the blowpipe 
 flame, then dissolving in water and evaporating the water, 
 thus oxidizing a portion of the impurities. 
 
 The useful properties of the borax are that it melts be- 
 fore the solder and flows over the parts to be united, pro- 
 tecting their surfaces and the solder from the oxygen of 
 the air. It also has an affinity for metallic oxides with 
 which it unites, keeping the metallic surfaces clean for the 
 flow of the solder, as will be explained more fully here- 
 after. 
 
 It is sometimes calcined (melted and pulverized) before 
 using. 
 
 It is conveniently prepared for use by rubbing on a piece 
 of slate with a drop of water until it forms a paste. 
 
 The jeweler should add to the articles mentioned a pair 
 of tweezers, some plaster of Paris, some pieces of black 
 lead, a piece of raw potato or apple. Those who work 
 gold and silver will need some chemical reagents, viz; 
 
14 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 Nitric Acid, 
 
 Sulphuric Acid, 
 
 Bichromate of Potash, 
 Saltpetre, 
 
 Ammonia, 
 
 Yellow Ochre, (fee, 
 the uses of which will be explained in other connections. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AIvI^OYS FOR HARD SOI^DHRIXG. 
 
 Every workman should learn to make his own hard sol- 
 der, since in many instances he can expect success not 
 only by a thorough knowledge of the properties of the' ma- 
 terials to be united but also of the metal he proposes to 
 flow on them. 
 
 In the department of soldering called brazing, spelter 
 solder is used. It is composed of equal parts of copper 
 and zinc. The copper should be put in a crucible and 
 heated to a red heat, with a flux composed of charcoal dust 
 and borax, then add the zinc. If the zinc be put in at 
 first it will evaporate or "burn out" before the copper 
 melts. If heated too hot after melting the zinc will evap- 
 orate, passing into the air and coating surrounding objects 
 with white, feathery flakes. If kept melted long a little 
 more zinc should be added if the solder is to be used on 
 brass, but for iron considerable zinc may burn out before 
 it deteriorates. It is cast in ingots, heated red and ham- 
 
ALLOYS. 15 
 
 mered while hot. If too hot it will cake, but if at just the 
 right temperature it will granulate into fine, lustrous par- 
 ticles, not loosing their metallic yellow color. 
 
 It is used on brass, copper, iron or steel, with a blow- 
 pipe or a forge. 
 
 Silver solder is composed of silver, copper and zinc. 
 The silver imparts to the solder strength, malleability 
 and protection from oxidizing. The copper tenacity and 
 malleability. The zinc lends fusibility. 
 
 The object in making a silver solder, is to so alloy a 
 metal that it may be strong, malleable, not liable to oxi- 
 dize, and fusible. The difficulties to be encountered are 
 that an easily fusible metal is not strong and tenacious, 
 and when alloyed with a metal of hard fusibility, produces 
 a brittle alloy. The brittleness is not relieved by reduc- 
 ing the quantity of the fusible metal, since an alloy com- 
 posed of a large quantity of a metal that is hard to fuse 
 and a small quantity of one easily fused is more brittle 
 than if the metals are in reverse proportions. 
 
 An alloy of silver in large proportion and zinc would be 
 easily fused and hard to oxidize, but brittle. We there- 
 fore retain enough of the silver to prevent oxidation, re- 
 duce the zinc as much as possible and retain the property 
 of easy fusion, and add copper to get strength and tenacity. 
 
 The proportions for a good hard solder are about, Sil- 
 ver 18, Copper 4, Zinc 1, by weight. They may be al- 
 loyed in a crucible, and if done so, should have the silver 
 and copper meited together first with just heat enough to 
 make them unite, under a flux of borax. Then add the 
 zinc and pour into an ingot mould immediately. Or, coin 
 silver may be melted first, and one-third its weight of 
 
16 
 
 HARD SOLDERING, 
 
 spring brass, cut up in fine pieces, added. Pour as soon 
 as it presents a clean smooth surface. Put in borax as 
 before for a flux. It should be cast thin and rolled with- 
 out annealing. 
 
 If you want a little for your own use, and do not care 
 to keep it on hand a long time, weigh out 3 or 4 penny- 
 weights of coin silver and one half as much of clean 
 spring brass. I say spring brass because that is an alloy 
 of copper 2 parts, zinc 1 part, by weight. It is a light 
 yellow color. Red brass should be avoided. Cut the 
 brass in thin shreds. In a piece of charcoal cut a hollow 
 near one side about the size of a teaspoon bowl. Put the 
 silver in and add a little borax. Melt the silver with the 
 reducing flame of the blowpipe. (Chapter IV.) Add the 
 brass and keep a gentle flame on until the brass is absorb- 
 ed and it presents a clean smooth globule and no longer. 
 Lay down your blowpipe and pick up a flat piece of iron 
 not less than a sixteenth of an inch thick. Place the iron 
 on the edge of the charcoal and rock it over on the melted 
 globule so as to flatten and cool it at the same time. Put 
 it through the rolls or otherwise make a sheet of it, but 
 do not anneal it. Heating the surface oxidizes the copper, 
 evaporates the zinc and makes it harder to flow. For 
 convenience the same strip may be rolled to different 
 thicknesses to suit the work on which it is to be used. 
 
 If for any reason it is to be remelted, a small piece of 
 zinc should be added while in a state of fusion to take the 
 place of that evaporated. Too much zinc causes it to 
 lose strength and to turn dark when exposed to the air. 
 
 Some add a three-fourths part of metallic arsenic to 
 make the solder more white and fusible. It also makes it 
 
 i 
 
ALLOYS. 
 
 IT 
 
 more brittle and the fumes from the arsenic must be avoid- 
 ed since they are deleterious. If used it should be added 
 at the last moment. 
 
 Articles of gold are sometimes soldered with gold of a 
 lower grade. For 22 carat gold, add to a pennyweight of 
 the gold 2 grains of silver and 1 grain of copper, and the 
 same proportion of silver and copper for gold of 18, 16 or 
 14 carats, with which to solder them. For the manufacture 
 of articles that are to be exposed for any length of time 
 to the action of acids, as in dental work, they should be 
 used. For articles of ornament and for the repair of 
 jewelry, spring brass may be used instead of the silver 
 and copper, making a solder of good color and more easily 
 fused. Some use with coin gold, the same proportion of 
 brass as for silver solder. The same precaution should 
 be used in making as for silver solder, to add the brass, 
 which contains the more fusible metal, zinc, last, and to 
 cool as soon as alloyed, to prevent the volatilization of the 
 zinc. 
 
 Gold of a fineness of 12 carats or less may be soldered 
 with 10 or 12 carat gold to which about 2 grains of zinc 
 to the pennyweight has been added, but in no case should 
 a gold solder be made that is less than 8 carats fine. The 
 gold is wasted by not being sufficient in quantity to pro- 
 tect the alloy from oxidizing. It is better for such work 
 to use silver solder. 
 
 Gold solder for general work may be made of Gold 18, 
 Silver 4, Copper 5, Zinc 2 parts, by weight, or, to 1 dwt. 
 18 carat gold add 5 grs. spring brass. This will be 15 
 carat gold. Tin is sometimes used instead of zinc, but it 
 makes a more brittle alloy owing to its easier fusibility. 
 3 
 
18 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 The gold solders are made on charcoal, pressed and 
 rolled as described for silver. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OXIDAXIOX. 
 
 While the oxygen of the air is of the greatest assistance 
 in producing the heat that the workman employs, it also 
 becomes his greatest enemy in the property it has of unit- 
 ing with the metals of which his work is composed. In 
 welding, brazing, hard soldering or soft soldering, only 
 chemically clean metallic surfaces will unite. The pure 
 metals must come in contact in order to establish perma- 
 nent affinity. 
 
 Nearly all the metals and alloys in common use oxidize. 
 The oxidized metal is the red rust or the black scale on 
 iron or steel ; the white oxide of zinc ; the red oxide of 
 lead ; the yellow oxide, or litharge, and the white oxide, or 
 white lead; the black oxide of copper; the oxide of tin, 
 called putty powder. 
 
 Gold derives its superior value from its properties of 
 resisting the oxidizing power of the air and water, its 
 malleability and its scarcity. Silver derives its value 
 from the same properties, but possessing them in a less 
 degree, while it is more abundant, is cheaper in market 
 value. 
 
 In the working of metals the workman resorts to other 
 substances that possess the power of resisting the action 
 
OXIDATION. 19 
 
 of the oxygen and of uniting with the oxides of the 
 metals, if formed. DifiFerent substances are used, adapted 
 to protect the metals at the degree of heat required for the 
 process used. In welding, borax is used, because at a red 
 heat it melts and flows over the surface of the iron, pro- 
 tecting it from the hot air of the forge and uniting with 
 the oxide or scale if formed. In brazing and hard solder- 
 ing the same substance is used for the same purpose. 
 When the temperature is not raised to a sufficient extent 
 to melt borax, sal ammoniac, muriate of zinc, resin, Venice 
 turpentine, and even tallow and sweet oil may be used, as 
 in soft soldering and the tinning of iron. These sub- 
 stances are called fluxes, and are used for the one purpose 
 of protecting the metal from the oxygen of the air. The 
 beginner must not get them confused, for while borax is 
 the shield at a high temperature, it is not only useless but 
 in the way at a low one, and while tallow or oil will flux 
 at a low temperature and when used alone, they have the 
 opposite effect at a little higher temperature or mixed with 
 other fluxes. 
 
 Charcoal also operates to protect metals from the oxygen 
 of hot air by itself uniting with it, or in a vicarious way. 
 The workman who solders on charcoal can often protect 
 one side of his work from oxidizing by causing it to fit the 
 coal tightly. The charcoal burns around the work and 
 consumes the oxygen before it reaches the side in contact. 
 
 Other substances called antioxidizers are used to pro- 
 tect the surface of metals from the action of the air where 
 solder is not intended to flow. The blacksmith "lutes" 
 his steel dies, or the gunsmith his engraved work, with 
 clay. The jeweler coats his work with yellow ochre and 
 
20 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 other substances given hereafter, for the same purpose. 
 They act in a mechanical way by being interposed between 
 the surface to be protected and the air. 
 
 To resist the action of the air upon articles in ordinary 
 use the gunsmith blues or browns the surface, that is, he 
 produces on the surface a coat of oxide to prevent farther 
 oxidation; the brass finisher "ormolus," that is, heats un- 
 til a light coat of oxide forms and then applies a light 
 coat of shellac; the electro-metallurgist plates with gold, 
 silver or nickel. For the same purpose sheets of iron 
 are tinned and coated with zinc. Zinc, although freely 
 oxidizable, takes on a coat of oxide impervious to air or 
 moisture, thus preventing further oxidation. 
 
 Of anti-oxidizers, the most important ingredients are 
 yellow ochre and borax. The workman may compound to 
 suit himself. To prevent steel from scaling, yellow ochre 
 and water forming a paste to spread on will answer the 
 purpose. To prevent alloys of gold from changing color, 
 pulverized borax should be added to the ochre, as also a 
 little aqua ammonia to assist in forming a paste. A good 
 recipe is 
 
 Borax, ----- 1 oz. 
 Aqua Ammonia, - - - - J oz. 
 Yellow Ochre, - - - - 1^ oz. 
 Water to make a paste. 
 Some add also pulverized charcoal. If kept tightly 
 stopped it seems to improve with age. 
 
 The means of removing oxides formed in hard soldering 
 and of restoring the color to alloys will be considered in 
 Chap. VII. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STRUCTURE OF FI^AIWE. 
 
 Since the flame of the lamp is of general use in solder- 
 ing, it may be well to devote a little time to the study of 
 its structure. The flame is produced by the combustion 
 of gases. In the case of alcohol or oil, the liquid at the 
 end of the wick is raised to a temperature at which it 
 volatilizes. The gases are then heated until they combine 
 with the oxygen of the air, in turn producing heat and 
 volatilizing more of the liquid. The wick of the lamp or 
 candle conveys the liquid to the point of combustion to 
 maintain the supply. The gases as they 
 arise from the wick come in contact 
 with the oxygen in the air, with which 
 they unite. As the stream of hot gases 
 flows upward the outer portion comes 
 in contact with the air first, and the 
 inner portions as they pass upward are 
 presented to the air, Fig. 4, causing the 
 flame from a round wick to be conical 
 in shape. Where the process of the 
 union of the gases is going on, that is at 
 all points of this cone of flame, Fig. 
 4, the elements are raised to a high de 
 gree of temperature. The highest tem- JFig- 4, 
 
22 
 
 HAKD SOLDERING. 
 
 perature is at the apex of the cone where combustion, or 
 oxidation of the gases, is proceeding from all sides. Iri- 
 side of this outer cone of flame is a space comparatively- 
 cool, but filled with gases at a temperature sufficiently 
 high to oxidize if brought in contact with the air, A, Fig. 
 4. If a wire gauze be held across the middle of the cone 
 the flame will be cut off at that point and the flame below 
 presents a ring of combustion. The reason that the flame 
 is cut off by the wire gauze is that the heat is conducted 
 away by the metal and the gases cooled thereby below the 
 temperature at which combustion takes place. If a piece 
 of watch spring be inserted across the lower part of the 
 flame it will be heated to redness at two points where it 
 crosses the outer cone of combustion, while the portion in 
 the interior of the flame will be below that temperature. 
 In the flame from oil lamps and candles this cone of in- 
 tense heat is luminous. 
 
