ten; fhoes. vine, foot, and pomegranate, of each equal
quantity, three pounds, all well mi;
make one hundred ^^oxxvAi weight of fteel, there is requir^^d
ove hundred and t'xverity pounds weight of good, foft Spa-
rilh iron, cot llreaky ; to which if you give the afor-e-
mentioned
f4 SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES.
mentioned dofe of the fald powders, prepared as dlrefled,
and put to the fire, for the fpace of forty- eight hours, you
will g€t the bed fleel which can be had.
XXXVI. Another receipt for the fame.
1 . Take one bufliel of beech coals pulverifed and fifted ;
alder's coals, thus prepared, one peck ; vine alhes and
foot, both well pulverifed and fifted, equal parts, half a
peck. Mix well thefe powders, and ftraiify your iron
bars with them in a crucible well luted ; then give a good
iire for twenty-four hours.
iV. 5. Obferve that you muft take care to ufe new, and
not floied wood, to make the faid aflies.
2. If you want to have your fteel white, you muft
add to all the above powders one peck of juniper- wood
afhes.
3. If you want it purple, you muft make a lexiviatlon of
vine and Ihoes afhes, foot and garlick, well pounded, equal
parts ; and a fufficient quantity of water to make the faid
hullitoiiumy in which you will Ileep, cold, your iron bars
before you cement them.
4. You muft proportionate the quantity of windholes,
in each kiln, to the quantity of bars, and of crucibles, for
v/hich you intend to fit it.
5. The Ji rat urn fuper jiratum ought to be made an inch,
or an inch and a half inch thick of powder to each bed. —
The bars ought to be rar^ged ciofs way one over another;
and large crucibles are 10 be preferred to fmall ones.—
You muft take care to have ihem fo well luted, as not to
allow the leaft air to find its way in ; for there would re-
fult an intire rr.ifcarriage of the whole operation ; and be-
fides, your powder would hence lofe all its virtue. —
Should you hkewife let it get air before you make ufe of
it, it would become quite dead and fiat. Therefore, you
are cautioned to keep it always very clofely conkned, in
well-ftopped vellels, of whatever kind they may be. —
That which comes off from the crucible, after the opera-
tian, is not worfe for having been thus in ufe. It wants
therefore, nothing but an additional fupply of frefh pow-
der joined to it, to maks up what is loft, or diminllhed,
by
SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES. 2Cj
by the frequent handlings of it, in taking it out, and put-
ting it in the crucibles again.
6. The kiln ought to be wide by the inferior part, and
go narrowly towards the top, which muft end in a conical
form. By I'uch means, the heat contradled becomes ftrong,
and adls with infinitely more power. — Neither muft you
negleft to have it fo conftruded as to be provided wiih an
aili-hole, or a place underneath wherein the afhes may
fall; and feveral openings to let the wind efcape.
*+* An ejiimate of the cojls^ and profit s^ of fuch an operation
in France.
The thoufand weight of iron, in bars, flat on one iide,
cofts about fixty li'-vres. Two thoufand being reqcilite,
at a time, for one fingie operation, makes one hundred and
fweniy li-vrest or, fiite pounds ilerling.
Ten crucibles this will employ ; ten Uvres,
Powders for the two thoufand; forty ii-vres.
For two men to nt up, and watch, in order to keep up
the fire ; four li'vres.
To prepare the fteel, after it is out of the crucible,
and render it marketable ; t-iventj llvres.
All the expence amounts to t^jjo hundred Hvresy or eight
pounds eighty or, ten Jhillitigs Jierling^ or thereabout. Iron,
thus turned into Heel, whether white or purple, comes oa
computation, to two fols, or one penny,- a pound j which-
makes one hundred litres per thoufand weight.— Thus, the
two thoufand weight, which may be made in the fame
kiln, every week, comes to /wo hundred livres.
