until the solder melts, and thereby the foil becomes
firmly united with the iron. Whichever of these
methods you adopt, as soon as the silver is united
to the iron, you must then at once proceed to polish
it, which is done by taking a piece of coarse cloth,
dipping it in whiting, previously dampened with alcohol,
and rubbing it over the surface until it is well polished.
If at any time, as sometimes will happen, the plate
of silver becomes stained so that you cannot polish
it, wet it with the fluid, put another plate of silver
foil over it, and proceed to fasten it to the iron
as you did with the first plate,then polish it with
the whiting, &c. Some merely spit on the whiting
instead of dampening it with the alcohol, but it is
not so speedy a method. A friend of mine prefers
heating the iron, then applying the soldering fluid,
then the coat of solder, and then laying on the silver
foil, and pressing on by means of a cloth, which he
does by taking a piece of cloth about four inches wide
and eight or ten inches long, catching one end in
each hand and pressing and rubbing it from side to
side, and round the article until the silver foil
is firmly united, and then polishing as mentioned above.
Some prefer plating the iron first with tin foil, then
covering the tin with silver foil, and it is a good
plan. A very good plan, if it is plane work (not
carved) you are doing, is to take a piece of board
one or two inches wide, and six or eight inches long,
and lay it over the cloth you are polishing with,
which gives you a greater purchase. I never knew
this receipt to be sold for less than from $24 to
$60.
TO ALL WHO HAVE PURCHASED THIS WORK
You are now in possession of about all the latest and most useful receipts that are in the country; many of which are now being sold, frequently, for from $5 to $10 and $20 each; and if you will now be wise, do that which will be to your own interest, allow no man to see this work, but keep the receipts profoundly secret, except as you sell them. You may dispose of enough of them, written off, every year you have the book, to amount to twenty times the price of it.