The artists repository and drawing magazine: exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches (2.1788)

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the flowers of rofes, violets, &c. A yellow Me is alfo
made from broom-flowers thus: make a lye of pot-afhes
and lime ; in this, boil over a gentle fire, frefh broom-
flowers till the lye has extracted all their colour ; then
boil the lye in earthen veffels, adding as much alum as
the liquor will diffolve; empty this lye into a veffel of
clean water, and the yellow colour will fall to the bot-
tom. Let all fettle, and decant it; wafh the powder
till the falts of the lye are warned off; then feparate the
yellow matter, and dry it in the made. Lake is at pre-
fent feldom prepared from any other fubftance than fcar-
let rags, cochineal, or Brazil wood. The beft of what
is commonly fold is made of the colour extracted from
fcarlet rags, and depofited on the cuttle-fifh bone; this
is prepared thus: diffolve a pound of the beft pearl-
afhes in two quarts of water, and filter the liquor ; add
to this folution two more quarts of water and a pound
of clean fcarlet fhreds \ boil them in a pewter boiler,
till the fhreds have loft their colour ; take out the fhreds,
prefs them, and put the coloured water yielded by them
to the other : in the fame folution boil another pound of
fhreds; and likewife a third, and fourth pound. While
this is doing, diffolve a pound and a half of cuttle-fifti
bone in a pound of ftrong aqua-fortis in a glafs recei-
ver ; adding more bone, if it produces any ebullition
in the aqua-fortis. Pour this ftrained folution gradually
into the other. The crimfon fediment depofited by the
liquor is the lake: pour off the water : and ftir the lake
in two gallons of hard fpring water, and mix the fe-
diment in two gallons of frefh water; repeated four or
five times. If no hard water can be procured, or the

H lake