 If the point of the blowpipe be inserted in this cone, 
 
 rig. 5, and through 
 the small aperture in 
 its end, a jet of air be 
 blown, the heated gases 
 in the interior of the 
 Fig- 5. flame are supplied with 
 
 oxygen and combustion is carried on from within, increas- 
 ing the combustion and consequently the heat. The 
 stream of air elongates the flame in its direction and ex- 
 poses it to a greater air surface. This flame is technical- 
 ly called the oxidizing flame, from the fact that it carries 
 with it a quantity of free heated oxygen, that unites with 
 the heated metal, carbon of the charcoal, 6cc. If it be 
 
STRUCTURE OF FLAME, 
 
 23 
 
 blown on a piece of bright iron or steel, as the oxygen 
 unites with the surface exposed, it passes through the 
 tempering colors, straw, purple, blue, and if the process 
 be continued to a red heat, a hard black scale of oxide of 
 iron is formed covering the surface to a depth correspond- 
 ing to the duration of exposure. Pure gold and silver are 
 but little affected by it, as they unite with oxygen only to. 
 a slight extent, but copper is very susceptible to the action 
 of hot oxygen, losing its metallic lustre, and assuming a 
 dull brown color. It causes alloys of which it is an in- 
 gredient to do likewise. Zinc is volatilized by the heat, 
 and the vapor coming in contact with the hot oxygen, 
 unites, forming fleecy white particles of oxide of zinc 
 that float in the air or adhere to the charcoal. Tin at 
 a little above its melting point is entirely oxidized and 
 converted into putty powder. Lead does likewise, but the 
 oxide is yellow and heavier, commonly called litharge. 
 
 If the point of the blowpipe be held at a little distance 
 from the lower part of 
 the flame and a gentle 
 blast be blown over the 
 flame, as in Fig. 6, 
 the flame is diverted 
 in the direction of the F'g 6. 
 
 stream of air, and the flame supplied with oxygen from 
 the outside. The inner cone of heated carbonaceous 
 gases. A, Fig. 6, remain ready to unite with any oxygen 
 with which they may come in contact. Oxidized metals 
 in the interior of this flame are deprived of their oxygen 
 and reduced to a metallic state. It is therefore called the 
 reducing flame. 
 
24 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 If the point of the 
 blowpipe be held just 
 
 "^^^^"""^^i cone of combustion 
 
 ^^"'^^^^^""'^''^ as in Fig. 7, and a 
 
 Fig. 7. " '" gentle blast blown, a 
 
 double cone may be formed, having a point of intense heat 
 at JL, with neither oxidation or deoxidation. 
 
 These different flames are utilized in soldering by ap 
 plying the intense heat of the oxidizing flame to raise the 
 temperature of the cold article to be soldered, if it be 
 large, before the solder is applied. Also, when it is 
 necessary to call to his assistance the heat of the burning 
 charcoal, it supplies the carbon of the coal with heated 
 oxygen to assist its combustion. When the process has 
 arrived at that stage at which the solder fuses it is neces- 
 sary to protect it and and the joint into which it is expect- 
 ed to flow from oxidation. The blowpipe is then with 
 drawn, producing the reducing flame. 
 
 On coarse work the oxidizing flame may be used to save 
 time, but on light repairing and gold alloys too much care 
 cannot be exercised to use the reducing flame. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 HEAT. 
 
 Heat is transmitted by conduction or convection, radia 
 tion and rejection. 
 
 Heat, in solid bodies, seems to be transmitted from one 
 particle to the next by a slow process called conduction, 
 and in liquids by the movement of the particles to and 
 from the source of heat. 
 
 Heat radiates or passes through the surrounding air, like 
 light, Avith great rapidity. It is in this state governed bj 
 laws similar to light, being capable of reflection. 
 
 It may be produced by chemical action and transmitted 
 by any of the foregoing methods. It may be developed 
 within a body by causing it to obstruct a current of elec- 
 tricity or motion. 
 
 For the work of which we are treating the main source 
 of heat is by the combustion of coal, gas or liquids — the 
 union of the oxygen of the air with carbon or hydrocar 
 bons. The work may be immersed in the burning coal, 
 receiving heat from all sides, as in soldering and brazing; 
 the flame from liquids or gas may be driven onto it as in 
 hard soldering, or it may be conducted to the work as in 
 soft soldering. 
 
 By whatever means the heat be imparted to a body, as 
 soon as it is introduced it strives to equalize itself through- 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 out the body and to escape by every means of transmis- 
 sion. As the heat seeks to escape from the workman by 
 every method, so must the skilled workman employ every 
 method to lead the heat to the point desired and make it 
 culminate in accomplishing his designs. 
 
 The escape of heat by conduction varies in different 
 bodies. If you take an iron spoon and a silver one and 
 hold the bowls of both in hot water, you will feel the heat 
 in the silver one some time before you do in the one made 
 of iron. From this you may learn that you can heat a 
 portion of a bar of iron without losing much heat by con- 
 duction if the process be carried on briskly, but an at- 
 tempt to heat a spot on a similar silver bar would be at- 
 tended with considerable loss of heat by conduction. 
 
 The relative conducting power of metals is given in 
 Towne's Chemistry as follows. 
 
 Silver, - - 1000 Steel, - - - 116 
 Copper, " - - 736 Lead, - - - 85 
 Gold, - - . 532 Platinum, - - 84 
 Brass, - - - 236 German Silver, - 63 
 Tin, - - - 145 Bismuth - - 18 
 Iron, - - - 119 Zinc (Mech. Diet.) - 363 
 Another principle to be taken into consideration in this 
 connection is the amount of heat required to raise the tem- 
 perature of different metals. Metals differ in their capar, 
 ity for heat. Iron requires more heat to raise it a certain 
 number of degrees of temperature than silver, so that al- 
 though there is not so much loss of heat at any given 
 point, by conduction, it is necessary to impart more heat 
 to raise the temperature of the whole iron bar an equal 
 number of degrees than the one of silver. This capacity 
 
STRUCTURE OF FLAME. 
 
 27 
 
 for heat of any substance is called its specific heat. A 
 celebrated French experimenter, Regnault, gives the fol- 
 lowing numbers to express the relative specific heat of the 
 metals as compared with water: 
 
 Aluminum, 
 
 0.2143 
 
 Mercury, - 
 
 0.0333 
 
 Antimony, - 
 
 - 0.0508 
 
 Nickel, 
 
 - 0.1086 
 
 Bismuth, - 
 
 0.0308 
 
 Platinum, 
 
 0.0329 
 
 Copper, 
 
 - 0.0952 
 
 Silver, 
 
 - 0.0570 
 
 Gold, 
 
 0.0324 
 
 Tin, 
 
 0.0562 
 
 Iron, - 
 
 - 0.1138 
 
 Water, 
 
 - 1.0080 
 
 Lead, 
 
 0.0314 
 
 Zinc, 
 
 0.0955 
 
 It will be seen, for an example, by comparing the tables, 
 that copper has a high conducting power and also a high 
 capacity for heat, thereby being hard to heat, while plati- 
 num is a poor conductor and also has a low specific, ren- 
 dering it easy to heat. 
 
 As soon as a body becomes heated more than the sur- 
 rounding matter it loses heat by radiation. The heat pro- 
 jects in right lines into space from all points of its sur- 
 face. The capacity of any body to radiate and to absorb 
 heat is equal. Radiation is varied by the condition of the 
 surface of a body. Dark or rough surfaces lose more heat 
 by radiation and absorb more than light or polished sur 
 faces. Blackened tin having a radiating power of 100, 
 clean tin will radiate but 12, and if the surface be roudi- 
 ened by scraping, 16 will indicate its power of radiation. 
 Radiant heat, or in other words heat that has been radiat- 
 ed from an over heated body, is subject to laws of reflec- 
 tion similar to light, in which case the heat rays are thrown 
 off from the body without entering. Hence if a body re- 
 flects the heat it does not absorb it, and vice versa. 
 
28 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 Having considered the methods by which heat escapes 
 from a body, we may now review the ways the workman 
 has of applying the heat and preventing its escape. In 
 common use we have the flame of the lamp or of gas; the 
 heat from the burning coal on the hearth or in the forge; 
 the heat from conduction from hot tongs, the copper, and 
 sometimes by pouring melted metal over a body. To the 
 flame of gas or the lamp which raises the temperature, as 
 explained in another chapter, by contact with gases in a 
 state of combustion, we often add the heat radiated and 
 reflected from burning charcoal, and cover parts that are 
 not exposed to the flame with some poor conductor of 
 heat, such as clay or plaster of Paris, to prevent the radi- 
 ation of the heat absorbed by conduction. In the forge 
 the temperature is raised by cor tact with burning solids, 
 conducting, radiating and reflecting the heat. In some 
 instances where heat and pressure combined are neces- 
 sary, heated tongs are applied, thus heating hy conduc- 
 tion and at the same time retaining the parts in position 
 during their expansion. When the work is too large for 
 other methods it is sometimes imbedded in sand or other 
 poor conductor, leaving the portion to be heated exposed 
 so that melted metal may be kept running over it until the 
 part is raised to the desired temperature by conduction 
 from the melted metal. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PROCESS. 
 
 We will suppose the reader to be provided with the 
 tools and material described for hard soldering, but in the 
 art to be a beginner, and we will suppose him to be try- 
 ing to learn with the mouth blowpipe, the alcohol lamp 
 and charcoal, since when these are learned the other 
 methods are easy. 
 
 Select a place for the work table away from sunlight 
 or other strong or bright light, in order that the flame 
 may be more readily seen, and its character distinguished. 
 
 Place the lamp directly in front, the pieces of charcoal 
 to the left. Next the lamp on the right put the tweezers 
 and some solder cut up in little squares proportioned to 
 the size of the joint to be made, then the slate and borax, 
 the wash bottle and the blowpipe. 
 
 Take for an experiment a piece of brass wire an inch 
 long which it may be desired to unite to a narrow strip 
 of sheet brass. With a flat file, file the wire half away, 
 leaving it flat perhaps a quarter of an inch from the end 
 to a shoulder, leaving the filed surface clean, bright and 
 dry. File or polish bright the end of the strip of sheet 
 metal where the wire is to lay. Do not touch these clean 
 surfaces with the sweaty hands. Place the piece of wire 
 
30 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 on the sheet metal as you want it when solid and wrap a 
 piece of the iron binding wire twice around near the end 
 of the brass wire, lap the ends over the round wire and 
 twist tight. Make a similar wrap of wire near the end 
 of the sheet metal. Blow a drop of water from the wash- 
 bottle on the slate and rub the borax in the water until a 
 paste is formed. Apply a coat of this paste all around 
 the edges where the two pieces come in contact. Lay the 
 work on the charcoal so that the joint will come near its 
 right edge. Take the cover off the lamp wick and light 
 the lamp. Grasp the charcoal with the left hand, taking 
 such a hold that the flame will not reach the thumb or 
 lingers and having the palm of the hand in a vertical po- 
 sition so that the little sparks of ignited charcoal that 
 may become dislodged will not fall into the palm of the 
 hand. 
 
 Place the blowpipe to the mouth with the nozzle directed 
 to the left and just outside the lower part of the flame. 
 Fill the cheeks with air from the lungs and blow sufficient- 
 ly hard and steady to give a permanent lateral direction 
 to the flame. Bring the work into the flame first one side 
 of the joint then the other. The heat will be conducted 
 to the work and cause the borax to expand, but if the heat 
 be continued it will settle down again, having been de 
 prived of the water of crystalization by the heat. Now 
 stop the blast, care being taken not to inhale through the 
 blowpipe. 
 
 With the tweezers pick up a piece of the solder, and 
 after touching it to the borax paste to moisten it and cause 
 it to adhere to the work, place it beside the wire between 
 the wraps of binding wire. 
 
THE PROCESS. 31 
 
 ^ Apply the flame as before, heating first one side of the 
 joint, then the other, but not on the joint until it becomes 
 nearly red hot, then apply the flame to the joint until it 
 becomes red hot and the solder melts and flows all through 
 the joint. As soon as the solder flows quickly remove 
 the blowpipe. It is easy to tell when the solder flows for 
 while it is melted it glistens with radiated light. 
 
 Blow a stream of Avater from the wash-bottle on the 
 charcoal to extinquish the fire and cool off the work. 
 
 It will be necessary for the beginner to practice with 
 the blowpipe in order to blow a continuous stream of air 
 through the blowpipe nozzle while he breathes through his 
 nostrils. To one not accustomed to the blowpipe it seems 
 a paradox, but is, nevertheless, easily acquired by any 
 one the anatomy of whose throat is perfect. 
 
