not using the plating fluid keep it well corked and it is always ready to use, bearing in mind that it is poison as arsenic, and must be put high out of the way of children, and labelled poison, although you need have no fear using it; yet accidents might arise if its nature were not known.

9. ELECTRO SILVERING--USUAL METHOD

This is done every way the same as gold plating (using coin) except that rock salt is used instead of the cyanuret of potassium to hold the silver in solution for use, and when it is of the proper strength of salt it has a thick curdy appearance, or you can add salt until the silver will deposit on the article to be plated, which is all that is required. No hesitation need be felt in trying these receipts, as they are obtained from a genuine source, and are in every day use.

10. GOLD PLATING FLUID

Warm six ounces of pure rain water, and dissolve in it 2 ounces of cyanide of potassium, then add a 1/4 ounce oxide of gold; the solution will at first be yellowish, but will soon subside to white; then half fill a bottle with whiting, fill it up with this solution and shake it well; you may now take a piece of old cotton, wet it with the solution, rub it well over brass, copper, &c., and it is nicely washed with gold.

11. SILVER PLATING FLUID

Dissolve one ounce of nitrate of silver, in crystal, in 12 ounces of soft water; then dissolve in the water two ounces of cyanuret of potash; shake the whole together and let it stand until it becomes clear. Have ready some 1/2 ounce vials, and fill them half full of whiting, then fill up the bottles and it is ready for use. The whiting does not increase the coating powder--it only helps to clear the articles and save the silver fluid by half filling the bottles. The above quantity of materials will cost about $1.62c., so that the fluid will be about 3 cents a bottle. It is used in the same way as the gold plating fluid.

12. QUICKSILVER PLATING FLUID

Take of quicksilver one ounce, one ounce nitric acid, one ten cent piece, rain water 1/2 pint to a pint, put the three first articles into a tumbler together; let them stand until dissolved, occasionally stirring, then add the water, and it is ready for use. This is used in the same way as the silver and gold plating fluid.

13. TO GILD STEEL

Pour some of the ethereal solution of gold into a wine-glass, and dip into it the blade of a new penknife, lancet, razor, &c., withdraw the instrument and allow the ether to evaporate, the blade will then be found to be covered with a beautiful coat of gold; the blade may be moistened with a clean rag or a small piece of very dry sponge dipped into the ether, and the same effect will be produced.

14. TO GILD COPPER, BRASS, &c.--BY AN AMALGAM

The gilding of these inferior metals and alloys of them is effected by the assistance of mercury with which the gold is amalgamated. The mercury is evaporated while the gold is fixed by the application of heat, the whole is then burnished of left mat in the whole or in part, according as required.

15. GILDING GLASS AND PORCELAIN

Dissolve in boiling linseed oil an equal weight either of copal or amber, and add as much oil of turpentine as will enable you to apply the compound or size thus formed as thin as possible to the parts of the glass intended to be gilt; the glass is to be placed in a stove till it is so warm as almost to burn the fingers when handled. At this temperature the size becomes adhesive, and a piece of leaf gold applied in the usual way will immediately stick. Sweep off the superfluous portions of the leaf, and when quite cold it may be burnished, taking care to interpose a piece of india paper between the gold and the burnisher. It sometimes happens when the varnish is not very good that by repeated washing the gold wears off; on this account the practice of burning it in is sometimes had recourse to; for this purpose some gold powder is ground with borax, and in this state applied to the clean surface of the glass by a camel hair pencil; when quite dry the glass is put into a stove, heated to about the temperature of an annealing oven, the gum burns off; and the borax, by vitrifying, cements the gold with great firmness to the glass, after which it may be burnished.

The gilding upon porcelain is in like manner fixed by heat and the use of borax, and this kind of ware, being neither transparent nor liable to soften, and thus to be injured in its form in a low red heat, is free from the risk and injury which the finer and more fusible kinds of glass are apt to sustain from such treatment. Porcelain and other wares may be platinized, silvered, tinned, or bronzed, in a similar manner.