If you fell your fteel, on the footing of /!v fob per
pound, there is clear profit /o«r hundred livres sl week t
which, in a year, would make 20, 800 /ivres — Now yott
may, on this calculation, have as many kilns as you pleafej
and each kiln may have a kilnful every week.
XXXVII. To take immediately ruji from iron,
^ You muft rub your iron with a piece of rag lleeped into,
oil of tartar /^r deliquiu?n.
c XXXVIII. r-
26 SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRABE3,
XXXVIII. To obtain good Jil-ver from peimer,
1. Take quick lime made frum rock or tranfparent
pebbles, and one pound of common i'alt. With thofe two
ingredients make a flrong lye, which you will evaporate
on the fire to the redudlion of one third part of what it
made before. Next, melt in a crucible iwo pounds of
pewter, to which, after fuiic n, you will add one pound
of hamatites. The whole being well incorporated and
melted, throw it in part of your aforefaid lye; and,
uhen quite cold, melt it again, and throw it again into
new lye, repeating the fame procefs for feven different
times, and ufing frefh lye, prepared as above, every time. -
2, The next operation is to take one ounce of ammo-
niac fait, an equal quantity of be rax, eight fcruples of
auripigment, reduce them into a very fine and fubtile
powder, and b^ing mixed together, incorporate them
into a psfte with the whites of two new-laid eggs, and
put all together with the pewter, ready prepared as be-
fore mentioned, in a crucible. When all is in fufion,
continue the fire for one hour ; then take off the crucible.
There you will fiid your lilver, iit tu (land the tell of all
theaffnycTs.
XXXIX. To fofte-a iron,
Toke half an ounce of tartar; two of common fait â– ;
^nd two and a half of verdigreafe. Mix all together, and
cxpofe it in a pojiuger to the dew of nine nights run-
ning. This will turn into water, in which, vvhen red-
hot, you may kill your iron,
XL, To melt iron fo that it will fpread under the hammer.
Take equal qiiantities of Hn>€, t-artar^ and alkali fait.
P..ur over it a fufficient quantity of cow-pifs, to make a
thick pap with it, which you will fet a drying in the fun,
or before the fie. Make an iron red hot in the fire;
â– then, plunge!;! that matter. You may afterwards melt
it as you would lilver; and then work it in the fame way
Mhencold. ^^j_^^
SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES. ZJ
XLI. To give iron a temper to cut porphyry.
Make your iron red, hot, and plunge it in diftilled wa-
ter from nettles, acanthus, and pile fella y (or moufe-ears);
or in the very juice pounded out from thefe plants,
XLII. To /often all forts of metals.
Take fublimated mercury, cuphorbium, borax, and
ammoniac fait, of each equal parts pulverifed. Proje6t
feme of that powder over any metal, when in a ftate of
fufion, and you will obtain the defired effeft of making
it foft.
XLIII. To /often a fophi/lic metal.
Take black foap and common fait, of each two ounces j
human excrements dried and pulverifed, four oonres;
roch alum an equal quantity, and nitre fait, half an ounce*
Incorporate all together in a pan, over the fire, with bul-
lock's gallj keep ftirring it till you feel no longer any
faline particle. Then take off the pan from the lire, and
let the compofition cool. Of this you may throw fome
into the crucible in which your metal is in fufion.
XLIV. A good temper for arms.
Take tythimalus, or fpurge ; roots of wild horfe-
radifh, bryonia, and purflain, of each equal quantities.
Pound all together, fo that you may get at leaH: one
pound of juice. Add to this one pound of red haired
child's water; faltpetre, alkaline, gem and ammoniac
falts, of e£ch one drachm. When you have mixed all
well together in a glafs veflelclofe flopped, bury it in the
cellar, and let it there lie for twenty days. Then bring
it up again, and put it in a retort, to which you will
adapt and lute well its receiver, and begin to diftil by a
gradual fire. Ngw when you want to get arms of a good
C 2 temper.
â– 23 SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES.
temper, you have only to plunge them in this diftilled
liquor, after having previoufly made ttiem red hot in
the fire.