 If you close your mouth and fill your cheeks with air 
 until they are distended you will find that you can close 
 the passage between the mouth and throat so that while 
 you breathe through the nose the cheeks remain full. Then 
 if a blowpipe be inserted in the mouth and this passage 
 closed the blowpipe will not permit the air to escape from 
 the cheeks so rapidly but that the lungs may be filled by 
 inhaling through the nose while the muscles of the cheeks 
 are forcing the air out of the blowpipe. When the lungs 
 are replenished the passage is opened and the cheeks re- 
 filled. 
 
 ' Begin by breathing naturally with the cheeks full, then 
 put the blowpipe in the mouth and practice until you can 
 breathe right along naturally, replenishing the cheeks when- 
 ever necessary. After you have become accustomed to 
 blowing it will not be necessary to replenish the cheeks 
 
32 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 every breath or to have the cheeks much distended, and 
 you will be able to perform the whole operation without it 
 distracting your attention from the other parts of the 
 process. 
 
 If the beginner has trouble in acquiring dexterity he 
 may take a rim fire cartridge shell and make a hole in the 
 end smaller than the hole in the blowpipe nozzle, at first, 
 so as not to empty the cheeks too fast. Put it between 
 the lips in the place of the blowpipe and practice blowing 
 through it. As skill is acquired enlarge the aperture un- 
 til it becomes as large or larger than the one in the blow- 
 pipe. It may be carried in the pocket to practice with at 
 any moment of leisure. 
 
 If the beginner is now ready for another experimental 
 lesson he may make a ferrule. Procure a piece of sheet 
 iron, brass or silver, and place on the charcoal. Hold the 
 blowpipe point just outside of the lower part of the flame 
 and blowing the flame upon the sheet metal, heat it red 
 hot. If of iron allow it to cool gradually, but if of brass or 
 silver blow a jet from the wash bottle on it until it is cool. 
 It will then be annealed, and if you make any particular 
 measure you will not be annoyed when it is done by find- 
 ing that it has expanded in hard soldering and does not fit. 
 
 Cut out a strip as wide as your ferrule is to be and as 
 long as its circumference. Form into shape, keeping the 
 edges to be united clean. If the metal is thick and the 
 joint well fitted, it may be soldered without binding ; but if 
 the metal be light or the ferrule long, put a couple wraps of 
 binding wire near each end to hold the edges together. If 
 of brass, silver or gold, put a strip of flat sheet brass 
 lengthwise along the back of the ferrule opposite the joint 
 
THE PROCESS. 
 
 33 
 
 and wrap the binding wire around both. Brass, silver or 
 gold, in heating, expand more than the iron binding wire 
 and are more pliable when hot. If the binding wire be 
 wrapped directly around them, by not expanding so much 
 it sinks into the hot brass, silver or gold, and makes 
 grooves around the ferrule, sometimes causing much annoy- 
 ance to restore to shape and polish out. 
 
 When you have it wrapped and the edges fitted closely 
 together, take a file and run along inside the ferrule length- 
 wise of the joint, to remove the burr and scale and bright- 
 en the metal ne.ir the joint, to facilitate the flow of the 
 solder. If of iron or brass spread on plenty of borax 
 paste inside and out ; but if of silver or gold enough can 
 be spread on with a small pencil brush, as those metals 
 do not oxidize materially, and do not require much fluxing, 
 but it should be evenly applied and cover every exposure 
 of the joint. 
 
 Make a little hollow in the charcoal and lay the ferrule 
 in, joint down. Put a small piece of coal near the end 
 farthest from the flame. Hold the charcoal so that you 
 can blow through the ferrule if you desire, and, applying 
 the blowpipe flame, heat all over evenly until the borax 
 settles. With the tweezers take a piece of solder, as be- 
 fore, and touching it in the borax paste, lay it on the joint 
 inside of the ferrule at a little distance from one end, and 
 another piece near the other end ; if the ferrule be long put 
 one or more pieces in the middle. 
 
 Now apply the flame to the outside of the ferrule on top 
 until it becomes nearly red, then direct it inside, as far in 
 as you can conveniently, and downward along the joint 
 until the solder flows. 
 5 
 
HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 If ot' silver or gold see that the blue flame does not im- 
 pinge on the edge of the metal long in the same place, as 
 it may melt down, and if you see the metal at any timo 
 begin to crinkle or shrivel, throw off" the flame as soon as 
 possible. If the solder should not flow up to the end do 
 not direct too much heat there, as those corners are easily 
 melted away. It is better to put on fresh borax, a new 
 piece of solder, and try it again. 
 
 The solder should not be as thick as the gold or silver 
 sheet, but the brass or iron will stand for almost any thick- 
 ness of solder to melt. 
 
 Some workmen put the joint uppermost on the coal and 
 apply the solder on the outside. 
 
 We will next take a job of repairing, for instance a sil- 
 ver teaspoon that has been broken across the middle of 
 the shank. The joint may be made 
 
 by squaring the broken ends and 
 
 putting them flat together, depend- 
 ing on pinning the work to the 
 charcoal to hold it in place while 
 under heat. It may be made by 
 sawing into each piece and inserting 
 
 into the kerfs a piece of silver, as 
 
 in Fig. 8. 
 
 It may be made by holding each end on an anvil and 
 drawing to a bevel edge with the pane end of a hammer, 
 making a bevel perhaps one fourth of an inch long on each 
 piece, then file smooth and bright and laying the two bev- 
 eled ends together, as in Fig. 9, wrap with binding 
 wire. If the spoon is to be united in any of these ways 
 it should be fastened to the charcoal with pins made by 
 
THE PROCESS. 35 
 
 cutting off pieces iron wire, about No. 20 in size. If it is 
 not convenient to pin to the charcoal the latter joint may 
 be made with a notch in it to prevent slipping apart, as 
 shown by Fig. 10, when the binding wire will retain the 
 pieces in position in every direction. 
 
 A piece of charcoal should be selected as long as the 
 spoon, on which it may lie so that the joint and the ends 
 will rest on the coal. Pin it to the coal if necessary, and 
 apply the borax paste. Put a small piece of charcoal on 
 top of the larger piece, on the side of the spoon and op- 
 posite where the flame will strike when blowing on the 
 joint. If this piece has a beveled side, so as to project 
 over the spoon at the joint, so much better. Place a 
 piece of coal on the spoon bowl. 
 
 Direct the flame on the coal around the spoon, to ignite 
 tlic coal and to heat the borax. When the borax has set 
 tied, put on a piece of solder, this time a thick one, so 
 that it may not melt and burn before the metal of the 
 spoon is hot enough for it to flow in the joint. It should 
 be about half as thick as the metal at the joint. Apply 
 the flame first one side of the joint then on the other, un- 
 til these parts are nearly red hot. By doing so the heat 
 will be conducted into the metal at the joint, and heat it 
 gradually, without melting the solder, the object being to 
 apply the heat in such a manner as to heat the metal at 
 the joint without permanently melting the solder. By 
 having these parts hot when the flame is applied to the 
 joint to melt and flow the solder, the heat will not be con- 
 ducted away, but will suddenly raise the temperature to 
 the required degree without oxidizing the solder or vola- 
 tilizing any of its component parts, and also economizing 
 
36 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 the heat of the flame, the theory of which has been ex- 
 plained in foregoing chapters. 
 
 When the parts on each side of the joint show nearly a 
 red heat, see that the point of the blowpipe is outside 
 of the flame, and direct a gentle blast on the joint until it 
 becomes red, the solder fuses and a bright glistening line 
 along the joint tells that the solder has run through. 
 
 It is common for the beginner to blow too hard, and to 
 hold the Avork too close to the lamp, with the hope of 
 thereby increasing the heat. The blast when the solder 
 is to be fused should be moderate, and the work at the 
 blue apex of the inner cone of the flame, a point that can 
 readily be seen by removing the work or by slackening 
 and then gradually increasing the force of the blast. 
 
 If from poor borax, an unclean joint, or an improper 
 application of the heat, the first piece of solder does not 
 flow as it should, another piece with a little fresh borax 
 may be added, and the work again heated. Sometimes 
 the workman may be annoyed by the solder forming a 
 globule, dancing around and refusing to flow into the joint. 
 In such a case, if the metal below is hot enough, it will 
 sometimes flow if the blast be suddenly checked or with- 
 drawn. If it continues long, so as to volatilize the more 
 fusible parts of the solder, remove the globules and as 
 much of the old borax as is practicable, and apply fresh 
 borax and solder, and take a new heat. When the work 
 is required to possess the utmost strength, and will stand 
 the heat, it may be kept heated after the solder has run, 
 in order that it may alloy deeper into the metal of the 
 work, and make the metal at the joint more homogeneous. 
 
 If the spoon had cracked down the bowl and it were re- 
 
THE PROCESS. 
 
 37 
 
 quired to repair it, the edges should be brought together 
 at the top, and a hole punched in each near the corner, 
 through which to bind with a piece of silver wire large 
 enough to fill the holes, or, rivet a piece of silver on. 
 The surplus metal can be dressed off after soldering. It 
 is necessary in the case of cracked pieces of concave form 
 to provide against the unequal expansion from heat, as it 
 tends to open the crack, A secure method of retaining 
 the parts having been provided for, proceed as before. 
 Place a small piece of charcoal in the spoon bowl, to 
 counteract radiation of heat. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PROCBSS-Continued. 
 
 We will suppose that by this time our apprentice has 
 become familiar with the blowpipe, flame, and materials on 
 his table, and desires to replace a broken joint on a silver 
 watch-case. He will find the ends of the outer joints 
 plugged with little tapering pieces of silver, that he may 
 remove by cutting into slightly with an engraver's chisel, 
 and pressing them out. The joint pin may then be driv- 
 en out by inserting a small punch in the hole and pushing 
 from left to right. The old pieces of joint should be re- 
 moved entirely, and the hollow seat dressed smooth and 
 bright with a round file. From a piece of hollow wire of 
 the size of the joint cut a piece a little long, and fit to the 
 exact length between the joints. Examine it to find on 
 
38 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 which side it is closed, dress it bright on that side and 
 mark it so that the joint in the wire may come on the case 
 and be soldered up when it is united to the case. If it is 
 a light case, and the hole in the joint wire small, there is 
 danger that the solder may flow into the hole and fill it 
 up. To save this prospect of future trouble, the carefu^ 
 workman dresses a piece of pencil black lead, to fit the 
 hole in the wire. The properties of the black lead or 
 plumbago, that make it useful for this purpose, are that 
 the solder will not unite with it, that it is not altered by 
 heat, and that it may be crumbled to powder to remove it, 
 if necessary. 
 
 Having marked the exact position that you desire the 
 joint to occupy, if you intend to retain it in position by 
 passing iron binding wire around the whole cap, it will be 
 well to fit a heavy piece of brass wire across inside the 
 cap from flange to flange, or the silver of the case in ex- 
 panding more than the iron binding wire, will be contracted 
 out of its natural shape unless supported. Heavy wire 
 should not be used to bind such a job. When light 
 wire is used it should only be wrapped twice around, so 
 that if it be seen to be doing damage it may be easily 
 burned asunder by the point of the flame. The wire is 
 not usually needed after the solder is applied. 
 
 Apply the borax and put it on the charcoal. Your sol- 
 der this time should be thinner than the material of the 
 joint wire, and cut into small pieces so that it will not be 
 necessary to use more than enough to answer the purpose, 
 since the surplus may flow into places where it will be dis- 
 agreeable to remove. Place some small pieces of char- 
 coal inside the cap, and blow the flame over them, to par- 
 
THE PROCESS. 
 
 39 
 
 tially ignite them. Heat enough to calcine the borax. 
 Put a piece of solder either alongside or near the end of 
 the joint. Heat every part of the cap but the joint, and 
 ignite the pieces of charcoal within to prevent the escape 
 of heat by radiation, and thereby prevent the heat from 
 being conducted away when the critical moment arrives. 
 The carbon of the ignited charcoal will also unite with 
 the oxygen of the air, and tend to prevent oxidation of 
 the work. When it is all well heated, apply the heat to 
 the joint and the metal adjacent, carefully watching that 
 no one point shows too luminous, or otherwise indicates 
 that it is receiving too much heat. The work should be 
 kept slowly moving under the flame, so that the blue cone 
 will not come in contact with a thin edge of metal at the 
 same place any length of time, or you may see the edge 
 shrivel and melt before you are aware of the intense heat. 
 
 Watch intently for the bright glistening line along the 
 joint that announces that the work is done, and quickly 
 remove the flame to save farther danger. 
 
 With the wash bottle blow a stream of water on the 
 coal around the work until the main piece is quenched, 
 but do not direct the stream onto one side of the cap, or 
 in any way cause it to cool from a high degree of heat 
 suddenly, or it will warp. If the coal be quenched 
 around the cap, and the pieces of coal inside removed and 
 quenched, it will now be cool enough to remove from the 
 coal and take oflF the iron binding wire, when, while 
 slightly warm it may be immersed in the silversmith's pick- 
 ling solution described in the next chapter. If immersed 
 a little warm, the black oxide is sooner removed. 
 
 Had the cap been of gold, it would have been neces- 
 
40 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 sary to cover the surface with an anti-oxidizing paste, to 
 prevent loss of color by the copper of the alloy oxidizing 
 in the presence of the hot oxygen. 
 
