Читать книгу A Manual of Mending and Repairing; With Diagrams онлайн

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The value of this book will appear to any one who knows how little really good repairing there is in Europe. Since writing the foregoing pages I have gone through the galleries of the Vatican and many other museums, and been amazed at the coarse, ignorant, and bungling manner in which the great majority of antique statues and other objects of immense value have been mended up. There is in most cases no pretence whatever to conceal the lines of repair, and when this has been attempted it has failed through ignorance of recipes and instructions which may be found in this work.

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“There are full many admirable and practical recipes (Hausmitteln), which are often known only in certain families.”—Die Natürliche Magie. By Johann C. Wiegleb, 1782.

The art of mending or of repairing may be broadly stated as being effected, firstly, by mechanical processes, such as those employed by carpenters in nailing and joining, in embroidery with the needle, and in metal-work with clumps, or soldering; and, secondly, by chemical means. The latter consist of cements and adhesives, which are, however, effectively the same thing. This glue, or gum, is an adhesive or sticker; that is, a simple substance which causes two objects to adhere. The same, when combined with powder of chalk or glass, would be a Cement. This latter term is again applied somewhat generally and loosely by many, not only to all adhesives, but also more correctly to all soft substances which harden, such as Portland cement, mortar, and putty, and which are often used by themselves to form objects, such as “bricks” and castings; but these latter, having also the quality of acting as adhesives or stickers, are naturally regarded as being the same.