Bronzing of polished iron

—The barrels of fowling-pieces and rifles are occasionally bronzed and varnished, to relieve the eye of the sportsman from the glare of a polished metal, and to protect the surface from rusting. The liquid used for browning the barrels is made by mixing nitric acid of specific gravity 1·2, with its own weight of spirit of nitric ether, of alcohol, and tincture of muriate of iron; and adding to that mixture, a quantity of sulphate of copper equal in weight to the nitric acid and ethereous spirit taken together. The sulphate must be di olved in water before being added; and the whole being diluted with about 10 times its weight of water, is to be bottled up for use. This liquid must be applied by friction with a rag to the clear barrel, which must then be rubbed with a hard brush; proce es to be alternated two or three times. The barrel should be afterwards dipped in boiling water, rendered feebly alkaline with carbonate of potash or soda, well dried, burnished, and heated slightly for receiving several coats of tin-smith’s lacquer, consisting of a solution of shellac in alcohol, coloured with dragon’s blood.