 The caution in regard to iron binding wire, and sudden 
 cooling springing the work, applies to dental plates, or 
 any work having an accurate form to preserve. 
 
 In brazing or hard soldering large pieces, when it is 
 necessary to use a hearth or forge, the pieces are bound 
 together with heavy annealed iron wire, large enough not 
 to burn off in the fire. Since the heat cannot be managed 
 so well as with the flame and blowpipe, it is sometimes 
 necessary to lute, or cover with clay, the lighter or more 
 exposed portion of the work, to protect it from the heat. 
 The same care is used to have the joint clean and bright, 
 and the same rules observed in regard to the borax and 
 solder, as in soldering with the flame. Charcoal is best, 
 but if not at hand, and bituminous coal is to be used, it 
 should have the sulphurous gases driven from it by burn- 
 ing to a coke before putting the work in the fire. 
 
 It is sometimes necessary to unite long thin strips of 
 metal that cannot be fastened on anything to hold the 
 ends in position, since the fastenings would have to be ap- 
 plied at a distance from the ends to be united, and when 
 the heat would be applied the expansion Avould cause them 
 to buckle out of shape. To unite such articles, as for in- 
 stance a band saw, prepare the end for a lap joint. Lap 
 the ends more than the width of the saw. Cut a notch, 
 larger than the lap, in a block, and fasten the pieces so 
 that the edges of the back may be in line, and the laps 
 
THE PROCESS. 
 
 41 
 
 in position over the notch. Fasten to the block by 
 screws or clamps. Cut a piece of silver solder, rolled 
 thin, as large as the lap. See that the solder and the 
 faces to be united are clean and bright, and insert the 
 the solder between the lapped surfaces. Apply the borax 
 paste all around the edges. Heat the jaws of a pair of 
 tight shutting blacksmith's tongs red hot, and shut them 
 onto the joint, inclosing joint, solder, and all. If the 
 jaws are so light as not to close firmly, screw a clamp on- 
 to them. Cool with a stream of water. The heat from 
 the jaws of the tongs is sufficient by conduction to flow 
 the solder, and the pressure retains the parts in position 
 and prevents buckling. 
 
 The solder may sometimes in blowpipe soldering be ap- 
 plied to advantage by placing a thin strip in the joint. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 XECHNICAI. NOXES. 
 
 It may be of advantage to the student in the art of hard 
 soldering to introduce a chapter containing notes, partly 
 in review, to impress the important points more firmly in 
 the mind; and partly novel, being such ideas as have been 
 derived from practice and experiment, and which may 
 sometimes save, even to an experienced hand, many times 
 the price of a little book. 
 6 
 
HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 Sometimes parts to be united have edges or corners so 
 thin as to be almost certain to be "eat away." This eat- 
 ing away or shrinking is caused partly by the heat coming 
 in contact with a large area of metal in proportion to the 
 bulk. Conduction does not equalize the heat fast enough 
 to carry it away from the thin place, thus it becomes heat- 
 ed more than the adjacent thicker metal, and melts, or 
 comes near the melting point, before the solder flows 
 When the solder flows it alloys with the thin hot edge or 
 corner, and causes it, too, to flow toward the thicker or 
 cooler metal. It may often be prevented by inserting in 
 the joint a thin piece of sheet metal, of the same material 
 as the body of the work, and a little larger, so as to ex- 
 tend beyond the thin edge, as in Fig. 11. The solder 
 must be flowed on both sides of it. It 
 conducts the heat away from the thin 
 edges and attracts the flowing solder 
 outward to make a perfect, full joint. 
 The surplus metal is afterward dressed 
 Fig. 11. ^'^^^ ^ P'6ce is often useful also 
 
 in gold rings that have been worn to 
 thin edges, or have been resoldered so many times that 
 the solder has alloyed with the body of the metal and 
 causes it to melt easily. It is a good plan to insert such 
 a piece in cutting down and hard soldering rings filled 
 with hard solder, in which case it is not necessary to use 
 any hard solder on the outside, since if the piece of sheet 
 metal be properly cleaned the filling will flow, but it is 
 safer to use a little, if for nothing else than to tell when 
 to stop the blast. 
 
TECHNICAL NOTES. 
 
 43 
 
 The silversmith's "pickle" is made by diluting nitric 
 acid with ten times its bulk of water, putting it in an 
 open vessel like a pickle dish and adding as much sul- 
 phuric acid, by measure, as was used of nitric acid. The 
 acids should not be mixed in a tight vessel. If the pickle 
 stands exposed to the air it will evaporate, but is restored 
 again by adding water. Iron should never be allowed to 
 get in it. Articles should never be taken out of it with 
 steel tweezers; the binding wire should be removed from 
 all articles before they are put in. Whenever by any 
 means iron gets in the solution it is dissolved by the acids 
 and held in solution. The pickle also holds copper in so- 
 lution. These are ready to be deposited wh. never the 
 acid comes in contact with any metal for which it has a 
 greater affinity, therefore it deposits a coat of copper 
 when iron is presented, and a coat of iron when silver is 
 presented, coloring the work instead of cleaning it. 
 
 Restoring color to gold alloys is a subject on which the 
 author has spent a good deal of time in investigation and 
 experiment. If an alloy of gold, containing gold, silver 
 and copper, be heated in contact with oxygen to a red 
 heat, without any anti-oxldizer to protect the surface, it 
 becomes coated with a brown scale. It is only surface 
 deep, and may be polished off in many cases. We have 
 seen that gold does not oxidize to any appreciable extent; 
 that silver has not much affinity for oxygen, but that cop- 
 per is easily oxidized. If we now dip it in the silver- 
 smith's pickle the sulphuric acid will remove this oxide of 
 copper, and leave a surface composed of gold and silver, 
 
44 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 consequently it has turned pale, or lost its color. The 
 problem then is when the copper has oxidized, to remove 
 the copper oxide and as much silver as the alloy contains 
 in proportion to the copper that has been lost by oxida- 
 tion. The only chemical reagent known that has an affini- 
 ty for silver and not for the other metals is chromic acid. 
 Sulphuric acid removes the copper readily, but not the 
 silver. Chromic acid is not commonly kept for sale, but 
 is, fortunately, easily made. Take a bottle and fill half 
 full of bichromate of potash. Then fill the bottle nearly 
 fall of sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid has a greater 
 affinity for the potash than the chromic acid. It unites 
 with the potash and liberates the chromic acid. It works 
 best warm. If the article be dipped in it when the solu- 
 tion is warm and allowed to remain a short time the 
 chromic acid unites with the silver of the surface, and re- 
 moving it, restores the alloy to its original color. It may 
 be restored after having been dipped in the silversmith's 
 pickle or without. The solution may be used cold if the 
 article be plunged in hot, but it is not so easily regulated, 
 as the acid operates quickly under such circumstances. 
 It must not be allowed to remain in too long, or it will as- 
 sume a dirty brown color. The chromic acid should be 
 kept in a vessel tightly closed, as it evaporates if exposed 
 to the air. If water is added to chromic acid it does not 
 dilute it as it does other acids, but forms a new compound. 
 I have found that this compound, after it has stood a few 
 days, works as well as the clear acid, if too much water is 
 not added. 
 
 Chromic acid is one of the best tests for silver, since if 
 a drop of it be put on silver it changes its color from its 
 
TECHNICAL NOTES. 45 
 
 natural crimson red to a dark maroon, while on any other 
 white metal it remains a clear transparent crimson. 
 
 Articles that have had chromic acid on them should be 
 washed with water and brushed with chalk. 
 
 Pieces are sometimes united by a process called "sweat- 
 ing." The process is similar to that of hard soldering, 
 but no solder is used. The joint is made as for hard sol- 
 der, cleaned, borax applied, and heated beyond the point 
 at which hard solder would flow. Just before the metal 
 melts and assumes a globular form, the surface has the 
 appearance of sweating and the particles move sufficiently 
 to unite. At this point the heat is removed. This 
 process is useful in repairing silver caustic holders, where 
 the chemical action of the nitrate of silver disintegrates 
 hard solder joints. 
 
 Steel springs may, if freshly broken and the broken 
 surfaces are bright and clean, be repaired by soldering 
 with good 18 carat gold. As soon as the spring is sol- 
 dered, while it is yet red hot, plunge it into water or 
 sperm oil, thus hardening it with the same heat with which 
 it is soldered. Then proceed to temper. The tempering 
 is accomplished if the springs are small by putting them 
 into an iron spoon bowl and covering with sperm or lard 
 oil, then heating the metal until the oil burns ojBF. Larger 
 springs may be covered with a coil of iron wire dipped in 
 oil and the oil burned off. If the oil is burned off two or 
 three times the springs are tougher. 
 
46 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 When the binding wire runs across an open place in the 
 work it is liable to burn off. It may be prevented to a 
 certain extent by doubling and twisting the wire. The 
 doubled and twisted wire is better for most purposes than 
 heavy wire. It is strong, pliable, and more elastic than 
 the larger solid wire, and is not so liable to shrink into 
 the work'. 
 
 Light pieces are often held in position on larger ones 
 by a piece of watch spring. Heat it red hot to draw the 
 temper, bend to a right angle and stick one end down into 
 the charcoal. The other end projects over the work and 
 presses down on the piece to be held. 
 
 When two ends of similar size and form are to be unit- 
 ed, a hole may be drilled in each and a pin inserted. The 
 pin must be clean so that the solder will flow through the 
 hole. Drill the holes without oil. 
 
 When a long joint is to be made in very thin sheet 
 metal the edges may be cut into at 
 ' equal distances and depths, then one 
 Fi^. 12. turned up and the next down along 
 
 each edge, when they may be put together, as in Fig. 12. 
 Retain with binding wire or an occasional rivet. After 
 soldering dress off the surplus. 
 
 To put little studs or lugs on wire or other work, when 
 ^^^^^,—^1^^ is difficult to retain the little pieces 
 — in place, use a long piece, as in Fig. 
 ^^g- 13, and cut off after soldering. 
 
TECHNICAL NOTES. 
 
 47 
 
 When two flat or square pieces of similar size and shape 
 are to be united longitudilj, the joint is 
 easily formed by bending the pieces, as — X 
 
 after soldering. It is frequently done V J 
 in making rings smaller, repairing spec- ^"^^ 
 tacle bows, &c. ^^s- 14. 
 
 It is often necessary to call the attention of the begin- 
 ner a second time to the fact that the body of the metal 
 on which solder is expected to flow must be hotter than 
 the melting point of the solder, and that it is injurious to 
 melt the solder until the work is heated. The desire to 
 accomplish the object of flowing the solder leads many in- 
 telligent but inexperienced workmen to go, as they sup- 
 pose, directly at it by applying the heat to the solder, 
 which fuses, assumes a globular shape, and rolls around 
 on the borax and cooler metal beneath, but persistently, 
 as if with a desire to annoy the workman, refuses to flow. 
 There may be other causes, as an unclean surface, poor 
 borax, a solder that fuses at too low a temperature, but it 
 usually arises from a lack of heat in the right place at the 
 right time. The work should, if possible, be a little hot- 
 ter than the solder, when an attraction will be established 
 that will draw the solder into the joint. Even when the 
 metal beneath announces by its glow that it is above the 
 required temperature, if the little globule of molten sol- 
 der be still hotter, it will seem to be in a state of internal 
 ebullition, and like a drop of water on heated iron, seem 
 to be held away by its own vapor. Under such circum- 
 stances if the flame be removed for an instant, allowing it 
 
 in Fig. 14, and dressing oflF the corners 
 
•i8 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 to radiate a little heat, it suddenly drops into the joint. 
 
 Too much care in applying the flame cannot be exer- 
 cised to bring the two pieces to be united to the required 
 temperature at the same time. If the workman is care- 
 less in this respect he will be annoyed by having the sol- 
 der flow on one piece, and if that state of affairs be long 
 continued the solder alloys, and perhaps eats away a por- 
 tion of the work. If of gold, although the joint may be 
 made with a new heat and a fresh piece of solder, when 
 it comes to be polished up it may show a spot of a differ- 
 ent color. Heat the piece first that requires the most 
 heat to bring it to the required temperature. If bulky, 
 then a greater mass is to be heated, if large and thin its 
 radiating surface is greater. The loss of heat by radia- 
 tion may often be prevented by placing small pieces of 
 charcoal on or near the work. They also seem to prevent 
 oxidation by uniting with the oxygen of the air when they 
 become hot. Large plates are often advantageously coated 
 with a layer of plaster of Paris to prevent radiation. 
 Being a poor conductor it serves to prevent the heat from 
 escaping, and in brazing may be used to prevent exposed 
 parts from becoming too hot. It should not be applied 
 very near the joint since it, also, will prevent the flame 
 from heating the metal. 
 
 It is well to use as hard a solder as the nature of the 
 work will permit. The harder flowing solders are not 
 only usually stronger and less liable to oxidize, but the 
 work is more easily repaired in case of accident. It is of 
 Jittle use to make a solder that will melt at a less temper 
 ature than the fusing point of borax, since if it flows at 
 
all it lAustb^e applied while the, temperature is above that 
 
 point. :•* : : : *. :. : :.*•:.: : ;;. 
 
