Originally printed in 1914, scanning and copyright expiration has made possible the revival of Henley’s Twentieth Century Formulas, Recipes And Processes, Containing Ten Thousand Selected Household And Workshop Formulas, Recipes, Processes And Moneymaking Methods For The Practical Use Of Manufacturers, Mechanics, Housekeepers And Home Workers. In the good old days, you could take “Henley’s” off the shelf and find directions for making:

Speculum metal – 68.21% copper, 31.79% tin. (Doesn’t say if it’s percent by weight or volume; all other metal alloys are listed in “parts” rather than “percent”, so I wonder if it’s a typo).

Remedy for fetid breath: 1 part potassium permanganate, 10 parts distilled water. (that would probably do it, although I wonder what color your teeth would be afterward?)

Chewing gum: 122 parts chicle, 42 parts paraffin, 4 parts balsam of Tolu, 384 parts sugar, 48 parts water. (balsam of Tolu is some sort of congealed Peruvian tree sap).

Tooth powder: Precipitated chalk 1 pound, White castile soap 1 ounce, Florentine orris 2 ounces, sugar 1 ounce, oil of wintergreen 1 ounce.

Blasting powder: chlorate of potash 1 part, chromate of potash 0.1 part, sugar 0.45 parts, yellow wax 0.09 parts. (The editor advises caution when experiment with explosives, especially nitroglycerin. The text did answer an old question I had; many of the old mining textbooks I read when I was doing environmental cleanups mentioned “giant powder” without saying what it was. It turns out to be black powder saturated with nitroglycerin).

Hair dye: nitrate of silver ½ ounce, in 3 ounces of distilled water; with a mordant of sulphuret of potassium ½ ounce in 3 ounces of distilled water.

Bedbug destroyers: the editors recommend liquid preparations, since you can pour them into cracks. 1 drachm oil of pennyroyal, turpentine 8 ounces, enough kerosene oil to make one gallon. (I’m not sure if “kerosene oil” is just kerosene or something more exotic).

Frangipanni perfume: 10 grains musk, 25 minims sandal otto, 45 minims rose otto, 30 minims orange flower otto, 3 minims vetivert otto, ½ ounce powdered orris rhizome, 30 grains vanilla, 80% alcohol 10 fluid ounces. Digest for a month. (I assume “otto” is somehow related to “attar” as in “attar of roses”. I also expect “Digest for a month” doesn’t mean internally).

And so on for 807 pages. Many of the formulas include things that would probably get you a visit from Homeland Security if you attempted to acquire them nowadays – fuming nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, benzene, carbon disulfide. There are also a lot of obscure botanicals – the aforementioned “balsam of Tolu” and “vetivert otto”, for example, although a little googling discloses that all of these I bothered to check are available from various sites specializing in “natural” products. The book is organized by general class of substance; for example, the “tooth powder” I mentioned was just one of several pages under the heading “Dentifrices”. There is a good index, but no table of contents – thus you have to leaf through looking at chapter headings to see what might apply to your case. The most glaring flaw in reproduction is that the page setup is off by one – i.e., odd numbered pages are on the left and even numbered are on the right; this, in turn, puts the page numbers on the inside of the pages rather than the outside. The original came from the University of California library system and their imprint is still visible here and there, but doesn’t interfere with readability. Might actually be fun to mess around with some of the preparations, although I’d stay away from things like silver fulminate and hydrofluoric acid glass etching solution.… (más)

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setnahkt | 6 reseñas más. | Dec 11, 2017 |

Horseless vehicles, Automobiles, motor cycles… por Gardner Dexter Hiscox

Excellent early look at automobiles and how they are made and work at the turn of the century. Has a few photos, of poor quality, plus a lot of illustrations and line drawings of early vehicles. But aimed at a mechanic, so lots fo details abotu the engines, steering, brakes, etc.

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SteveJohnson | Jul 28, 2013 |

Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas Processes and… por Hiscox Gardner D

I love this book, because it teaches you how to mix up everything from Antiseptic Nervine Ointment and Douche Powder for Women to Horse Embrocations and Liniments, Hair Restoration Rubrefacients, Mustache Fixing Liquid, Macerated Brandy Bitters, Slug Poison, Varnish Remover, Hydraulic Cement, and Cashmere Nosegay Perfume. Oh, boy!

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adgnyc | 6 reseñas más. | Apr 1, 2011 |

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