XLV. Another
Take nettle juice, bullock's gall, child's water, or
ftrong vinegar, and a little fait. Incorporate well all this
together, and plunge any red-hot iron in it.
XL VI. 7 melt iron and make it fo/t.
Take two pounds of auripigment, and four of oil of
tartar. Make the auripigment foak up all the oil of tar-
tar, and dry it up afterwards over a foft fire. Then put
fmall bits of iron in a crucible ; and, when very red,
throw by little at a time, about half a pound of that auri-
pigment prepared as befors i and you will find your iron
foft and while.
XLVII. To nvhiten iron like Jil
Melt iron filings in a crucible, along with realgar, or
red arfenic. Then take one ounce of that matter, and
one of copper; melt all together, and put it in a coppel.
it will give you one ounce of good filver.
XL VIII. To render iron brittle ^ fo as to pound like glafs.
Take the diftilled water from roch alum, plunge in it
feven different times your pieces of iron, or fteel, beaten
very tbin.and made red hot every time. This operasion
will render them fo brittle, that you may pound them in
a mortar afcer wards, as you could glafs.
XLTX. Ingredients njohich fernje to the melting of iron.
Iron is to be melted with any of the following ingre-
dients; uiz. pewter, lead, marcafire, magnefia, auripig-
ment, antimony, crown glafs fulphur, ammoniac fait,
citrine-mirobolans, green, or frefli pumegranate rinds,
L,To
SBCRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES,
2q
L. T'o meli or calcinate the blade of a fnuord 'without hurt^
ing the fcabbard.
You muft drop into the fcabbard of the fword feme
arlenic in powder, and iquteze over it fome pare of the
juice of a lemon. Then replace ihe fword into its fcab-
bard. In a quarter of an hour afterwards, or little mure,
you will fee what a furprifing effect this will have.
LI. Afpirit ivhich luill dij/olve all forts of f ones.
Take rye-flour, and make fmall balls with ir, which
you will dry ; then put them into a retort well luted,
and place it over a gradual fire, to draw the fpirits by
diilillation. Any flone whatever will diflblve in it.
Lll. To refine peivter.
Take fine pewter, and put it into a crucible. When
melted, project over it, at different times, fonr^e nitre,
till it comes to a perfeft calcination. Repeat this three
times, pounding the matter into powder, which mix with
charcoal duft. Being thus melted, it will refume its
former fubftance of pewter, with this diiference, that ic
will be refined to an infinite y fuperior degree.
LIU. To fix mercury a .
Take verdlgreafe in powder, which put in a crn=
cible. Make a hole in that powder, and place in it a
knot of mercury previoufly impregnated with white of
eggs water. Cover this knot over with borax, and add
again over this fome more verdigreafe and pounded
glafs, one or two fingers deep. Lute well the lid of the
crucible, and give a pretty fmart fire, though gradually,
and not at once, for the fpace of two hours.
LIV. To extraSi mercury from had.
Take lead and be :;t it into (heetp, or laminas, very fine.
Put thefe in a giafs veflel with common fait?, a double
quantity of the lead. Cover this well, and bury it under
ground for nine d;i}s at leail:. After that time, if you
C 3 open
3© SECRET* IN ARTS AND TRADES.
open the veflel again, you will find your lead turned all
into running mercury, or quickfilver, at the bottom of it.
LV. The compof.ticn of cajl mirrors and cylinders.
Take one pound and a lialf of red copper; eight
ounces of refined pewter ; one and a hnlf of flellated
mars-regulus, otherwife regulus of aniimony ; half an
ounce of bifmuth; one and a half of nitre, and a di{cre-
tionable quantity (that is to lay, as much as you pleafe)
of filver.
