Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume II

About this book

Cooley’s Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information, Sixth Edition, Volume II, is a sprawling reference work that gathers formulas, recipes, and technical instructions for a wide range of crafts, from lithographic inks to indelible marking fluids. The opening pages set the tone with a meticulous transcriber’s note that explains the book’s structure, the need for a monospaced font to preserve the alignment of tables, and the conventions used to indicate italics, bold, superscripts, and subscripts. From there the text launches into a series of detailed preparations, beginning with recipes for mastic‑based inks and proceeding to elaborate chemical formulations for silver nitrate, gold chloride, and aniline‑based pigments. Each entry is presented as a numbered recipe, complete with precise measurements, procedural steps, and occasional observations on handling and safety, reflecting the book’s purpose as a practical supplement to contemporary pharmacopoeias and trade manuals.

The voice is that of a late‑Victorian technical manual, dense with laboratory terminology and punctuated by parenthetical citations to contemporary chemists such as J. B. Reade and Dingler. The style is straightforward, instruction‑driven, and assumes familiarity with basic chemical apparatus and the trades it serves. Readers who enjoy historical chemistry, antique printing techniques, or the meticulous craft of 19th‑century artisans will find this volume a rewarding portal into the practical knowledge that underpinned industrial arts of the era.