Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume II

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

41957

Title

Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume II

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

A comprehensive reference volume offering practical recipes for arts, manufactures, and professions. It serves as a supplement to pharmacopoeias, providing detailed instructions for manufacturing inks, powders, medicines, and chemical preparations for manufacturers, tradesmen, and heads of families.

Summary up to 500 words

Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades, Volume II, serves as an exhaustive manual for the manufacturer, tradesman, amateur, and head of families. Compiled by Arnold James Cooley and Richard Vine Tuson, this volume functions as a comprehensive supplement to the Pharmacopœia, offering detailed instructions for a vast array of practical applications ranging from chemical arts to domestic economy. The text is organized into distinct sections covering inks, powders, and various chemical preparations, emphasizing safety, utility, and historical context. A significant portion of the volume is dedicated to the preparation of inks. It details formulas for lithographic inks, which allow for the drawing of lines of varying thickness without spreading, and marking inks designed to be indelible. The book provides specific recipes for creating marking inks using silver nitrate, gold chloride, and aniline, noting that these substances react with specific preparations to produce permanent black marks on fabric. It also covers the creation of red and purple inks derived from natural sources such as Brazil wood, logwood, and cochineal, as well as the preparation of sepia and silver inks. The text includes warnings regarding the dangers of fulminating silver in certain formulations and advises on the proper handling of these chemical agents. The pharmaceutical section offers extensive guidance on medicinal powders. It addresses the preparation of classic remedies such as Dover's powder, a powerful sudorific used for inflammatory affections and colds, and James's powder, a controversial nostrum with a disputed original formula involving tartarised antimony. The volume also details recipes for compound powders like Jalap, Kino, and various emmenagogue and diuretic mixtures. A recurring theme throughout these sections is the issue of adulteration and fraud; the authors caution readers against lazy dispensers who substitute genuine extracts with inferior mixtures or mislabel common substances as proprietary medicines. The text explicitly warns about the toxicity of certain ingredients, such as arsenic in fly powder and escharotic powders, urging extreme caution in their use, particularly in households with children. Beyond chemistry and medicine, the book covers domestic and cosmetic applications. It provides recipes for hair powders, scented powders made from reindeer moss, and disinfecting agents. The text also includes instructions for fumigating powders and cosmetic preparations like hand powders and custard powders. Throughout, the tone is one of practical instruction mixed with a critical eye toward the commercial practices of the era, aiming to equip the reader with the knowledge to verify the quality of goods and prepare effective remedies themselves.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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Categories

• Science
• Technology
• Industrial arts