46.  White ink for writing on black paper

Having carefully washed some egg shells remove the internal skin and grind them on a piece of porphyry, then put the powder in a small vessel of pure water, and when it has settled at the bottom, draw off the water and dry the powder in the sun.  This powder must be preserved in a bottle; when you want to use it put a small quantity of gum ammoniac into distilled vinegar, and leave it to dissolve during the night, next morning the solution will appear exceedingly white, and if you then strain it through a piece of linen cloth, and add to it the powder of egg shells in sufficient quantity, you will obtain a very white ink.

47.  Secret ink for young ladies and gents

Take a drachm of clean rain water, put into it, in a clean vial, 10 or 12 drops of pure, clean sulphuric acid, and it is ready for use; write with this using a clean quill pen on letter paper, and when dry you can see no mark at all, then hold it to a strong heat and the writing becomes as black as jet.  If you want to write to a young lady or gentleman, as the case may be, and fearing that the letter might be opened before she or he gets it, write with common black ink something of no importance, then between the lines write what you want to say with the secret ink.  The person to whom you are writing must understand the scheme so that she or he may hold it to the heat and thereby make the writing visible.

48.  Cider without apples

To each gallon of cold water put 1 lb. common sugar, 1/2 ounce of tartaric acid, one tablespoonful of yeast, shake well, make in an evening and it will be fit for use next day.  I make in a keg a few gallons at a time, leaving a few quarts to make into next time, not using yeast again until the keg needs rinsing.  If it gets a little sour, make a little more into it or put as much water with it as there is cider and put it with the vinegar.  If it is desired to bottle this cider by manufacturers of small drinks, you will proceed as follows:  put in a barrel 5 gallons of hot water, 30 lbs. of brown sugar, 3/4 lb. of tartaric acid, 25 gallons of cold water, 3 pints of hop or brewer’s yeast, work into paste with 3/4 lb. of flower, and one pint water will be required in making this paste; put all together in a barrel which it will fill and let it work 24 hours, the yeast running out at the bung all the time by putting in a little occasionally to keep it full; then bottle, putting in two or three broken raisins to each bottle, and it will nearly equal champagne.

49.  Spruce or aromatic beer

Take 3 gallons of water, 2-1/2 pints molasses, 3 eggs well beaten, 1 gill yeast, put into two quarts of the water boiling hot, put in 50 drops of any oil you wish the flavour of, or mix one ounce each, oil sarsafras, spruce, and wintergreen; then use the 50 drops.  For ginger flavour take 2 ounces ginger root bruised and a few hops, and boil for 30 minutes in one gallon of the water, strain and mix all; let it stand 2 hours and bottle, using yeast, of course, as before.