LVI. The ccmpofttion of metallic tnirrorSy or loaklng-glajes,
life d among the ancients,
1. Take one pound of decapitated, or well purified,
copper, which melt; then throw over it tliree pounds
of refined pewter. As foon as they ihail be both in
good fulion, add fix ounces of calcinated red tartar, two
ofarfenic, half an ounce of faltpetre, and two drachms
of alum. Leave all this in fufion together, for the fpace
of three or four hours, that all the falts may well eva-
porate, then call thi<; compofition in the flat fand mould
prepared for it.
2. To give thefe mirrors the requifite polifli, proceed
as follows. Take the coarfefl part away with the wheel
over a grinding- ftone, the f^ime method as the pewterers
and braziers do, and then fmoothen them with water till
they are fufiiciently poliihed by attrition. Take the
mirror from that wheel, and put it on the wooden one
covered with leather, after having rubbed it well with
emery, to give it a fine polifli ; then take it again from
this wheel, and put it on another of the fame kind,
covered with leather, afrer having previoufly rubbed
your mirror with prepared blood-rtone, and wafliing it
afterwards with magifter of pewter. Take notice to make
your mirrors obferve, on both thefe lall leathered wheels,
the fame oblique direilion in turning them, and continue
fo long till the mirror has acquired a fufiicient fincnefs
and brightnelV.
Convex andxardent mirrors are rubbed and poliflied in
the fame manner.
LVII. To make convex and ardent mirrcrsi
1 . Take one pound of copper in laminas. Cut them in
fmall
SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES. Jl
fmall pieces to get them into a crucible, and impregnate
tliem wiill oil of rartai. Tiicn take a quarter of o pnnnd
of white arfenic in powder, itratify your laminas, putting
bed upon bed till the crucible is full. Cover this cracible
with a lid of the fame eartli ; lute it \^ ell, and fet it to dry.
When done, plunge it to the lid in the fand, and give it
a gradual lire, till it is llrong enough to evaporate the oil.
During that tirti*r the oil pre|)ares the copper, in detain-
ing the arfenic, and making it pafs into it with the fame
facility as oil pafics through leather. You may, if you
choofe, place your crucible in the furnace on the bare
fire ; but then you muft manage the fire gradually, till
the oil is quite evaporated. This being done, let the
crucible cooi, and break it; you will find your copper
variegated with fcveral colours, and it would be ftillmore
fo, if, inftead of arfenic, you had ufed auripigment.
2. Take of this copper one part, and two of brafs.
Melt firft the brafs on a blafting fire ; then throw in your
prepared copper. When they fh.ill have been in good
ifufion, throw this metal into a pan full of lukewarm
water, over which place a birch-room, to force your
metal to granulate in falling through its twigs inM ilie
water. By fuch precaution, your metal will be fo hard
as to refill the file; will not be brittle; and acq '.ire ihe
fame qualities as fteel, indead of which you may employ
it, for various forts of works.
3. Now take of this hardened metal three parts; cf
the beft Cornwall pewter, and perfecStly free from lead,
one part. Melt firft the metal, as we faid before, on :\
blafting fire, then put your pewter to it; and, when both
are well melted together, throw this compofition in the
convex mould, to make the convex mirrors. This com-
pofition is the beft which can be employed for the ma-
nufacturing of thefe forts of mirrors. It is white, hard,
never brittle, and fufceptible of receiving the higheft and
moft finifhed polifh.
LVIIL Tq givt tads fuch a temper as ^tll enable them to
fa^w marble.
Make the tool red hot in the fire; and, when red
cherry colour, take it off from the fire, rub it with a
C 4 piece
32 SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES.
piece of candle, and fieep it iuimediately in good flrong
yiiiegar, 111 which you fhall have diluted fome foot.
LIX. To /often iroiii and harden It a/terivards more than it
nvas before.
1. Make a little chink lengthways in an irrn bar, in
which pour melted lead. Then make it evaporate by a
flrong fire, as that for copelling. Renew this operauon
four or fivs times, and the bar will become very fuft.
You har
in mere forge w.iter, and it will be of io good a temper,
as to be fit for lancets, razors, and knives, vviih which you
will be able to cut other iron, without its fplitting or
denting.
