Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-06-01
A CHAPTER ON PASTES.
The Best Way to Make Them for Differ
emf PurDOSeS

ent Purposes.
The following are some useful recipes
for making paSteS of various kinds: Pa
per to wood-Gum arabic, ID ounce; pow
dered gum tragacanth, u ounce; water,
11h ounces: acetic acid. 20 drops If the
paper is good this paste will not stain it.
Give it one or two coats gum arabic as a
varnish.
Perpetual paste, or paste that will keep
several months, is made by dissolving a
teaspoonful of alum in quart of warm
water When cold, stir in flour to give
it the consistence of cream, beating out
all the Jumps. Then stir in as much
powdered roSin as will lie on a dime.
Have on the fire a teakettle of boiling
water. Pour the boiling water on the
mixture and stir constantly until it as
SumeS the conSiStence of mOlaSSeS This
will occur in few minutes. Pour out
into an earthen vessel to COOL then cover
and put in a cool place. When needed
take a portion and dilute with warm wa
ter.
Paste for Scrap Book-Equal quanti-
ties, say a small lump of each, of glue
and alum are dissolved in water Beat
I'D with flour until the mass is incOrpO-
rated together and quite smooth. then
add boiling water and stir we'll: This
will keep a long while in a cool place.
Postage Stamp Paste-The paste or
mucilage used by our government for
cumming postage stamps is made as fol-
lows: Two parts gum deXtrine, one part
acetic acid and five parts water are
added together and put into water
bath, dissolving the gum, after which one
part alcohol is added English postage
stamps are gummed with a potato-starch
paste.
Ordinary Starch of -Four Pastel is
best to prepare paste by trituratlng the
starch or -four with cold water until no
Jumps remain, and not too thick mass
r. into
inc water very slowly, with rapid STIR
ring, until the paste begins to form, as
indicated in the increase of transparency
and then rapidly adding the rest OF the
water (boiling) necessary for the paste.
Boiling the paste is very injurious, rend-
ering it less adhesive and liable to peel
off. Rye flour gives more adhesive paste
than starch or wheat flour, but 1T is too
strong or hard to spread for paper hang
ing; it is of a gray color also. Ihe adj
dition of little alum to the water with
which the paste is prepared renders It
more permanent, and the use or boiling
lime water instead of pure soft water
adds to its adhesiveness. An aqueous
extract of decomposed gluten, however,
affords the best paste, with starch by
Incorporating with the paste quantity
of turpentine equal in weight to half of
the starch employed, and stirring while
the paste is still hot, it will be rendered
more impervious to moisture, and at the
same time more adhesive.
A paste, very brilliant and adhesive,
and said to be superior to gum arabic,
may be made by dissolving caseine (pre-
cipitated from milk by acetic acid, and
washed with pure water) in a saturated
solution of borax.
A label gum that only requires moisten-
ing with saliva to af1ix to objects is made
from eleven parts (by weight of good
glue previously soaked in cold water un.
til soft seven parts gum arabic and
little rock candy, in ffty-six parts of wa
ter. subjected to a gentle heat, with con-
tinued stirring until the mess is uniform.
There are several substances useful for
adding to paste to keep it sweet. Among
these may be found essence of winter
green, hydronapthol dissolved in a little
alcohol), oil of cloves, oil of sassafrass
and carbolic acid. Alum also helps to
keep it, besides hardening or stiffening
it, Oil of pennyroyal added will keep
the flies away. Two grains of hydronap-
thol is sufficient for each pint of paste.
The oil essences may be Objectionable
sometimes. being liable to grease delicate
paper, but they give an agreeable per-
fume and keep the paste from souring.
Glutol added to common paste gives a
fine strong paste that keeps well and is
much used by paper-hangers in this man
ner.-Western Painter.