 In heating large pieces over a forge, beware of sulphur, 
 lead or zinc. If soft coal is used, fresh coal should not 
 be put on the fire while the process of brazing is going on. 
 Lead or zinc sometimes get in the fire, and being evapo- 
 rated and oxidized, deposit their oxides on the cooler met- 
 al of the article to be soldered. Brass, or pieces of spel- 
 ter burning in the fire produce vapors of zinc, often suffi- 
 cient to cause a failure of a job of brazing or welding, by 
 being deposited on the article to be brazed or welded.' 
 
 When it is desi.ed to flow solder in a crack for the pur- 
 pose of filling it up, the solder should, if practicable, be 
 flowed on both sides, if it extends through. Solder may 
 sometimes be advantageously placed on the opposite side 
 of a plate from the one to which the heat is applied. 
 
 Small pieces of solder may be more easily picked up 
 with the tweezers, if laid on something soft, like a piece 
 of buck or chamois skin, or better yet, a little piece of 
 printers' roller composition. The points of the tweezers 
 pass below the edges of the little pieces and get a firmer 
 hold. Rubber is not good, since it contains sulphur. 
 
 When through soldering, extinguish the charcoal thor- 
 oughly. Disastrous fires sometimes re-sult from forgotten 
 pieces of burning charcoal. 
 
 To prevent oxidation in holes in the work, that in gold 
 may destroy the color, or may damage screw threads, it 
 is of advantage to tamp them full of charcoal dust. 
 7 
 
Beware of throwing, th^^ .sharp, .p^ouit^ed flame. thin 
 edges. .•*•*•.:;*:**:..:.!:'•.:/•*'...: i i*i i 
 
 Articles to be repaired sometimes have stones set in 
 them in such a manner that it is inconvenient to remove 
 them. The workman should remember that these brittle 
 substances expand with heat; that if any portion is sud- 
 denly raised to a higher temperature than the rest, that 
 portion' expands and breaks from the cooler portion, either 
 by cracking or flaking off. The heat then must be applied 
 gradually, and in such a manner that the stone will be 
 heated evenly and slowly. To assist in preserving an 
 even temperature, all grease or dirt must be removed, and 
 thin slices of raw apple or potato bound on the exposed 
 portion of the stone. It keeps the flame off, and by the 
 moisture contained equalizes the temperature. 
 
 Diamonds should be removed. When heated very hot 
 they fuse and unite with the oxygen of the air, forming 
 carbonic acid gas, which is too common to be considered 
 valuable. 
 
 All stones composed of alumina resist the heat. These 
 are the sapphire, oriental ruby, oriental topaz, oriental 
 emerald, oriental amethyst, and adamantine spar. Those 
 composed of quartz also resist the heat. They are rock 
 crystal, amethyst, false topaz, prase, chrysoprase, cornel- 
 ian, sard, the agates, onyx and heliotrope. Avoid heat- 
 ing jet, pearls and all ornaments of shell, ivory, bone or 
 celluloid, unless you can keep them immersed in water. 
 
 In putting together thin pieces, which, when a perfect 
 job is accomplished, will leave an inclosed space, a small 
 hole should be made in one of the pieces. The air inside 
 
TECHNICAL NOTES. 51 
 
 will be much rarefied by the heat, and the solidifying of 
 the solder while hot may from the pressure of the air, 
 cause it to collapse. The little hole also allows the in- 
 closed air to escape through it while being heated, and 
 prevents the parts from being displaced by the expansion 
 of the air. 
 
 The heat necessary in hard soldering anneals all metals 
 in common use, except steel when suddenly cooled. Other 
 metals are rehardened by hammering, rolling, drawing or 
 twisting. Plates are most commonly hardened by ham- 
 mering. Articles constructed partly of wire, as a pin 
 tongue, may be hardened by twisting. The softer places 
 yield to the torsion, and thereby become hard. Steel sol- 
 dered with 18 carat gold may be heated to a low red heat, 
 sufficient to harden if done with care. If soldered with 
 silver solder, they may be hardened with a stream of 
 water while yet hot after the flow of the solder. When 
 any portion of steel work is to be hard, a stream of water 
 from the wash-bottle applied to that part while red hot 
 will harden it, leaving the rest soft. When steel is to be 
 soft it should not be removed from the coal until black, 
 but be allowed to cool gradually. 
 
 Some workmen fuse the borax and reduce it to a powder 
 before using, to prevent it from expanding and displacing 
 parts at the first heat. 
 
 For very delicate work, the hard solder may be filed in- 
 to dust, mixed with the borax and applied all at once. 
 
 It is not worth while to spend time trying to hard sol- 
 
52 
 
 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 der pieces of burnt iron, in which the interior of the metal 
 is oxidized. The solder will sometimes flow on the out- 
 side where the borax deoxidizes it, but seldom will flow 
 through the joint. 
 
 If an article has been soft soldered and it is desirable 
 to hard solder it, the soft solder must be entirely removed 
 by cutting or scraping it off. If when it was soldered 
 with soft solder it was heated too much, the soft solder 
 may have formed a new and very fusible alloy with the 
 body of the work, in which case it is dangerous to attempt 
 to use hard solder. When that is the case, the new alloy 
 formed is more brittle and feels gritty when scraped. 
 Consequently when scraping off the soft solder if the 
 metal beneath the soft solder feels gritty, and continued 
 scraping does not remove the gritty metal, it will be dan- 
 gerous to attempt to hard solder. But if the soft solder 
 when scraped off leaves the metal at the joint as soft as 
 the rest, there will be little danger in hard soldering, if 
 the soft solder be entirely removed. 
 
 In the foregoing work, the plain, old-fashioned blowpipe, 
 lamp, (fcc, have been described, and the process conducted 
 with articles easily obtainable. It is expected that the 
 reader will adopt anything more convenient, if practicable. 
 Excellent apparatus is now offered in the line of automatic 
 lamps, blowers, prepared chemicals, &c., notwithstanding, 
 I would recommend every young man to learn in such a 
 way as to be independent of every unnecessary article. 
 A-fter having learned, he may make the work easier by 
 any means practicable. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PROPERXIES OF MBTAI^S. 
 
 Table of the specific gravity of metals at 60° Fahren- 
 heit, or 15.5° Centigrade: 
 
 Aluminum, - 2.60 Nickel, - - 8.80 
 Bismuth, - - 9.90 Platinum, - - 21.50 
 Copper, - - 8.96 Silver, - - 10.50 
 Gold, - - - 19.50 Tin, - - - 7.29 
 Iron, - - - 7.79 Zinc, - - 7.10 
 Lead, - . - 11.45 
 
 The figures show the number of cubic inches of water 
 necessary to balance one cubic inch of the respective 
 metals. 
 
 Tenacity of metals is ascertained by observing the 
 weights required to break wires drawn through the same 
 orifice. They stand in the following ratio: 
 Iron, - - - 269 Gold, ... 68 
 Copper, - - - 157 Tin, - - - - 24 
 Platinum, - - 124 Zinc, - - - 12 
 Silver, - - - 85 
 
 The different metals become fusible, or melt, accordino- 
 to Prof. Daniel's pyrometer, at the following degrees of 
 temperature : 
 
54 
 
 HARD SOLDBRINa. 
 
 METAL. FAHRENHEIT. CENTIGRADE. 
 
 Bismuth, - - - . 497 268 
 
 Copper, 1996 1091 
 
 G-old, - - . . 2016 1102 
 
 Iron, cast, - . . . 2786 1530 
 
 Lead, - - - - 617 325 
 Nickel and Iron, wrought, high- 
 est heat of forge. 
 Platinum, not fusible in ordi- 
 nary furnaces. 
 
 Silver, - - . - 1873 1023 
 
 Tin, 442 228 
 
 Zinc, 773 412 
 
 Alloys of metals vary from the mean melting point of 
 the metals of which they are composed. They usually 
 melt at a lower degree of temperature than the mean, and 
 sometimes at a lower degree than either of the metals of 
 which they are composed, as for instance, tin solder, com- 
 posed of two parts tin and one of lead, melts at about 
 360° F. A hard solder, composed of two-thirds silver 
 and one-third spring brass, melts easier than either the sil- 
 ver or the brass. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ANTI-OXIDIZER jg 2o 
 
 ALLOYS, HARD SOLDER L.11Z!".!!!Z1.1Z"Z..* ' 14 
 
 BINDING WIRE j2 
 
 BLOWPIPE zzz;z;z;z"9rior^ ■ 31; 32 
 
 BORAX 
 
 BRAZING 
 
 40 
 
 CAPACITY FOR HEAT 27 
 
 CHARCOAL ZZZ/........ 9 
 
 CHROMIC ACID ^ 44 
 
 COLOR, GOLD , ZZZZZZ'Z 43* 44 
 
 CONDUCTION OF HEAT [ 26 
 
 FLAME, STRUCTURE OF 21 
 
 FLAME, REDUCING .....'.*.'... 23 
 
 FLAME, OXIDIZING " 22 
 
 FLUXES i Z!! Z!! Z!! 19 
 
 FUSIBILITY OF METALS """Z!Z" 64 
 
 FUSIBILITY OF ALLOYS !!!!Z!! 64 
 
 GOLD, COLOR 43 44 
 
 GOLD SOLDER '. ..Z. ...... 17 
 
 HARD SOLDER ALLOYS. 
 HARDENING METALS 
 
 HEAT, CAPACITY FOR 
 
 HEAT, CONDUCTION OF 
 
 HEAT, APPLICATION OF 
 
 HEAT, PREVENTING LOSS OF 
 
 JOINTS 
 
 LAMP. 
 
 8i, 46 
 .... 8 
 
56 HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 OXIDATION 18 
 
 OXIDIZING FLAME 22 
 
 PICKLE, SILVERSMITH'S 43 
 
 PLUMBAGO 33 
 
 PRECIOUS STONES 60 
 
 REDUCING FLAME 23 
 
 SILVER SOLDER 16, 16 
 
 SILVERSMITH'S PICKLE 43 
 
 SOLDER, GOLD 17 
 
 SOLDER, SILVER 15, 16 
 
 SOLDER, HARD ALLOYS 14 
 
 SPECIFIC GRAVITY 53 
 
 SPELTER, 14 
 
 STEEL SPRINGS 45 
 
 STRUCTURE OF FLAME 21 
 
 SWEATING METALS 45 
 
 WASH-BOTTLE , lo, n 
 
WORKSHOP RECEIPTS, 
 
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 This series comprises a store of information that ia of service in 
 every-day life. National Druggist. 
 
 "We heartily recommend this cyclopaedia of technical information 
 to all of our readers, but especially to manufacturers and mechanics. 
 Buildi7ig. 
 
 The topics treated are very many, and miniate details are given as 
 to manipulation, and manufacture of materials that cannot be easily 
 obtained in stores. Builder and Woodworker. 
 
 We cannot enumerate the heads of chapters, but it is safe to say 
 to the reader that he v^'ill find in this series, reliable information upon 
 every process known to the Arts in use at the present day. Mechani- 
 cal Engineer. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 WORKSHOP RECEIPTS, FIRST SERIES. 
 
 Bookbinding : tools and materials, pressing the sheets, sewing, cut- 
 ting and forwarding, making cases and covers, ornamenting the edges, 
 head-banding, casing in leather or cloth, finishing and gilding, binding a 
 book without tools, marbling book edges. 
 
 Bronzes and Bronzing: for gas fittings, mathematical and other 
 scientific instruments, copper utensils, such as tea-urns, coffee-pots, and 
 the like, gun barrels, iron, brass, statuary, wood, and paper. 
 
 Candles and Candle Making : treatment of the raw materials, 
 tallow boiling, new methods of rendering, neutralizing effluvia, clarifying 
 and hardening, new materials, bleachmg, wicks, dips, moulds, transpar- 
 ent, diaphane, composite, sperm and ozokerite candles. 
 
 Concrete : for foundations, masonry, brickwork, hydraulic work. 
 
 Drawing- Office. Details : drawing paper, directions for mounting 
 drawings, fastening paper on drawing board, cutting pencils, erasing errors, 
 using drawing pens, testing straight-edges, using n;ler, dividers and com- 
 passes, pencilling, finishing drawings, lettering, borders, Indian ink, 
 colours and colouring drawings, shading, colouring tracings, cutting and 
 using stencil plates, removing drawings, tracing papers, transfer paper. 
 
