Excerpt from The Principles and Practice of Dipping, Burnishing, Lacquering and Bronzing Brass Ware Screws, tin, and similar metals, must be carefully kept apart and treated by themselves, on no account being allowed to come into contact later with the dipping acid, and the whole of the brass work must, if very dirty or greasy, as they probably will be if gasfittings, lamps, or vases, be placed in a strong liquor or lye made of potash, and be boiled up therein till all dirt has been removed and the metal is clean. When this is so, take them out, rinse in hot water, and let them dry. With the exception of spun pieces, which would speedily melt away, the pieces must now be an nealed, that is, made red-hot, being careful not to bring the metal to a white heat, on a coke fire, and it is here that the forge and bellows will be found very useful. This annealing process makes the metal soft and the more amenable to the burnisher, while it also removes all dirt, etc. A pure coal fire must not be employed for annealing. If not very dirty, the work can be annealed without being previously boiled up; but if at all dirty, the metal should be boiled up, as the annealing, without the boiling, is apt to burn small particles of dirt into the brass, which are afterwards extremely difficult. To remove. Therefore, for the sake of a 'little more trouble, time, and expense, it is better to both boil and anneal all work when possible. Of course my readers will understand that it is only cast or wrought work which can be annealed, as the spun work before alluded to will speedily collapse, as will also the other varieties if the greatest care is. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.