The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing Part 73

The ice will yield to this much quicker than to hot water or wrappings or hot cloths, as is the common practice.

To Prevent Mold.--A small quant.i.ty of carbolic acid added to paste, mucilage and ink, will prevent mold. An ounce of the acid to a gallon of whitewash will keep cellars and dairies from the disagreeable odor which often taints milk and meat kept in such places.

Thawing Frozen Gas Pipe.--Mr. F. H. Shelton says: "I took off from over the pipe, some four or five inches, just a crust of earth, and then put a couple of bushels of lime in the s.p.a.ce, poured water over it, and slaked it, and then put canvas over that, and rocks on the canvas, so as to keep the wind from getting underneath. Next morning, on returning there, I found that the frost had been drawn out from the ground for nearly three feet. You can appreciate what an advantage that was, for picking through frozen ground, with the thermometer below zero, is no joke. Since then we have tried it several times. It is an excellent plan if you have time enough to let the time work. In the daytime you cannot afford to waste the time, but if you have a spare night in which to work, it is worth while to try it."

How to Test a Thermometer.--The common thermometer in a j.a.panned iron case is usually inaccurate. To test the thermometer, bring water into the condition of active boiling, warm the thermometer gradually in the steam and then plunge it into the water. If it indicates a fixed temperature of two hundred and twelve degrees, the instrument is a good one.

Indelible Ink.--An indelible ink that cannot be erased, even with acids, can be obtained from the following recipe: To good gall ink add a strong solution of Prussian blue dissolved in distilled water. This will form a writing fluid which cannot be erased without destruction of the paper.

The ink will write greenish blue, but afterward will turn black.

To Get a Broken Cork Out of a Bottle.--If, in drawing a cork, it breaks, and the lower part falls down into the liquid, tie a long loop in a bit of twine, or small cord, and put it in, holding the bottle so as to bring the piece of cork near to the lower part of the neck. Catch it in the loop, so as to hold it stationary. You can then easily extract it with a corkscrew.

A Wash for Cleaning Silver.--Mix together half an ounce of fine salt, half an ounce of powdered alum, and half an ounce of cream of tartar.

Put them into a large white-ware pitcher, and pour on two ounces of water, and stir them frequently, till entirely dissolved. Then transfer the mixture to clean bottles and cork them closely. Before using it, shake the bottles well. Pour some of the liquid into a bowl, and wash the silver all over with it, using an old, soft, fine linen cloth. Let it stand about ten minutes, and then rub it dry with a buckskin. It will make the silver look like new.

To Remove the Odor from a Vial.--The odor of its last contents may be removed from a vial by filling it with cold water, and letting it stand in any airy place uncorked for three days, changing the water every day.

To Loosen a Gla.s.s Stopper.--The manner in which apothecaries loosen gla.s.s stoppers when there is difficulty in getting them out is to press the thumb of the right hand very hard against the lower part of the stopper, and then give the stopper a twist the other way, with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, keeping the bottle stiff in a steady position.

To Soften Boots and Shoes.--Kerosene will soften boots and shoes which have been hardened by water, and render them as pliable as new.

To Remove Stains, Spots, and Mildew from Furniture.--Take half a pint of ninety-eight per cent alcohol, a quarter of an ounce each of pulverized resin and gum sh.e.l.lac, add half a pint of linseed oil, shake well and apply with a brush or sponge. Sweet oil will remove finger marks from varnished furniture, and kerosene from oiled furniture.

To Freshen Gilt Frames.--Gilt frames may be revived by carefully dusting them, and then was.h.i.+ng with one ounce of soda beaten up with the whites of three eggs. Sc.r.a.ped patches should be touched up with gold paint.

Castile soap and water, with proper care, may be used to clean oil paintings. Other methods should not be employed without some skill.

To Fill Cracks in Plaster.--Use vinegar instead of water to mix your plaster of Paris. The resultant ma.s.s will be like putty, and will not "set" for twenty or thirty minutes, whereas if you use water the plaster will become hard almost immediately, before you have time to use it.

Push it into the cracks and smooth it off nicely with a table knife.

To Toughen Lamp Chimneys and Gla.s.sware.--Immerse the article in a pot filled with cold water, to which some common salt has been added. Boil the water well, then cool slowly. Gla.s.s treated in this way will resist any sudden change of temperature.

To Remove Paint from Window-Gla.s.s.--Rub it well with hot, sharp vinegar.

To Clean Stovepipe.--A piece of zinc put on the live coals in the stove will clean out the stovepipe.

To Brighten Carpets.--Carpets after the dust has been beaten out may be brightened by scattering upon them cornmeal mixed with salt and then sweeping it off. Mix salt and meal in equal proportions. Carpets should be thoroughly beaten on the wrong side first and then on the right side, after which spots may be removed by the use of ox-gall or ammonia and water.

To Keep Flowers Fresh exclude them from the air. To do this wet them thoroughly, put in a damp box, and cover with wet raw cotton or wet newspaper, then place in a cool spot. To preserve bouquets, put a little saltpetre in the water you use for your bouquets, and the flowers will live for a fortnight.

