On fainting Linen Cloth in Oil Colours . 98 
designed for paintings, for floor cloths, and for painted 
coverings within and without doors. I have no doubt of 
it being applied to many other purposes I am yet unac- 
quainted with ; as, from actual trials for near four years, 
I can vouch for its being a preservative to red, yellow, 
and black paints, when ground in oil and put in casks. 
When the paints were examined at the expiration of such 
time, they discovered no improper hardness ; but when 
laid on the work with a brush, they dried in a remarkable 
manner, without the addition of any of the usual drying 
articles. I still preserve some of these paints for future 
trials, and I believe this plan of preserving colours will 
be of essential use to colourmen, and other persons who 
purchase colours for exportation. The ingredient I use 
is perfectly simple, being a solution of yellow soap ; and 
the composition for painting is made in the following 
manner : 
To one pound of soap I add six pints of water in a ves- 
sel over the fire ; in a few minutes after the boiling of the 
Water the soap will dissolve ; whilst hot it is to he mixed 
with oil paint, prepared as hereafter directed, and is then 
fit for immediate use. The above quantity of soap solu- 
tion will be sufficient to mix with one hundred weight of 
paint. The first coat to be laid upon the canvass is to he 
entirely of this composition, without first wetting the can- 
vass in the usual way. A very small proportion of it, of 
none, is necessary in the second coat; and the third coat 
should be of oil paint alone. 
The method heretofore practised in his majesty’s dock- 
yards for painting canvass, was as follows : The canvass 
was first wet with water, then primed with Spanish brown ; 
a second coat given it. of a chocolate colour, made from 
Spanish brown and black paint; and, lastly, finished 
with black. This mode is destructive, and more expen- 
sive than mine in the proportion before mentioned. In 
