3600. Silvering' Powder

3600.      Silvering' Powder. Employed for silver coating dial plates, statuettes, and other articles of copper, and covering the worn parts of plated goods, previously well cleaned, by friction. They are made into a paste with a little water, for use.

3601. To Make Silvering Powder

3601.     To Make Silvering Powder. Rub together to a fine powder 20 grains fine silver dust (see No. 3217 (Silver Dust)), 30 grains alum, 1 drachm common salt, and 3 drachms cream of tartar; 35 grains of nitrate of silver may be substituted for the silver dust. Or: Dissolve chloride of silver in a solution of hyposulphite of soda, and make into a paste with levigated burnt hartshorn or bone dust; dry and powder it. Or: mix 1 ounce silver dust, 4 ounces each of common salt and sal-ammoniac, and 1/4 ounce corrosive sublimate. In using the last, copper utensils are previously boiled with tartar and alum, and rubbed with this paste, then made red-hot, afterwards polished. Lastly: A good silvering powder may be made as follows: dissolve chloride of silver in a solution of hyposulphite of soda, and mix this with prepared hartshorn or other suitable powder.

3602. Novargent

3602.    Novargent. This is said to consist of a solution of fresh precipitate chloride of silver in hyposulphite of soda (or, according to the Pharmaceutical Journal, of oxide of silver in cyanide of potassium), mixed with prepared chalk.

3603. Silvering Paste

3603.    Silvering Paste. Nitrate of silver, 1 part; cyanide of potassium (Liebig's), 3 parts; water sufficient to form a thick paste. Apply it with a rag. A bath for the same purpose is made by dissolving 100 parts of sulphite of soda, and 15 of nitrate of silver, in water, and dipping the article to be silvered into it.

3604. Silvering Solution

3604.    Silvering Solution. Prepare a solution of 1 part cyanide of potassium in 6 parts water; add it to a concentrated aqueous solution of nitrate of silver (free from acid) until the precipitate is redissolved. Mix this solution with fine chalk, and apply after previous cleaning of the objects.

3605. Non-poisonous Silvering Fluid

3605.   Non-poisonous Silvering Fluid. Nitrate of silver, 80 parts; dissolve in distilled water, 36 parts; add sal-ammoniac, 40 parts; hyposulphite of soda, 160 parts; and lastly, whiting, 160 parts. Apply in the usual way.

3606. Silver Plating Fluid

3606.    Silver Plating Fluid. Dissolve 1 ounce crystals of nitrate of silver in 12 ounces soft water. Then dissolve in the water 2 ounces cyanide of potassium. Shake the whole together and let it stand till it becomes clear. Have ready some half-ounce phials, and fill them half full of Paris white, or fine whiting, and then fill up the bottles with the liquid, and it is ready for use. The whiting does not increase the coating power; it only helps to clean the articles, and to save the silver fluid by half filling the bottles. This is the preparation commonly vended by peddlers.