2. It hns beei found, by experience, that an armour
can never be good pi oof agaiuft fiiC arms, if it has not
firll been foftened with oils, gi^ms, wax, and other ince-
rative things, and afterwards hardened, by fteeping them
itveral times over in binding waters.
LX. Tee iranfmutation of iron into damafk-Jieel,
You muft firft purge it of its ufual brittlenefs; and,
after having reduced it into filings, make it red hot in a
crucible ; fteep it le veral times iu oil of olives, in which
you fhall have before thrown feveral times melted lead.
Take care to cover the vefTel in v;hich the oil is con-
tained, every time you thr
the oil 0iould catch hre.
LXI. To guard iron againf rtifing.
Warm your iron till you can no more touch it without
burning yourfelf. Then rub it with new and clean white
wax. Put it again to the fire, till it has foaked in the
wax. When done, rub it over with a piece of ferge, and
this iron will never ruft.
LXII. To cut pebbles iioith eafe.
Boil it a good while in fome mutton fuet; and, then,
..you will cut it very eafily.
LXIII. To
SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES. 33
LXIII, To fwhiten copper.
Take auripigment and egg Ihells calcinated, equal
quantities. Put all together in a pot covered with ano-
ther, having a little hole on the top. Give it iirft the
wheel-fire for three hours. Increafe the fire, and what
Ihall have been fublimed, remix with the fceces again.
Sublime anew, and mix again \}\e faces and the flowers
together. Then, for the third time, there will be no
more fublimation ; only the flowers will fwim over the
faces. Now take arfenic of one fingle fublimation, and
crude tartar, of each equal parts, well mixed together,
and ftratify with this mixed powder feme very thin cop-
per li^minas. Then pulh the fire with violence, to the
degree of fufion, and granulate it in water, which you
are to put in great agitation for a good while, before you
throw the matter into it, in order to prevent thereby
your matter from fparkling, when you throw it. Jn rei-
terating this operation on the fame metal, you will render
your copper as beautiful as filver.
LXiV. A prcj'Mion on copper,
1. Take fine pewter two ounces, which you will melt
in a crucible. When melted, throw in it by little at a
time the fame weight of flour of brimflone. Stir (cvtiY
time with a rod, till you fee both your pewter an-l ful-
phur well calcinated. Then take the crucible out of the
fire, and throw in ha-f an ounce of crude mercury. Let
it co;/l, and pulverife this.
2. Now mek four ounces of molten copper. When in
good fuiion, project on it, by degrees, one ounce of the
above powder, ftirring carefully, while you Ho it, with a
ftick. Leave it thus in fufion for a little while, and then
you may ufe it for making all forts of plates. It is fo
beautiful, that, if you teft it on the coppel with lead, it
will itand it perfecHiy,
LXV. The preparations of emery,
I. Caicine eaflern, or Spaniih emery, three or four
times in the fire; then let u cool. Pound it and make
flrata fuperfrata of it, with double the quantity oP ful-
phur-vivurn in powder. Leave this crucible in the furnace
C 5 with
34 SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES.
with a ftrong fire during three or four hours. Repeat
this procefs tour different times over, then reduce your
emery into an impalpable powder. Put it next into a
matrafs, pour over it regal water, that it rwim over by
three fingers deep. Put this in digeftion for eight hours.
Pour off by inclination your regal water, impregnated
with the dye. Put new water on ycur matter, and fet it
on digefting again for eight other hours, as the former.
Then take your thus tinged waters, which you will mix
and put in a retort. Diftil mod part of it, till you fee
what remains in the retort is yellow. This is the true
oil of emery, in which you will put the bignefs of a fil-
bert of caa.phire.
2. Exfulphurate in a crucible, on a good fire, and
during two hours, what quantity you pleaiB of arfenic.