 Electro-Metallurgy : preparatory cleaning of copper and its alloys 
 by fire, by alkalies, dipping acids, whitening baths ; cleansing silver, mak- 
 ing and care of scratch-brushes, scratch-brushing, lathe for scratch-brush; 
 cleaning zinc, lead, tin, cast iron, wrought iron, steel ; galvanic batteries, 
 varieties and construction, charging and working, bringing batteries into 
 action, keeping them in order; copper deposits by dipping, by battery, 
 copper baths for iron and steel, tin, cast iron, zinc, and silver; brass de- 
 posits, solutions for brass bathsj brassing steel, iron, tin, zinc, lead, and 
 pewter; tin deposits, tinning baths, iron or zinc, whitening by tin; gold 
 deposits, gilding by dipping, preparation of gold baths, colouring processes, 
 or-molu, green and white gilding, gilding silver, gilding on porcelain, glass, 
 or crystal, gilding by stirring and amalgam, gilding with brush or shell- 
 gold, gold electro-plating, graining and gilding watch parts, gilding thin 
 wires for bullion, gilding various metals, recovery of gold from gilt articles; 
 silver deposits, whitening with silver, plated silver, plating with silver foil, 
 cold silvering, silvering for reflectors, silvering by dipping in hot or cold 
 baths, silver electro-plating baths, preparation, constitution, working and 
 care for every article in the trade, small baths for amateurs, lustres, resists, 
 reserves, burnishing, old silvering, oxidized silvering, nielled silver; plati- 
 num plating, nickel plating; zinc deposits; iron and steel deposits; antimo- 
 ny deposits; lead deposits; galvanoplasm, or thick deposits* deposits on 
 non-metallic articles; and many other modern electro-metallurgical re- 
 ceipts that we have not space to enumerate. 
 
 Enamels : for pottery, porcielain, and porcelain painting. 
 
 Engraving : the gravers and other tools employed in the art, method 
 of use, materials, instructions, and application to wood, copper, gold, sil- 
 ver, steel, and stone. 
 
 Etching : apparatus employed, lireparation of grounds, varnishes, 
 acids, transferring, bordering, biting, cleaning, dry-jjoint, re-biting and 
 re-etching, process avoiding stopping-out, aqua-tint engraving, brush pro- 
 eas, negative process, positive process, etching from natur j. stAtipUng, 
 
FIRST SERIES. 
 
 etching on steel, iron, and glass. 
 
 Firework Making : complete details as to the preparation and 
 composition of every description of pyrotechnic mixture involved in the 
 manufacture of rockets, pyrotechnic and rocket stars, rains, roman can- 
 dles, gerbes, jets, tourbillons, Chinese and common lires, lances for de- 
 vices and set pieces, coloured lights, wheels, fire balloons, guncotton, 
 gunpowder, nitroglycerine, and fulminates. 
 
 Fluxes : for metallurgical and other purposes. 
 
 Foundry Mixtures : yellow-red, common and hard brass, britannia 
 metal, babbitt's metal, artificial gold, german silver, stereotype metal, bell 
 metal, cock metal, queen's metal, speculum metal, type metal, pipe metal, 
 and the like, 
 
 Furniture Polishes : creams, oils, lacquers, and pastes, timber 
 staining, washing, matching, improving, painting, imitations of woods; 
 directions for staining, sizing, embodying, smoothing, spirit varnishing, 
 French polishing; directions for re-polishing. 
 
 Gilding : oil gilding, burnished or water gilding, japanners' gilding; 
 gliding on metal, leather, glass, wood, pottery, and porcelain; picture 
 frames, moulding composition, burnished gJt frames, cleaning gilt frames, 
 re-gilding frames, gilding book-edges, illumination. 
 
 Glass Making : flint-glass, crown-glass, bottle or green glass, plate- 
 glass, window-glass, colours for glass, water-glass, glass cutting, cleaning, 
 frosting, drilling, darkening, bending, stencilling, and writing. 
 
 Glass Painting and Staining: the glass colours employed, ap- 
 plication of designs, ground colour, laying on slams, burning in, degree 
 of firing, compositions for the stains, fluxes, enamels, etching, and deaden- 
 ing colour; painting on glass for the magic lantern, pigments for magic 
 lantern slides. 
 
 Gold : amalgam, artificial mixtures. 
 
 Graining : the colours and the quantity to be used in the imitation 
 of all kinds of fancy woods, marbles, granite, and the like. 
 
 Gums : mucilage, artificial, or British. 
 
 Horn Working : mother-o'-pearl, and like substances. 
 
 Indiarubber Cements: varnishes, and solvents. 
 
 Japans: preparation of various articles for japan; black, white, blue, 
 red, yellow, green, orange, purple, and tortoisesh ell japan and grounds; 
 painting and varnishing japan work, tunbridge ware; carriage japanning. 
 
 Lacquer : preparing brass for lacquering, re-lacquering brass-work, 
 lacquer for tin, lacquer for philosophical instruments. 
 
 Leather : belting, preserving, dyeing, gilding and varnishing, har- 
 ness cleaning, polishes, pastes and blacking, boot and shoe making, boot- 
 top liquids. 
 
 Lubricants : anti-friction grease, railway grease, anti-attrition paste, 
 lubricating oil, watchmakers' oil, lard oil, refining, anti-friction metal. 
 
 Marble Working: selecting marble; cutting, hewing, and sawing 
 marble; polishing, mounting, veneering with marble on wood and on 
 metals, sculpture, removing stains, restoring colour, and repairing. 
 
 Mortars : for building purposes. 
 
 Painting : in oils, in water colours, as well as fresco, house, trans- 
 parency, sign and carriage ]3ainting. 
 
 P&iper Hanging : instructions for practising. 
 
 Photography : operating rooms, backgrounds, general instructions 
 for taking photographs, dark rooms; the camera, lenses, combination 
 lenses, focus, glass frames, photographic glasses, argentometer; the collo- 
 dion process, spirits of wine, ether, guncotton, collodion positives, concise 
 
FIRST SERim 
 
 directions for the making and use of the mixtures and solutions employed 
 m coating with collodion, exposure, developing, fixing, and varnishing 
 collodion negatives; printing process, positive paper, albumenized paper, 
 plain paper, preparing the paper, printing, toning, fixing, washing, 
 mounting, varniehmg cartes, defects in prints, stopping-out negatives, 
 (Views, landscapes, copying pictures; Sutton's wet collodion process; 
 Ryley's coUodio-albumen process; England's process; collodio-bromide 
 process; autotype processor carbon printing; gum and gallic acid process; 
 photo-crayon portraits; diaphano types; ivorytypes; heliotypes; photo- 
 graphs in pigments; dry collodion process; coUodio-albumen process; 
 honey process; tannin process; enlarging negatives, stereoscopic views, 
 transparent positives, magic lantern slides, photo-lithography. 
 
 Pottery : the composition, selection, and preparation of all kinds of 
 clays, bodies, glazes, colours, printing oils, stains, fluxes, enamels and 
 lustres. 
 
 Polishes : ingredients, mixing and application to all kinds of wood, 
 metal, ivory, horn, and tortoiseshell. 
 
 Silvering : glass, metal, wood, paper, and porcelain. 
 
 Soap : the various oils, fats, and chemicals used in the trade; pre- 
 paration of leys, heating pans and kettles ; boiling soap, cutting-up the 
 pan, clear boiling, marbhng, qualities of soaps; instructions and quanti- 
 ties given for household soaps, hard, tallow, resin, tallow resin, palm-oil 
 and soft soaps, toilet soaps, Windsor, honey, musk, glycerine, almond, vio- 
 let, bouquet, rose, cinnamon, lavender, orange-flower, rondeletia, flowers 
 of erin, primrose, iodine, mercurial, sulphur, antimonial, shaving soaps 
 and essences, soap balls. 
 
 Solders ; and soldering. 
 
 Tanning: preparation of the skins, and the tanning liquids; tan- 
 ning hides, calf skins, sheep skins, morocco leather, russia leather, nets, 
 skins with the wool on, sole leather, small skins. 
 
 Taxidermy : the skinning, preservation, stuffing, and effectual pre- 
 paration, of the skins of birds and animals to preserve their natural 
 appearance. 
 
 Tempering : hardening, and general treatment of tools. 
 
 Varnishes : buildings necessary for a varnish manufactory, erecting 
 and fitting; set, gum, and boihng pots; boiling linseed oil, making var- 
 nish on a small scale; copal, virgin copal, coachmakers' varnishes, wain- 
 scot varnish, japanners gold size, coachmakers' black varnish, asphalte 
 varnish, black japan, pale amber, brunswick black, spirit varnishes of 
 every description; furniture, picture, photographers', transfer, gold, and 
 eather varnishes. 
 
 Veneering : with stone, marble, and woods. 
 
 Washing and Scouring : articles of dress, lace, and shawls. 
 
 Waterproofing. 
 
 Welding. 
 
 Whitewashing: preparation of the surface to be whitewashed, 
 mixing and proportions of the wash, application, tinting. 
 
 Besides Eeceipts relating to tlft lesser Technological matters and pro- 
 cesses, such as the manufacture and use of crayons, paste, putty, wax, 
 size, alloys, catgut, picture frame and architectural mouldings, composi- 
 tion, cameos, galvanizing iron, tinning, enamelling slate, and others too 
 numerous to mention. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 WORKSHOP RECEIPTS, SECOND SERIES. 
 
 Acidimetry and Alkalimetry: ready means of estimating liie 
 acidity and alkalinity of liquids. 
 
 Albumen: occurrence, characters, composition, impurities, qualities, 
 rises, coagulation, restoration to coagulable state; full details of manufact- 
 ure of Blood albumen, Egg albumen. Fish albumen, and Vegetable albu- 
 men, with suggestions as to new sources. 
 
 Alcohol: sources; synopsis of manufacture of Caustic alcohol (sodium 
 ethylate), and alcohol from Fruit, Grain, Molasses, Moss, and Roots; recti- 
 fication; and Wood alcohol (pyroxyhc si^irit). 
 
 Alkaloids: general methods of preparation; special methods for 
 Aconitine, Atropine, Berberine, Brucine, Calumbine, Cascarilline, Colchi- 
 cine, Morphine, Narcotine, Nicotine, Piperine, Quinine (including amor- 
 phous quinine and quinetum), Salicine, {Strychnine, and Veratrine. 
 
 Baking-powders : general remarks on true value and essential con- 
 ditions, and many recipes for their preparation. 
 
 Bitters : recipes for Amazon, Angostura, Aromatic, Boker's, Brandy, 
 Essence, French Cognac, Hamburg, Nonpareil, Orange, Peruvian, Spanish, 
 Stomach, Stoughton, and Wild Cherry bitters. 
 
 Bleaching : recipes for bleaching and decolorizing Albumen, Animal 
 fibres, Coral, Cotton, Esparto, Feathers, Guttapercha, Hair, Ivory, Jute, 
 Linen, Oils and Fats, Paper pulp, Paraffin, Bags, Shellac, Silk, Silver 
 dials, Sponge, Starch, Straw, Wax, Wool. 
 
 Boiler Incrustations : numerous analyses of feed waters from 
 rivers, lakes, wells, town supply, rain, canals, pits, springs, and the sea, 
 with analyses of the incrustations produced by them, and a critical 
 examination of the various chemical, chemico-mechanical and jDhysical 
 processes for preventing boiler corrosion. 
 
 Cements and Lutes : general directions for the preparation and 
 application of cements and lutes; numerous recipes under the following 
 heads, — Acidproof, Alabaster, Algerian, Almond paste. Amber, Aquarium, 
 Architectural, Armenian or Diamond, Badigeon, Bottle, Brimstone, Buck- 
 land's, Canada balsam. Cap, Casein, Chemical, Chinese glne. Chrome, 
 Coppersmiths', Corks, Crucible, Curd, Cutlers', Dextrine, Egg, Elastic, 
 Engineers', Fat, Fireproof, French, Glass, Glass to Metals, Glue (includ- 
 ing Fish glue, Lapland glue, Liquid glue. Mouth or Lip glue. Portable 
 glue), Glycerine, Gum Arabic, Gum tragacanth, Hensler's, Indiarubber, 
 Iron, Isinglass, Ivory, Japanese, Jewellers', Kerosene lamps, Labels, Lab- 
 oratory, Lead, Leather, Mahogany, Marble, Marine glue. Masons , Meer- 
 schaum, Metal to glass, stone, etc., Microscopical, Milk, Naturalists', 
 Opticians', Parabolic, Parian, Paris, Paste, Peasley, Plasters, Plumbers', 
 Porcelain, Putty, Sealing-wax, Shellac, Soluble glass, Sorel's, Steam, Stone. 
 Turners', Waterproof, WoUaston's, Wood, Zeiodelite. 
 
 . Cleansing : a complete selection of recipes for washing, cleaning, 
 scouring, purifying, and removing stains, arranged under the following 
 heads, — Brass, Bronze, Casks, Celluloid, Chip bonnets. Coins, Copper ves- 
 sels, Druggists' utensils. Engravings, Feathers, Fire-arms, Floors, Fur, 
 Gas chandeliers, 'Qilt mountings. Gilt picture frames. Glass (bottles, 
 globes, plates, slides, paint stains, windows), Gloves, Gold, Iron and Steel, 
 Ivory and Bones, Leather, Marble, Mirrors, OUcloth, Paint, Paintbrushes, 
 
SECOND SEEIES. 
 
