VARNISH. 



clear through a coarfe hair bag, piefiing it gently between 

 hot boards. This vamilh, mixed with ivory -black in fine 

 powder, is applied, in a hot room, on the dried paper pafte 

 of which the papier mdche is made ; which is then fet in a 

 gently heated oven, next day in a hotter oven, and the third 

 day in a very hot one, and let ftand each time till the oven is 

 grown cold. The pafte thus varnifhed is hard, durable, 

 g'loffy, and bears liquors hot or cold. Lewis's Com. Phil. 

 Techn. p. 367. 



An amber varnifli may be otherwife made by meltmg eight 

 ounces of Chio turpentine, and when fluid, pouring into it, 

 by degrees, a pound of fine powdered amber, and ftirring 

 it ; and when it is properly mixed, fetting it on a fire 

 for half an hour, taking it off, and ftirring it well, and 

 adding to it two ounces of the white colophony. It is 

 again to be put on a brifk fire, and covered clofe ; when 

 thamafs isperfeftly fluid, and taken off to cool, a pound of 

 linfeed or poppy oil, made drying, is to be poured in boiling 

 hot, and ftirred till it be incorporated with the mafs ; and 

 then a quart of hot turpentine is to be added, and the whole 

 well ftirred. Let it then cool, and ftrain it off for ufe ; when, 

 if it has been properly made, it will be quite clear. See 

 GlldING on Enamel and Glqfs. 



Vahnish, Blacky for japanning on wood or leather, is 

 prepared by mixing lamp-black or ivory-black with a proper 

 quantity of a ftrong folution of gum lac in fpirit of wine. 

 (See Japanning.) The lamp-black is commonly prefierred 

 to the ivory-black, on account of its uniting better with the 

 fluid, and working fmoother. The thicker part of the var- 

 nilh, which fettles at the bottom, is ufed with the lamp- 

 black for the firft coatings, and the mixture applied at dif- 

 ferent times, in a hot room, one layer after another, !S dry, 

 till a full body of colour is obtained ; after which, the piece 

 is waihed over in the fame manner feveral times, with the 

 finer part of the varnilh, juft tinged with the black, fo as to 

 make a coating of fufficient thicknefs to bear polifhing with 

 tripoU. Iron fnuff-boxes, mourning buckles, &c. are co- 

 loured black, by making them confiderably hot, and 

 applying on them in this ftate a thick mixture of lamp- 

 black, with a certain varnifh called gold-fize, confifting of 

 drying oil, turpentine, and the pigment called Naples yfel- 

 low ; but the yellow might be omitted, and the varnifh 

 formed at once by mixing lamp-black with a proper quantity 

 of turpentine and drying oil. The workmen, as Dr. Lewis 

 fays, frequently employ, as varnifli for metals, a mixture of 

 lamp-black, with the fcummings, &c. of different oil paints ; 

 the mixture is applied with a pencil, and the piece afterwards 

 baked in an oven with a heat fomewhat greater than is ufed 

 for the papier mdche. Naples yellow, a fuperfluous ingre- 

 dient in the black varnifli, is the bafis of the dark-brown 

 which we fee on fome iron fnuff-boxes ; this pigment 

 changing to a brown in baking with the varnifli. Lewis. 

 See Lacquer. 



The excellent black varnifli of China and Japan, which 

 has been hitherto but imperfeftly imitated in Europe, and 

 which was formerly tliought to be an artificial compofition 

 of refinous bodies coloured with black pigments, has been 

 difcovered by the later travellers into thofe countries, to be a 

 native juice, exuding from incifions made in the trunks of 

 certain trees. Mr. Miller, in confequence of a letter from 

 the abbe Mazeasto Dr. Hales, containing a communication 

 of the difcovery of a plant by the abbe de Sauvages, which 

 he calls toxicodendron CaroUnianum foliis pinnalis,Jloribus mini- 

 mis herbaeeis, and tlie black juice of which adheres, without 

 tlie leaft acrimony, to cloth with more force than any other 

 known preparation, takes occafion to fliew, that this Ame- 

 rican toxicodendron is the fame fpecies of plant fiom which 



the inhabitants of Japan procure the varnifli with which they 



ftain all their utenfils ; adding, that the Calicuts are alfo 

 painted v.-ith the juice of this ihrub. This American toxi- . 

