Iron Stains.—To remove iron stains or mold from leaves of books or pa per, apply a solution of sulphate of potash and follow with a saturated solution of oxalic acid.
To Clean Books.—To clean paper or books that have become soiled by handling, rub with a soft piece of stale bread to take off loose dirt, lay over the page a piece of clean blot ting paper moistened in a saturated solution of citric, tartaric, or oxalic acid, and go over this with a hot iron. Do not use enough of the solution to wet the page, but simply moisten the leaf of the book with the acid.
To Remove Fruit Stains.—Hold the stain over an inverted cone or funnel filled with the fumes of sulphurous acid gas from a burning brimstone match or a bit of sulphur. Remove stains from the edges of book leaves by means of fine sandpaper.
To Clean Prints.—Fasten prints or engravings to a board and by means of a camel's-hair brush wash with dilute carbonate of ammonia (one ounce to a pint of water). Rinse with fresh water, turn, and repeat the process on the opposite side. Dip the paper in a solution of one ounce of white wine vinegar and a teaspoonful of chloride of lime to a pint of water. Rinse with clear water and expose to direct sunshine. This process will clear up the background without in j uring the print.
Or, to dean prints that are merely spotted with water, dip them in clear water, or let them lie in running water until saturated. Pin them to a board and expose them to direct sun shine.
To Restore Faded Manuscripts.— To restore old manuscripts, which are usually written in iron-gall inks, ap ply by means of a soft brush a satu rated solution of ferrocyanide of pot ash in water, and copy the writing as soon as it appears, as it will again fade.
Or boil gallnuts in alcohol and ap ply by means of a sponge or brush.
To Mend Torn Book Pages.—Clip two narrow strips of tracing paper long enough to cover the tear and apply them on either side the page by means of Japanese rice cement, which is a paste made of boiled rice starch. Both the paper and the paste being transparent the tear, if skillfully mended, will not be noticeable and will not interfere with the use of the volume.
To remove creases, put the sheet between two pieces of white unsized paper, or blotting paper slightly dampened, and smooth with a warm flatiron when the crease comes out.
To Freshen Bookbindings. — Rub with a soft piece of stale bread or a piece of chamois slightly moistened and dipped in pulverized pumice stone. To restore calf bindings, dissolve one ounce of pure white glue in a pint of warm water, add a teaspoonful of glycerine and a tablespoonful of rice or flour paste. Apply by means of a soft brush and polish with a chamois skin slightly dampened.
List of Books.—Have a list or cata logue of even the smallest collection of books. This may be kept alpha betically, by setting apart one or more pages of a blank book for each letter in the alphabet. When lending a book make a memorandum on a slip of pa per of the date and name of the bor rower, and slip it into the leaves of the catalogue. It is a pleasure to lend books, but not to lose them. Thus you will always know where your books are, and can ask for them if they are not returned within a reasonable time.
To Handle Books.—To open a new book, first cut the leaves by means of a blunt paper cutter or other straight edge. Do not use scissors or other sharp edge for this purpose, as a cut ting edge may slip and injure the page. Then rest the book on a flat surface, steady it upright with the left hand, let one cover fall to the right, and with the right hand open the leaves a few at a time, smoothing them gently until the middle of the book is reached. Turn it around, let the other cover fall, and repeat the process until the other half of the leaves have been opened. This flexes the back of the book equally, causes it to open freely, and prevents break ing the backbone of the book by open ing it suddenly and violently in one place. Cheap and poorly bound books, if carefully opened by this method, will often stand a lifetime of ordinary wear.