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.