16. GILDING THE EDGES OF PAPER

The edges of the leaves of books and letter paper are gilded whilst in a horizontal position in the bookbinder's press or some arrangement of the same nature, by first applying a composition formed of four parts of Armenian-bole and one of candied sugar, ground together with water to a proper consistence, and laid on by a brush with the white of an egg. This coating, when nearly dry is smoothed by the burnisher, it is then slightly moistened by a sponge dipped in clean water and squeezed in the hand; the gold leaf is now taken up on a piece of cotton from the leathern cushion and applied on the moistened surface; when dry it is to be burnished by rubbing the burnisher over it repeatedly from end to end, taking care not to wound the surface by the point.

17. PROFESSOR WORTS' AMALGAM FOR SILVERING

This is the only means yet discovered for silvering iron directly, yet it is not so lasting as some of the other processes. Take quicksilver and the metal potassium, equal parts by volume, put them together in a tumbler, and if both metals be good there will be a brisk ebullition, which continues until an amalgam of the two is formed, then add as much quicksilver as there is of the amalgam; let it work till thoroughly mixed, and it is ready for use. This amalgam you may apply with a cloth to any metal, even iron, though it be a rusty bar, and you have it neatly silvered over.

18. FOR COPPERING IRON

This is the latest method, and that now in use. To a solution of sulphate of copper, add a solution of ferrocyanide of pottasium, so long as a precipitate continues to be formed. This is allowed to settle, and the clear liquor being decanted the vessel is filled with water, and when the precipitate settles the liquor is again decanted, and continue to repeat these washings until the sulphate of potash is washed quite out; this is known by adding a little chloride of barium to a small quantity of the washings, and when there is no white precipitate formed by the test, the precipitate is sufficiently washed. A solution of cyanide of potassium is now added to this precipitate until it is dissolved, during which process the solution becomes warm by the chemical re-action which takes place. The solution is filtered, and allowed to repose all night. If the solution of cyanide of potassium that is used is strong, the greater portion of the ferrocyanide of potassium crystalises in the solution, and may be collected and preserved for use again. If the solution of cyanide of potassium used to dissolve the precipitate is dilute, it will be necessary to condense the liquor by evaporation to obtain the yellow prussiate in crystals. The remaining solution is the coppering solution; should it not be convenient to separate the yellow prussiate by crystallization, the presence of that salt in the solution does not deteriorate it nor interfere with its power of depositing copper.

19. PECULIARITIES IN WORKING CYANIDE OF COPPER SOLUTION

The true composition of the salts thus formed by copper and cyanide of potassium has not yet been determined, but their relations to the battery and electrolyzation are peculiar. The solution must be worked at a heat not less than from 150 to 200 degrees Farenheit (that is not quite as hot a boiling water, which is 212 degrees Farenheit.) All other solutions we have tried follow the laws, that if the electricity is so strong as to cause gas to be evolved at the electrode, the metal will be deposited in a sandy or powdered state, but the solution of cyanide of copper and potassium is an exception to these laws, as there is no reguline deposit obtained unless gas is freely evolved from the surface of the article upon which the deposit is taking place. As this solution is used hot, a considerable evaporation takes place, which requires that additions be made to the solution from time to time. If water alone be used for this purpose it will precipitate a great quantity of the copper as a white powder, but this is prevented by dissolving a little cyanide of potassium in the water at the rate of 4 ounces to the gallon. The vessels used in factories for this solution are generally of copper, which are heated over a flue or in a sand-bath, the vessel itself serving as the positive electrode of the battery; but any vessel will suit if a copper electrode is employed when the vessel is not of copper.

20. PREPARATION OF IRON FOR COATING WITH COPPER

When it is required to cover an iron article with copper, it is first steeped in hot caustic potash or soda to remove any grease or oil. Being washed from that it is placed for a short time in diluted sulphuric acid, consisting of about one part acid to 16 parts of water, which removes any oxide that may exist. It is then washed in water and scoured with sand till the surface is perfectly clean, and finally attached to the battery and immersed in the cyanide solution. All this must be done with despatch so as to prevent the iron combining with oxygen. An immersion of five minutes duration in the cyanide solution is sufficient to deposit upon the iron a film of copper, but it is necessary to the complete protection of the iron that it should have a considerably thick coating, and as the cyanide process is expensive, it is preferable when the iron has received a film of copper by the cyanide solution, to take it out,