 Paintings, Parchment, Sheepskin mats, Silver, Sponge, Stains remo\dng 
 (aniline, fruit and wine, grease and oil, ink and ironmould, lime and lyes, 
 mildew, milk. and coffee, paint and varnish, stearin, tannin, tar and axle- 
 grease). Stills, Stones, Stuffed animals, Teapot, Textile fabrics (English 
 and French cleaning and scouring, cleaning with benzine, apparatus used, 
 methods of operation for ancient tapestry, carijets, cloth, curtains, and 
 bed furniture, dresses, flannel, hearthrugs, lace, shawls and scarves, 
 sheepskin rugs and mats, silk goods, table covers), Tobacco pipes, Vellum, 
 Violins, Violin bows. Wall papers. Zinc vessels. 
 
 Confectionery : the confectioners' stove, clarification of sugar, boil- 
 ing degrees of sugar; methods of making Cakes (Bordeaux, pound, Italian 
 bread, Savoy, wafers), Candied sugar (chain, crystallized chocolate, crys- 
 tallized fruits, liqueur rings), Candy (artificial fruit and eggs, burnt 
 almonds, coconut ice, coltsfoot candy, filberts and pistachios, ginger can- 
 dy, lemon prawlings, orange prawlings, peppermint, lemon and rose 
 candy, plum candy, sweetflag candy), Chocolate (roasting, making, drops, 
 harlequin pistachios, cinnamon, mace, clove, stomachic, and vanilla choco- 
 late), jComfits (almond, barberry, caraway, cardamom, celery, cherry, 
 cinnamon, clove, colouring, corainder, flavoured with liqueurs, ginger, 
 lemon joeel or angelica, nonpareils, orange, raspberry), Crack, and Cara- 
 mel (acid drops and sticks, almond hardbake, almond rock, barley sugar 
 drops and tablets, brandy balls, clove, ginger, or peppermint rock, extract- 
 ing the acid from candied drops, nogat, raspberry rock or sticks, spinning, 
 almond baskets, Chantilly baskets, gold web, grape, orange or cherry bas- 
 kets, raspberry rock, rock sugar, silver web) Drops (catechu, chocolate, 
 cinnamon, clove, coffee, ginger, lemon, orange-flower, orgeat, peppermint 
 raspberry, rose, vanilla, violet). Ices (apparatus, freezing, almond or orgeat 
 ice cream, apple water ice, apricot water ice, barberry, biscuit cream, brown 
 bread ice, burnt almond ice cream, burnt ice cream, cherry water ice, 
 chestnut ice, chocolate ice, coffee :ce cream, cream ice, currant ice, currant 
 water ice, custard for ices, custard ices, damson ice, filbert ice cream, gin- 
 ger ice, gooseberry water ice, lemon ice cream, lemon water ice, liqueur 
 cream ice, liqueur water ice, millefruitice cream, millefruit water ice, noyau 
 cream ice, orange ice cream, orange water ice, peach ice, peach water ice, 
 pineapple ice, pineapple water ice, pistachio ice cream, punch Avater ice, 
 raspberry ice, raspberry water ice^ ratafia cream, Roman punch ice, straw- 
 berry ice, strawberry water ice, Swiss pudding, tea ice, vanilla ice), Loz- 
 enges (bath pipe, brilliants, catechu, cinnamon, clove, coltsfoot, ementine, 
 ginger, ipecacuanha, lavender, magnesia, marshmallow,nitre, nutmeg, patta 
 rosa, peppermint, refined liquorice, rhubarb, rose, saffron, sponge, steel, 
 sulphur, tolu, vanilla, worm, yellow pectoral, zinc). 
 
 Copying : obtaining copies of printed and written matters by 
 Chemical methods (including cyanotype or ferro-prussiate paper, cyano- 
 ferric or gommoferric paper, Joltrain's, Beneden's, Dietrich's, autoscoijic, 
 Tilhet's, Zuccato's, Pumphrey s, Waterlow's, hectograph or chronugrajah, 
 Magne's, Willis's, Poitevin's, Woodbury's, photo-lithographic, Niepee's, 
 Ehrard's, Fox Talbot's, Scamoni's, Nuth's, phototypy, Midland's, chromo- 
 type, Lenoir's, Warnerke's, Edwards' heliotype, Waterhouse's, Alissoff's 
 polygraphic, Asser's, Komaromy's, and numerous other processes); by 
 Mechanical methods (embracing stencils of various kinds, tracing on clotli, 
 tracing-cloth, and other recipes) , Copying Pencils ; Transferring (photo- 
 graphs to wood, engravings to paper, transfer process oja glass). 
 
 Disinfectants : the preparation and characters of all the substances 
 hitherto proposed as deodorizers, disinfectants, or antiseptics, with com- 
 parative tables of results according to different authorities, and discussions 
 
SECOND SERIES. 
 
 on the advantages and disadvantages of the disinfectants now before the 
 public. ■ 
 
 Dyeing, Staining', and Colouring : containing a most compre- 
 hensive collection of new and apjsroved recipes, under the following 
 heads — Calico-printing, in chrome standard, discharge style (blacks, blues, 
 whites, yellows), indigo eif ects (direct indigo blues, lapis resists, combined 
 indigo and madder effects, white reserves, white resists, orange reserves, 
 yellow reserves, blues, and white, red, green and yellow, green, and yel- 
 low discharges on vat-blues), madder colours (blacks, browns, chocolate, 
 drab, purples, reds, whites), manganese bronze style, padding style, pig- 
 ment style, plate style, reserve style, spirit colour style (blues, browns, 
 chocolate, greens, pinks, purples, reds, yellows), steam colours (amber, 
 blacks, blues, browns, buff, chocolates, cinnamon, drab, greens, greys, 
 lavender, lilac, orange, pinks, purples, reds, violets, yellows); China grass; 
 Cotton (blacks, blues, browns, chocolate, claret, drabs, greens, greys, olive, 
 oranges, purples, reds, violets, yellows) ; Encaustic colours ; Feathers ; Flow- 
 ers, Grasses, and Mosses ; Hats (beaver, cream, fawn, mouse, rose, slate, 
 cinnamon) ; Horn (blacks, greens, purples, red, tortoise8hell,yellow) ; Horse- 
 hair (blue, brown, red) ; Ivory (blacks, blues, browns, greens, reds, yel- 
 lows), vegetable ivory; Kid gloves (blacks, browns, Russia red, grey, violet, 
 yellow); Leather (blacks, blues, browns, russets, reds, yellows, greens, 
 violets, purples, crimson); Metals (brass, bronze, gold, gun-metal, iron 
 and steel, silver, zinc) ; Paper (ambers, blues, browns, buffs, chocolates, 
 crowfoot, fawns, greens, greys, lilacs, Nankeen tissue, olives, oranges, 
 pinks, reds, roses, skin colour, straw tint, violet, white tissue, yellows) ; 
 Parchment; Silk (blues, greens, magentas, maroons, pansy, scarlets, vio- 
 lets, yellows); Straw; Whitewashing, calcimining, or distemper; Wine; 
 Wood (blacks, blackboard washes, blues, browns, ebonizing, floors, greens, 
 greys, mahogany, oaks, purples, reds, satinwood, violet, walnut, yellows); 
 Wool (amaranth, blacks, blues, greens, grenades, greys, maroons, olives, 
 oranges, ponceau, puce, reds, violets, wood-colour). 
 
 Essences : Aconite, Allspice, Almonds, Ammoniacum, Anchovy, An- 
 gelica, Aniseed, Anodyne, Antihystenc, Aromatic, Bark, Beef, Bitter, 
 Camphor, Caraway, Cardamon, Cascarilla, Cassia, Cayenne, Celery, Chamo- 
 mile, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cochineal, Coffee, Coltsfoot, Cubebs, Dill, Ergot, 
 Fennel, Fruit (artificial, including apple, apricot, banana, blackberry, 
 black cherry, cherry, currant, grape, lemon, melon, nectarine, orange, 
 peach, pear, pineapple, plum, raspberry, strawberry). Ginger, Guaiacum, 
 Headache, Hop, Licmon, Lemon-peel, Lovage, Nutmeg, Orange, Orange- 
 peel, Pennyroyal, Peppermint, Quassia, Quinine, Kennet, Khubarb, Koy- 
 ale, Sarsaparilla, Sai'ory Spices, Soap, Soup Herl)S, Spruce, Turtle, Water 
 Fennel, Westphalian, Wormwood. 
 
 Extracts: preparation; Aconite, Aloes, Angelica, Apples, Belladonna, 
 Buchu, Cainca, Calabar Bean, Calumba, Cherry (Wild), Cinchono, Colchi- 
 cum, Colocynth, Cotton -root, Cubebs, Ergot, Gentian, Golden Seal, Helle- 
 bore, Hops, Jaborandi, Jalap, Juniper, Lactucarium, Lettuce, Lobelia, 
 Logw wd, Madder, Male Fern, Malt, Meat, Mezereon, Myrrh, Narcotic, 
 Nux Vomica, Opium, Pareira, Pellitory, Pinkroot, Poi:ipies, Quassia, Rha- 
 tany, Rhubarb, Sarsaparilla, Scammony, Senna, Smoke, Squills, Stilllngia, 
 Stramonium, Taraxacum, Tobacco, Valerian, Wormseed. 
 
 Fireproofing : Buildings, Extinguishing Compounds, Textile Fab- 
 rics, Timber, Writing Materials. 
 
 Gelatine, Glue, and Size : manufacture of glue, manufacture of 
 size, drying glue, composition of glue. Characters of glue, selection of 
 glue, manufacture of gelatine from bones. Rice's gelatine, Cox s sparkling 
 
SECOND bERlES. 
 
 gelatine, Heuze's gelatine from neats'-foot-oil residues, Nelson's gelatine, 
 comparison of gelatines, preventing nuisance at glue works. 
 
 Glycerine: sources, early processes. Price's method, obtaining 
 glycerine from spent lyes of the soapmaker. 
 
 Gut : the preparation of giit for fiddle-strings and sausage-skins; 
 silk-worm gut. 
 
 Hydrogen peroxide : manufacture and application. 
 
 Ink : Black writing. Coloured writing. Copying, Engraving, Indelible, 
 Indian, Invisible or Sympathetic, Marking, Miscellaneous, Printing, and 
 Stamping inks. 
 
 Iodine : manufacture from seaweeds, and from caliche. 
 
 Iodoform : processes for making. 
 
 Isinglass : from fish, and from various kinds of seaweed. 
 
 Ivory substitutes : numerous ways of preparing artificial t?ubsti- 
 tutes for ivory, such as celluloid, etc. 
 
 Leather : Calf-kid, Chamois leather, Currying, Depilatories or Un- 
 hairing. Glove-kid, Imitation leather, Morocco leather. Patent (Japanned 
 or Enamelled) leather, Kussia leather. 
 
 Luminous bodies: natural phosphorescent substances; artificial 
 luminous paints,— Balmain's, Heaton and Solas', etc. 
 
 Magnesia : new and cheap way of preparing. 
 
 Matches : general sketch of manufacture, especially with regard to 
 the ingredients, etc., of igniting compositions; Vestas and Vesuvians. 
 
 Paper : selection and assortment of rags; boHing raw materials re- 
 cipes for high-class papers; washing and breaking; draining and pressing 
 Astronomical drawing paper. Blotting paper. Crystalline paper, Decipher- 
 ing burnt documents. Filtering-paper, Hardening paper. Iridescent paper. 
 Lithographic paper, Luminous paper. Oiled paper. Packing-paper, Safety- 
 paper, Smoothing paper. Splitting a sheet of paper. Test-papers, Tracing- 
 paper, Transfer-paper, Waxed paper. 
 
 Parchment : preparation of natural parchment, and artificial parch- 
 ment or parchment paper; removing wrinkles from parchment. 
 
 Perchloric acid : cheap mode of making. 
 
 Pigments, Paint, and Painting : embracing the preparation of 
 Pigments, including alumina lakes, blacks (animal, bone, Frankfort, ivory, 
 lamp, sight, soot), blues, browns, greens, reds, whites,— by American' 
 Dutch, French, German, Kremnitz, and Fattinson processes, precautions 
 in making, and composition of commercial samples,— whiting, Wilkinson's 
 white, zinc white), yellows; Paint (vehicles, testing oils, driers, grinding 
 storing, applying, priming, drying, filling, coats, brushes, surface, water- 
 colours, removing smell, , discoloration; miscellaneous paints— cement 
 pamt for carton-pierre, copper, gold, iron, lime, silicated, steatite, trans- 
 parent, tungsten, window, and zinc paints); Pain^mgf (general instructions, 
 proportions of ingredients, measuring paint work; carriage painting— 
 priming pamt, best putty, finishing colour, cause of cracking, mixing the 
 paints, oils, driers, and colours, varnishing, importance of washing 
 vehicles, re-yarnishing, how to dry paint: woodwork painting. 
 
 Potassium oxalate : new and easy way of making it for photo- 
 graphic purposes, 
 
 Preserving: charred paper, food (beer, fish; fruit, grain, and vege- 
 tables; honey, meat, milk), fruit-juices, gum, hay, indiarubber, leather, 
 leeches, lemon-juice, Rankin's and Pasteur's fluids, skins and furs, stone, 
 textile fabrics, urine, vaccine lymph, wood. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 WORKSHOP RECEIPTS, THIRD SERIES. 
 