Then take two ounces of the aforefaid oil of emery, one
of your exfulphurated arfenic, an equal quantity of fait
of tartar drawn with diftilled vinegar, two of fubliraatc,
and two of filver; which you will have diffolved in an
aquGfcrtis made with nitre and vitriol. Put all together
in a matrafs, fo large that the compofition fhould occupy
no more than a third part of it, and of which you Ihall
have cut the neck off, to obtain a more eafy evaporation
of the compounds from it. Put this matrafs in the fand
as high as the matter, and give it a moderate fire for two
hours, then a ftiong one for fix; let the fire go out of
itfelf. Then you will find your matter in a fiOne in the
matrafs. Take it out, and pound it into powder, projeded
upon another ounce of fait in fufion ; if you keep it a
little while in that flate, and throw it afterwards into oil
of olives, will increafe your gold by a third of its primary
quantity, and rather more: And you may thus increafe
it again and again, by repeating the fame operation.
\Ji^yi, A faSiitioui amiant; or way to make an income
bujiible cloth.
Take rotten oak-wood, which you will calcine into
afhfs, and mix with an equal quantity of pearl afhes.
Boil all together in ten times its weight of water.
When this has boiled one hour, add as much water to
it as there may have been evaporated, and boil now in
it
SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES. 35
it a large flick of alumen plumofem^ during one hour.
Take off the vefTel from the fire, and carry it into the
cellar. In a month's time you will find your alum as
foft as flax. Spin it, and get it weaved into a cloth.
The fire wiil never have any power over it. On the con-
trary, the beft way to walh it is to throw it on red-hot
coals ; and after having there let it burn throughjut, take
it off, and you will find it per fedlly clean.
LXVil. 91? vender tartar fujihle and penetrating*
1. Stratify cakes of white tartar with vine branches.
When done, fet them on fire by the top, and when ar-
rived at the bottom, your tartar will be calcined.
2. Diffolve this calcined tartar in aquavitce^ then pafs
it through the filtering paper, and next evaporate the
brandy. What fhall remain is the fait of tartar, which
you mud find to be as white as fnow. Pour over it the
beft French fpirit of wine, fo that it fhould exceed over
the fait the thicknefs of an inch. Set it on fire. As
foon as your fpirit of wine fhall be al) confumed, your
fait of tartar will be fjfible and penetrating.
3. Now (hould you make any iron red-hot, and project
on it a little of that fair, it will penetrate it through and
through, and leave after it a veilige as white as filver, in
the place wliere it touched.
LXVllI. To extra6i mercury from any metal,
1. PifToIve lead, antimony, or any other metal, in g(^od
common aquafortis. When that water fhall have dif-
folved as much of it a? it can, pour ic out by inclination,
and on what fhall not be quite diffolved, but corroded
only in a v.'hite pov;c!er, pour fome hot water. Shake
then the matrafs in which the metal is, and you will
find that the water will finifli to diffolve what the aqua-
foriis could not. Next pafs it through a filtering paper;
and what will not pafs, diffolve in fre(h aquafortis.
Continue thus the fame diiToluting procefs, till you
have obtained a pcrfedl diffolution of all the powder,
and you have made it pafs through the filtering paper.
Now take all your fevtral diflblutions, make a precipi-
tation of that diffoluiion to the bottom of the vefTel, in
C 6 form
16 SECRETS IN ARTS AND TRADES,
form of white crds, by means of a water impregnated
with fait. EduKorate this twice, with cold common
water, ai.d once with fome a little warm, then dry it.
2, Take one ounce of that difToIurion, thus edulco-
rated and exficcated into powder; half an ounce of am-
jrioniac fait fublimed over common fait. Grind all toge-
ther on a marble ftone wiih a mullar, that it may be well
incorporated, as the painters do their colours; and, to
fucceed better in that incorporation, impregnate it with
diftilled vinegar. Now put all thi" into s pan, and pour
cold water over it, fo that it ihou'd fwira over the matter,
ftir it well twice a day with a flick, for three weeks.
Then take quick lime, which you will ilack with the
fwimming liquor which covers your matter; and with