To Preserve Brooms.--Dip them for a minute or two in a kettle of boiling suds once a week and they will last much longer, making them tough and pliable. A carpet wears much longer swept with a broom cared for in this manner.

To Clean Bra.s.sware.--Mix one ounce of oxalic acid, six ounces of rotten stone, all in powder, one ounce of sweet oil, and sufficient water to make a paste. Apply a small proportion, and rub dry with a flannel or leather. The liquid dip most generally used consists of nitric and sulphuric acids, but this is more corrosive.

To Keep Out Mosquitoes.--If a bottle of the oil of pennyroyal is left uncorked in a room at night, not a mosquito, nor any other blood-sucker, will be found there in the morning.

To Kill c.o.c.kroaches.--A teacupful of well bruised plaster of Paris, mixed with double the quant.i.ty of oatmeal, to which a little sugar may be added, although this last named ingredient is not essential. Strew it on the floor, or into the c.h.i.n.ks where they frequent.

To Destroy Ants.--Drop some quicklime on the mouth of their nest, and wash it with boiling water, or dissolve some camphor in spirits of wine, then mix with water, and pour into their haunts; or tobacco water, which has been found effectual. They are averse to strong scents. Camphor, or a sponge saturated with creosote, will prevent their infesting a cupboard. To prevent their climbing up trees, place a ring of tar about the trunk, or a circle of rag moistened occasionally with creosote.

To Prevent Moths.--In the month of April or May, beat your fur garments well with a small cane or elastic stick, then wrap them up in linen, without pressing them too hard, and put betwixt the folds some camphor in small lumps; then put your furs in this state in boxes well closed.

When the furs are wanted for use, beat them well as before, and expose them for twenty-four hours to the air, which will take away the smell of the camphor. If the fur has long hair, as bear or fox, add to the camphor an equal quant.i.ty of black pepper in powder.

To Get Rid of Moths-- 1. Procure shavings of cedar wood, and inclose in muslin bags, which can be distributed freely among the clothes.

2. Procure shavings of camphor wood, and inclose in bags.

3. Sprinkle pimento (allspice) berries among the clothes.

4. Sprinkle the clothes with the seeds of the musk plant.

5. To destroy the eggs, when deposited in woolen cloths, etc., use a solution of acetate of potash in spirits of rosemary, fifteen grains to the pint.

Bed Bugs.--Spirits of naphtha rubbed with a small painter's brush into every part of the bedstead is a certain way of getting rid of bugs. The mattress and binding of the bed should be examined, and the same process attended to, as they generally harbor more in these parts than in the bedstead. Ten cents' worth of naphtha is sufficient for one bed.

Bug Poison.--Proof spirit, one pint; camphor, two ounces; oil of turpentine, four ounces; corrosive sublimate, one ounce. Mix. A correspondent says: "I have been for a long time troubled with bugs, and never could get rid of them by any clean and expeditious method, until a friend told me to suspend a small bag of camphor to the bed, just in the center, overhead. I did so, and the enemy was most effectually repulsed, and has not made his appearance since--not even for a reconnoissance!"

This is a simple method of getting rid of these pests, and is worth a trial to see if it be effectual in other cases.

Mixture for Destroying Flies--Infusion of qua.s.sia, one pint; brown sugar, four ounces; ground pepper, two ounces. To be well mixed together, and put in small, shallow dishes when required.

To Destroy Flies in a room, take half a teaspoonful of black pepper in powder, one teaspoonful of brown sugar, and one tablespoonful of cream, mix them well together, and place them in the room on a plate, where the flies are troublesome, and they will soon disappear.

To Drive Flies from the House.--A good way to rid the house of flies is to saturate small cloths with oil of sa.s.safras and lay them in windows and doors. The flies will soon leave.

Aging Oak.--Strong ammonia fumes may be used for aging oak. Place the piece to be fumed, with an evaporating dish containing concentrated ammonia, in a box, and close it airtight. Leave for 12 hours and finish with a wax polish, applying first a thin coat of paraffine oil and then rubbing with a pomade of prepared wax made as follows: Two ounces each of yellow and white beeswax heated over a slow fire in a clean vessel (agate ware is good) until melted. Add 4 oz. turpentine and stir till entirely cool. Keep the turpentine away from the fire. This will give the oak a l.u.s.trous brown color, and nicking will not expose a different surface, as the ammonia fumes penetrate to a considerable depth.

OPPORTUNITY.

They do me wrong who say I come no more When once I've knocked and failed to find you in; For every day I stand outside your door, And bid you wake and ride, to fight and win.

Wail not for precious chances pa.s.sed away, Weep not for golden ages on the wane; Each night I burn the records of the day; At sunrise every soul is born again.

Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped; To vanished hopes be blind and deaf and dumb; My judgments seal the dead past with its dead, But never bind a moment yet to come.

Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep: I lend my arm to all who say. "I can."

No shamefaced outcast ever sank so deep But yet might rise and be again a man!

Dost thou behold thy lost youth all aghast?

Dost reel from righteous retribution's blow?

Then turn from blotted archives of the past.

And find the future's pages white as snow.

Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell!

Art thou a sinner? Sins may be forgiven; Each morning gives thee wings to flee from h.e.l.l.

Each night a star to guide to Heaven!

--Walter Maloney.