 Alloys: components, general principles for making, how to melt 
 metals, fluxes, fusibility of metals, order of melting ingredients of alloys, 
 table of fusing points, furnaces for melting brass and other alloys, cruci- 
 bles for melting alloys, casting mixed metals, right moment for pouring, 
 moulding articles in relief, composition for core for difficult jobs. Solders. 
 Miscellaneous alloys (embracing compounds for friction bearings, steam- 
 whistles, cylinders, taps, valve-boxes, pistons, mathematical instruments, 
 rivets, pinchbeck, tombac, electrotypes, bullet metal, pin wire, flute-keys; 
 composition of various Japanese and other bronzes, ancient coins, rings, 
 figures, implements, pins; manufacture and ornamentation of Japanese 
 bronzes; inoxidizable alloys, soft alloy for cold soldering, alloys for small 
 articles, white alloy, alloy for medals and coins, amalgam for coating 
 plastic castings, anti-friction alloys, sterro-metal, bismuth bronze. 
 
 Aluminium: properties, manufacture, applications. 
 
 Antimony. Barium. Berryllium. Bismuth. Cadmium. CcBsium. 
 Calcium. Cerium. Chromium. Cobalt. 
 
 Copper: properties, cleaning ore, crushing, jiggmg, buddlmg; dry 
 methods of treating ores— German, Enghsh (including furnaces and 
 details of working); wet method; hardening and toughening the metal; 
 common impurities and their influence; characters of pure electrical cop- 
 per wire; tubes, bending; welding copper. „ 1 ^ 
 
 Electrics: Alarms: examples of house alarms, tell-tales for cisterns 
 and boilers, time signals, and tell-tale clocks, their construction and fix- 
 ture. Batteries: constitution of a battery; making batteries; zinc plates, 
 forming cylinders, amalgamating with mercury, attaching; negative ele- 
 ments; exciting fluids; separating the elements; containing cells con- 
 struction, arrangement, cost, peculiarities, and applications of various 
 forms of battery. Bells: the apparatus employed; choice and arrange- 
 ment of battery, circuit wire, circuit closer and bell; systems of establish- 
 ing bells. Carbons. Coils, (induction, intensity, resistance). Dynamo- 
 electric machines, principles and methods of construction. Microphones. 
 Motors: principles and practice of construction. Phonograph. Photo- 
 phone. Storage: the storage and reproduction of electric energy, con- 
 struction, charging, maintenance, effectiveness and cost. Telephone: 
 principles underlying their action, various forms,— the string telephone, 
 Kennedy's, Thompson's, Gower's, their construction and arrangement, 
 with hints' on making calls, augmenting sound, cheap magnets, circuits, 
 transmitter and switch. , , , ^ , 
 
 Enamels and Glazes: enamelling cloth, leather, metals. Glaz- 
 ing pottery, -composition of the glazes, their preparation and application. 
 Enamelling on wood. , , , ^ i. i 
 
 Glass: breaking, coating on metals; colored,— transparent and 
 opaque tinted glass, preparation of the pigments and stains. Engraving, 
 etching frosting, and gilding. Ornamentation processes on glass,— adding 
 stars coils of thread, colored casings, metallic plates, grains of colored 
 glass, iridescence, frosting, and etchings in gold leaf on finished 
 glass eroding glass surfaces, colored photographs on glass, protecting 
 glass surfaces from effects of heating and cooling, roughening glass, spun 
 glass (its production properties and uses,) stoppering glass bottles, wntmg 
 
THIBD SERlEti. 
 
 on glass— preparing the siirface and compounding the writing fluids. 
 
 Gold: distribution, modes of occurrence^ methods of extraction, 
 amalgamationj refining, properties of gold. 
 
 Indium. Iridium. 
 
 Iron and Steel: decorating, malleable iron, melting, tempering 
 iron and steel,— effects of hardening, causes of hardening, influence of 
 carbon, influence of temperature, classifying steels^ testing steels and 
 irons, hardening and tempering defined, heat tests, heating steel, fuel for 
 heating, quenching, degrees of temper, cracking and splitting, burning, 
 modifications of dipping, annealing, recipes (case-hardening, wrought 
 iron, axle arms, prussiate of potash process, cutters, files, gravers, ham- 
 Viers, lathe mandrel, mill-picks, mining picks, saws, springs, taps and 
 Fies, tools generally); welding,— conditions, heating, fluxes, selection of 
 iron, nature of welding, recipes for welding steels, irons, cast iron, spring- 
 plates, etc. 
 
 Lacquers and Lacquering: brass, bronze, brunswick black, cop- 
 per, gold, iron and steel, Japanese and Chinese lacquers. 
 
 Lead: sources, the ore-hearth, reverberatory furnaces, blast fur- 
 naces, precipitation, slag melting, wet methods of extraction, softening, 
 desilverizing, sheet lead, lead pipe, shot. 
 
 Lubricants: friction defined, characteristics of an efficient lubri- 
 cant, viscosity and gumming of oils, fire-testing mineral oils, flashing- 
 points, igniting-points, and burning-points. Formulte for lubricants, 
 axle-greases, railway grease, waggon grease. 
 
 Magnesium. Manganese. Mercury. Mica. Molybdenum. 
 
 Nickel; ores, processes of extraction, treating sulphides, treating 
 arsenides, treating very poor ores worked for other metals, properties and 
 uses of nickel. 
 
 Niobium. Osmium. Palladium. Platinum. Potassium. Ehodium. 
 Rubidium. Ruthenium. 
 
 Selenium; how found, commercial sources, preparation from native 
 copper-lead selenide, from sulphuric acid chamber and flue deposits where 
 seleniferous sulphur or pyrite is burned, and from the flue-dust of lead 
 desilverizing works, propertes. 
 
 Silver: occurrence, ores, extraction by amalgamation processes, ex- 
 traction by cupellation and eliquation, purification of commercial silver. 
 
 Slag; the production of blast furnace slag, its composition, purposes 
 to which it may be apphed, including road-metal, castings, paving-blocks, 
 bottle-glass, shingle, sand, cement, mortar, bricks, artificial stone, mineral 
 wool, insulating, manure, and casting-beds. Arrangement of the Cleve- 
 land Slag Works, analyses of Finedon, Cleveland, Hematite, Bessemer, 
 Dowlais, and Dudley slags, Portland cement, slag concrete bricks, slag 
 cement, gypsum and puzzoianas. 
 
 Sodium. Strontium. Tantalum. Terbium. Thallium. Thorium. 
 
 Tin: ores, cleaning and sorting the ore, stamping the ore, calcining 
 the ore, washing the roasted ore, smelting the black tin, refining, utiliza- 
 tion of scrap tin, properties and uses. 
 
 Titanium. Tungsten. Uranium. Vanadium. Yttrium. 
 
 Zinc: ores; extraction of the metal, calcining for oxidation, smelting 
 the oxide by the Belgian, English and Silesian methods. 
 
 Zirconium. 
 
 Aluminium: discussion of the merits of several newly proposed 
 methods for cheapening the production of the metal. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 WORKSHOP RECEIPTS, FOURTH SERIES. 
 
 Waterproofing: — Rubber Goods; spreading the rubber, recovering 
 nai^tha from the solution, varnishing fabrics, elastic fabrics. Cupram- 
 monium, zinc-ammonium and similar preparations, Willesden fabrics. 
 Miscellaneous waterjarooflng preparations. 
 
 Packing and Storing: glass and china, deliquescent salts, ex- 
 plosives, flowers, articles of delicate odor. 
 
 Embalming: corpses and anatomical specimens. 
 
 Leather Polishes: liquid and paste blackings, dubbings, and 
 glosses for harness, boots, and patent leather. 
 
 Cooling: — Air; by mechanical means, by evaporation, hy ice, by 
 underground channels. Cooling and Freezing Water; by solution of 
 solids, by evaporation of liquids, by expansion of gases. Cooling syrujjs, 
 solutions, etc. 
 
 Pumps and Siphons: — Pumps; pulleys, windlasses, levers, troughs, 
 swapes, bucket wheels, screws, scoops, and pumps for raising water ; acid 
 pumps, syrup pumps, soap and lye pumps. Siphons; of glass and metal. 
 
 Dessicating: air-ovens, water-ovens. 
 
 Distilling: water, tinctures, extracts, camphor, essential oils, flowers. 
 
 Emulsifying: pharmaceutical and photographic emulsions. 
 
 Evaporating: general principles; saline solutions, saccharine 
 liquors, glycerine. Acids, — in leaden, glass and platinum vessels. 
 
 Filtering: — Water: by using gravel and sand, charcoal, iron, mag- 
 nesia, porous pottery, cellulose, and sponge as filtering media; filtering 
 cisterns. Laboratory filters for pharmaceutical, chemical, photographic 
 and other purposes. Filters for liquids demanding special conditions: 
 gelatinous fluids, liquids affected by air, lime muds from soda causticisers, 
 syrups and oils. 
 
 Percolation: macerating and filtering by displacement. 
 
 Electrotyping; ai^paratus and fittings, preparing the form, pre- 
 paring the moulding pan, blackleading, stopping out, the deposit, trim- 
 ming and bevelling, mounting, picking. 
 
 Stereotyping: — Plaster process; apparatus, preparing the metal, 
 preparing the form, casting the plate, cooling the cast, knocking-out the 
 plate, flattening the plate, turning to uniform thickness, planing the back, 
 bevelling and squaring, mounting, perfecting. Paper Process; supple- 
 mentary remarks. 
 
 Bookbinding: folding, beating and rolling, collating, marking up 
 and sawing in; sewing, forwarding, pasting up, pasting on the end jiai^ers, 
 trimming, gluing up, rounding, backing, millboards, drawing in and 
 pressing, cutting, coloring the edges, gilt edges, head banding, covering, 
 pasting (loM'n, hand-finishing, blocking, calf colouring. 
 
 Straw-plait, Matting, and Basket-making. 
 
 Musical Instruments: -Pianos: selecting, putting in a string, re- 
 pairing sticker-hinge, re-hinging levers, centers sticking, keys sticking, 
 blocking, taking to pieces, keys, hammer sticking, pitch, buzzing, faulty 
 repetition, renewing pins and wires, rusty wires. Celeste pedal. Harmon- 
 iums: the case, feeders, valve-boards, feeder-folds, wind-trunks, reser- 
 voir, foot-boards, wind-chest. Musical Boxes. 
 
 Clock and "Watch Mending:— Clocks:— eight-day, thirty-hour 
 
FOURTH SERIES. 
 
 English, spring, musical, outdoor, drum, bird, American, German, French 
 Watches: repairing and cleaning, fitting dials, timing watches. 
 
 Photography: Gelatine processes, the gelatine, emulsions, develoj' 
 ers, intensitiers, stripping film from negatives, remedy for frilling, put- 
 ting np plates, reducing negatives, toning silver citro-chloride prints and 
 transparent positives, drying plates, gelatino-bromide film paper, tissue 
 negatives from plates. Collodion processes: collodio-citro-chloride 
 emulsion, collodio chloride paper, example of collodion process, fixing 
 silver prints without hyposulphite, permanent silver prints, transparen- 
 cies, collodion formula, saturated iron solution, iron developers, collodio- 
 chloride printing process, intensifying solution for wet-plate negatives, 
 developer for very delicate transparencies, durable sensitised paper, 
 Werge's gold toning bath, lime toning bath, collodion enlargements. 
 Albumen processes: albumenising paper, floating albumenised paper on 
 the silver bath, silver printing on albumenised paper, lantern slides on 
 albumen, glazing albumenised prints. Miscellaneous, stripping films, 
 restoring faded photographs, printing a positive from a positive, reduc- 
 ing over-printed proofs, photographing by magnesium Light, paper nega- 
 tives, photographing paper photographs, a photographic print upon paper 
 in five minutes, paper negatives, enlarging on argentic pai3er and oi^als, 
 light for the dark room, mounting prints, papejr pan, testing a lens, 
 photographing on wood, silver prints mounted on glass, medallions, 
 vitrified photographs, enamel pliotographs, toning, out-door photography, 
 negative, bath, varnishes, preparing sulphurous acid, instantaneous shut- 
 ter, arranging drop-shutters for a variety of lenses, measurement of 
 speed of drop-shutters, instantaneous shutter for timed exposures, mak- 
 ing photographic exjjosures in the dark room, dry-plate holder and ex- 
 posing case, camera attachment for pajier negatives, apparatus for instan- 
 taneous photography. 
 
 Index and General Index to Series I to IV 
 
 Each Series possesses its own special value, and the utility of the four 
 volumes has been completed by furnishing the fourth with a General 
 Index to the whole set. From the great range of subjects dealt M'ith and 
 the facility thus afforded for reference, the four series of 'Wokkshop 
 Receipts' may be said to constitute in themselves a well-stored library of 
 technical information such as no other publication affords. The descript- 
 ions and instructions are given in plain language, aided by diagrams 
 where necessary; technicalities are explained, and every care has been 
 taken to check the quantities, and to make the index a real guide to 
 the contents. 
 
 E. & K. N. SPON & CO., 
 
 Publishers, 
 
 12 CORTLANDT STREET, NEW YORK.