 codendron (fee PoisoN-TVw) is the fame plant, as he affirms, 

 which is mentioned by Kxmpfer, in his Amcenitates Exotics, 

 by the title of arhor vernacifera legitima, folio pinnatojuglandit, 

 frudu racemofc ciccris facie ; i. e. the true varnifli -tree, with a 

 walnut-tree leaf, and a branching fruit like cicers. It is 

 called by the inhabitants of Japan ^///z, or lejit%-dsju, and 

 alfo urus, cr urus-noH. Ksempfer lias alfo dcfcribed the 

 wild or fpurious varnifli-tree, called /a//-no-;{i by the natives, i 

 which he fays agrees with the other in every part, except 

 that the lobes of the leaves are naiTower ; but Mr. Miller is 

 of opinion that this is a diftinft fpecies, if not a different I 

 genus, from the true fort ; and fays, that the varnifli yielded ' 

 by it is of tittle efteem. The account which the Jefuits at 

 China have given of the manner in which the varnifli is pro- 

 cured, is as follows : they firft flit the back of the branches 

 of the flirub, in different places, with a knife ; and thus 

 there flows out a white clammy juice, which is received into 

 wooden veffel ; and when thefe become dry, they tap the 

 ftems of the flirubs near the roots, fo that all the juice is 

 drawn out of them. The flirubs are then cut down to the 

 ground, and from their roots new ftems arife, which in three 

 years will be fit for tapping. The juice turns black when 

 expofed to tiie air ; it heats without turning four ; but 

 being of a poifonous nature, it is dangerous to handle it. 

 This native varnifli wants hardly any preparation ; but if 

 any dirt fliould happen to mix with it, it is cleanfed by being 

 ftrained through coarfe gauze, put into wooden veffels, and 

 covered with an oil called toi, and a flcin, in order to prevent 

 its evaporating. In this ftate it is carried over to China 

 and Japan for fale. The flirub is chiefly cultivated in the 

 provinces of Tfi-kocko and Figo ; and the beft varnifli, 

 according to Ka^mpfer's account, is produced about the 

 city Jaflino ; but there is an ordinary fort of varnifli, called 

 nam-rai, brought from Siam, which is collected in the pro- 

 vince of Corfama, and in the kingdom of Cambodia, from 

 the tree anacardus, called by the inhabitants long, or lue-rai, 

 the fruit of which is called in our fliops anacardium. To 

 coUett this liquor, they bore a hole in the trunk, and infert 

 a tube. By this method they procure as much of it as is 

 fufficient, not only to varnifh all the utenfils of China, Ton- 

 quin, and Japan, but it is even exported in clofe wooden 

 veffels to Batavia, and other parts of India. This varnifh, 

 fays Kimpfer, is not only fold quite pure, but likewife 

 coloured, with Chinefe native cinnabar, and a kind of red 

 earth, which the Dutch formerly, but now the Chiaefc 

 bring them, and alfo with the materials of which they make 

 their common Japan ink. Mr. Ellis has controverted the 

 opinion of Mr. Miller, and endeavoured to fhew that the 

 American toxicodendron is not the fame with Kaempfer's 

 arbor vernicifcra legitima ; alleging, that Kxmpfer's de- 

 fcription of the true varnifh-tree does not agree with this 

 toxicodendron ; and he inclines to the opinion^ that the Ca- 

 rolina pinnated toxicodendron, or poifon-afli, is the fame 

 with the fiji-no-li, or fpurious varnifli-tree of Kaempfer. 

 Mr. Elhs alfo thinks it is not improbable, that the varnilh 

 mentioned bv Kaempfer, as obtained from the oriental ana- 

 cardium, IS the fame with that mentioned by father d'ln- 

 carville, in the Phil. Tranf. vol. xlviii. p. 254, called toeng- 

 yeou ; which is fo univerfally ufed in China for preferving 

 and ornamenting their furniture. See this controverfy be- 

 tween Mr. Miller and Mr. ElHs at large, in Phil. Tranf. 

 vol. xlix. part i. p. 157 — 166. part ii. p. 806 — 876. vol. 1. 

 p. 4^0 — 456. See PoisoN-/r«, Linf.n, and Japanning. 

 Varnish, Bro-wHfftr Metals. See 5/aci Varnish, fupra. 



VaRNISHj 



