few drops of
rectified alcohol are added, and intimately mixed. Repeat the operation
until the varnish is of a sufficient consistency; leave the rest for a
few days, and decant the clear. This varnish can be applied to wood and
metals (_Journal of Applied Chemistry_).

=Seedlac Varnish.=--Wash 3 oz. of seedlac in several waters; dry it and
powder it coarsely. Dissolve it in one pint of rectified spirits of
wine; submit it to gentle heat, shaking it as often as convenient, until
it appears dissolved. Pour off the clear part, and strain the remainder.

=Patent Varnish for Wood or Canvas.=--Take 1 gallon spirits of
turpentine, 21/4 lbs. asphaltum. Put them into an iron kettle on a
stove, and dissolve the gum by heat. When it is dissolved and a little
cool, add 1 pint copal varnish and 1 pint boiled linseed-oil. When
entirely cool it is ready for use. For a perfect black add a little
lamp-black.

=Copal Varnish.=--Dissolve the copal, broken in pieces, in linseed-oil,
by digestion, the heat being almost sufficient to boil the oil. The oil
should be made drying by the addition of quick-lime. This makes a
beautiful transparent varnish. It should be diluted with oil of
turpentine; a very small quantity of copal, in proportion to the oil,
will be found sufficient.

=Carriage Varnish.=--Take 19 oz. gum sandarach, 91/2 oz. orange
shellac, 121/2 oz. white resin, 18 oz. turpentine, 5 pints alcohol.
Dissolve and strain. Use for the internal parts of carriages and similar
purposes. This varnish dries in ten minutes.

=Transparent Varnish.=--Take 1 gallon alcohol, 2 lbs. gum sandarach, 1/2
lb. gum mastic. Place them in a tin can. Cork tight and shake
frequently, placing the can in a warm place. When dissolved it is ready
for use.

=Crystal Varnish for Maps, etc.=--Mix together 1 oz. Canada balsam and 2
oz. spirits of turpentine. Before applying this varnish to a drawing or
a painting in water-colours the paper should be placed on a stretcher,
sized with a thin solution of isinglass in water, and dried. Apply the
varnish with a soft camel's-hair brush.

=A Black Varnish.=--Mix a small quantity of gas-black with the brown
hard varnish previously mentioned. The black can be obtained by boiling
a pot over a gas-burner, so that it almost touches the burner, when a
fine jet-black will form at the bottom, which remove and mix with the
varnish, and apply with a brush.

=A Black Polish= can be made in the same way: af