posted 09-22-2015 05:55 PM            

I assume quicksilver is mercury. I wonder what killed quicksilver is?

The New London Cookery and Complete Domestic Guide. By a Lady
1827
pg 803

Plate Powder.

In most of the articles sold as plate powders, under a variety of names, there is an injurious mixture of quicksilver, which is said sometimes so far to penetrate and render silver brittle, that it will even break with a fall. Whitening, properly purified from sand, applied wet, and rubbed till dry, is one of the easiest, safest, and certainly the cheapest of all plate powders: jewellers and silversmiths, for small articles, seldom use any thing else. If, however, the plate be boiled a little in water, with an ounce. of calcined hartshorn in powder to about three pints of water, then (drained over the vessel in which it was boiled, and afterwards dried by the fire, while some soft linen rags are boiled in the liquid, till they have wholly imbibed it, these rags will, when dry, not only assist to clean the plate, which must afterwards he rubbed bright with leather, but also serve admirably for cleaning brass locks, finger-plates, 61c.

Another way.—

Eight ounces of whitening dried and sifted; one ounce of killed quicksilver. Beat them together in a mortar with a sufficient quantity of spirit of wine to bring them to a consistency. The powder to be rubbed well on with the band and cleaned of with a soft wash leather.

posted 09-22-2015 06:35 PM            

quote:

---

The Scientific American Cyclopedia of Receipts, Notes and Queries
1901
pg 117

To Clean Silver

1. Silver articles discolored by sulphureted hydrogen may be cleaned by rubbing them with a boiling saturated solution of borax. Another good preparation is a solution of caustic potash with some bits of metallic zinc.
2. Silver which has become much tarnished may be restored by immersion in a warm solution of 1 part cyanide of potassium to 8 parts of water. This mixture is extremely poisonous.) Washing well with water, and drying, will produce a somewhat dead-white appearance, which may be quickly changed to a brilliant luster by polishing with a soft leather and rouge.
3. Wash in hot soapsuds (use the silver soap If convenient); then clean with a paste of whiting and whisky. Polish with buckskin. If silver was always washed in hot suds, rinsed well, and wiped dry, it would seldom need anything else.
4. A fresh concentrated solution of hyposulphite of soda will dissolve at once the coat of sulphide of silver, which is the cause of the blackness produced by mustard, eggs, etc., or anything containing sulfur.
5. Add gradually 8 oz. of prepared chalk to a mixture of 2 oz. of spirits of turpentine, 1 oz. of alcohol, Hi oz. of spirits of camphor, and 2 drm. of aqua ammonia. Apply with a soft sponge, and allow it to dry before polishing.

Silver Cleaning Compound

1. Ammonium carbonate, 1 oz.; water, 4 oz.; Paris white, 16 oz.: mix well, and apply by means of soft leather.
2. Rouge (very fine) and prepared chalk, equal parts; use dry.
3. Whiting (line), 2 pt.; white oxide of tin, 1 pt.; calcined hartshorn, 1 pt.

To Remove Yellow Coating from Silver Spoons

1. Dissolve 1 oz. cyanide of potassium in 1 qt. of soft water and you will nave a dip in which you can wash your spoons and instantly remove the sulphide of silver. The solution must be kept in a bottle that is tightly corked and labeled " poison."
2. Egg spoons get tarnished by the sulphur in the egg uniting with the silver. This tarnish is a sulphuret of silver, and may be removed by rubbing with wet salt or ammonia.
3. It may be exposed to uniform heat, and then boiled in strong alum water.

To Remove Ink Stain from Silver

Make a paste of chloride of lime and water and rub upon the stains.

To Restore the Color to Silver Jewelry (Filigree)

How can the original white color of silver filigree jewelry be restored when tarnished by wear or shop worm? A. First wash the articles in a solution of 1 fl. oz. of liquid potassa in 20 of water, rinse, and then immerse in a mixture of salt, 1 part; alum, 1 part; saltpeter, 2 parts: dissolved in 4 parts water. Let them remain for live minutes; wash in cold water and dry with chamois leather.

To Remove Silver Nitrate Stains

1. In the manipulation of the nitrate of silver buth solutions in photography, the operator frequently receives stains of the salt upon his clothing, which are not very attractive in appearance. Stains or marks of any kind made with the above silver solution or bath solution may be promptly removed from the clothing by simply wetting the stain or mark with absolution of bichromate of mercury. The chemical result is the change of the black-looking nitrate of silver into chromate of silver, which is whiter or invisible on the cloth. Bichromate of mercury cun be obtained at the drug stores.
2. Sodium sulphite, 1 oz.; chloride of lime, 1/2 oz.; water, 2 oz. Mix. Use a nail brush.
3. Dip the fingers into a strong solution of eupric chloride. In about a minute the silver will be converted into a chloride, and may then be washed off with hyposulphate of soda solution.
4. The immediate and repeated application of a very weak solution of cyanide of potassium (accompanied by thorough rinsing in clean water) will generally remove these without injury to the colors.

How to Remove Nitrate of Silver Stains from the Fingers

5. Paint the blackened parts with tincture of iodine; let remain until the black becomes white. The skin will then be red. but by applying ammonia the iodine will be bleached, leaving white instead of black stains of nitrate of silver.
6. Nitrate of silver stains may be removed by rubbing them with a weak solution of sulphudrate of ammonium or strong solution of iodide of potassium.

---

posted 09-23-2015 12:27 AM            

Whiting is finely powdered white chalk and has the chemical name calcium carbonate. I have some that I use for when I make stained glass pieces to give to friends. After you assemble your stained glass pieces with the lead cames and grout it in tightly, you then scrub it with some whiting which is relatively non-abrasive that not only polishes the glass and lead and copper, but it blots up any oil or flux or other stuff you used in making the stained glass window or object. Or if you want to be traditional like in the days before you could go to your local store and buy glazing putty you can make old time stained glass window cement by mixing whiting with linseed oil and a small amount of white spirits (to be a drying agent) and perhaps a dash of carbon black if you want to tint it grey. Knowing this old recipe with whiting is useful if you need to repair some old stained glass window or object or such.

Yes, you are correct that quicksilver is the old name for mercury. And yes it is really, really dangerous and you should never get near it. It is mainly the mercury vapor that is the poison.

Killed quicksilver is a new one on me. I found a Stanford article on the hazards of mercury and it mentions that killed quicksilver is the name for oxidized mercury and that it is a bit less toxic than pure mercury, but not by that much.

posted 09-23-2015 08:39 AM            

Kimo your profound knowledge and a proficiency in what seems like all things is a wonder.