To Clean Plate
Boil an ounce of prepared hartshorn powder in a quart of water. While on the fire, put into it as much plate as the vessel will hold; let it boil a little, then take it out, drain it over the saucepan, and dry it before the fire. Put in more, and serve the same, till you have done. Then put into the water some clean linen rags till all be soaked up. When dry, they will serve to clean the plate, and are the very best things to clean the brass locks and fingerplates of doors. When the plate is quite dry, it must be rubbed bright with leather.
This is a very nice mode.
Note. In many plate powders there is a mixture of quicksilver, which is very injurious; and, among other disadvantages, it makes silver so brittle, that from a fall it will break.