Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1892 — THINGS WORTH KNOWING. [ARTICLE]

THINGS WORTH KNOWING.

To make awnings waterpoof, immerse first in a solution of soap, and repeat the process in a copper solution of equal strength ;then wash and dry. Felt bats are dyed by repeated immersion, drawing and dipping in a hat watery solution of logwood thir-ty-eight parts, green vitriol, 3 parts; verdigris, 2 parts. Repeat the immersion and drawing with exposure to the air from twelve to fifteen times according to the depth of color wanted. Each immersion takes from ten to fifteen minutes. For a stiffening dissolve borax, 10 parts, corbonate of potash, 3 parts, in hot water; then add shellac, 50 parts, and boil until all is dissolved. Apply with a sponge or brush, or by immersing the hat when it is cold, and at once in very dilute sulphuric acid to neutralize the alkali and fix the shellaq. To bleach felt hat use sulphuric acid gas. A good, cheap paint for fences, sheds, etc., is made as follows: Take six pounds of melted pitch, one pint of linseed oil, and one pound of yellow ochre or brick dust. Mix till smooth. To make a little putty when one is out of the article and it is needed, simply moisten some Spanish or common whitiug with boiled oil. If you wish to keep it, and are not in a hurry to have it dry quickly, use raw linseed oil instead of the boiled. To stop the leakage of gas, turn off the gas back of the metre, then with a screw driver take out the plug Next light a wax, sperm orparrafine candle, and drop the melted material composing it upon the surface of the plug, until it is covered with a thin layer. Next screw in the taps and In nine cases out of ten the leak will not only be stopped, but remain stopped. To repair rubber hose cut the hose apart where it is defective, gfet two or three inches of iron pipe from a gasfitter, insert and twist the hose over it until the ends meet, when the hose should be snugly wrapped with strong twine, then waxed. The hose will then be as good as new. The best cement for an aquarium is 1 pint of litharge. 1 gill of plater of Eans, 1 gill of dry, white sand and alf a gill of finely powdered resin. Sift and keep corked tight until required for use. when it is to be made into putty t>y mixing in boiled oil and a little patent dryer added. Never use it after it has been mixed (with the oil) over fifteen minutes. This cement can be used for marine as well as fresh water aquaria, as it resists the action of salt water. The tanks can be used immediately, but it is much better if given a half day in which to dry. Another method is to mix any white lead or red lead into a paste with mastic varnish and use as soon as mixed. ‘ ' To purify water, "sprinkling - a teaspoonful of pulverized alum into a hogshead of water (the water stirred at the same time) will, after a few hours, by precipitating to the bottom the impure particles, so purify it that it will be found to possess nearly all the freshness of the finest spring water. A pail containing four gallons may be thoroughly purified by a single tempounful of alum.