The lists below are our first attempt
to put this information into a coherent display. We hope to have it compiled into
a searchable database very soon. For now, we hope this will help you find the
things you're looking for. If you know of a source for something on this list,
or if you don't see the item you're looking for on this list at all, please email
us.
Available in spice section of grocery
stores Online Source: AmericanSpice.com
Aluminum
Oxide
Alumia
Aluminum
powder
Available at paint stores
and auto parts stores. Brand name: Black German Aluminum
Aluminum
Potassium Sulphate
Alum
Aluminum
Sulfate
Alum
Ammonium
Carbonate
Hartshorn,
baker's ammonia
Pungent crystals, often called
"smelling salts." This is hard to find. Try a specialty market or a mail
order catalogue (try D. P. Gumby Ammonium Carbonate Co., Theale-on-Line,
Berkshire, England.) Substitutes: double-acting baking powder.
Ammonium
Hydroxide
Ammonia
Available at grocery stores
as ammonia water and/or household glass cleaner
A soothing herb which forms
a protective coating over inflamed skin, reducing irritation and encourages
healing. Used in cosmetic applications for burns, and sores. Also burned
as incense. Online Source: www.theflowerpetal.com/herb.htm
Light weight, white powder
used as a base for body powder or thickening agent in cooking. Provides
an excellent, clear thickener. Can substitute cornstarch (use a bit more;
doesn't impart as glossy a finish), kuzu powder, tapioca starch, potato
starch, rice starch or flour. Online Sources: www.theflowerpetal.com/herb.htm Bostick
& Sullivan - under "Starch" Great
American Spice
Available at grocery stores.
Baking soda is an alkali, most often used as a leavening agent when you
are adding any acid (eg. buttermilk) to the batter of any baked goods. CO2
is produced and the batter will rise.
Bladderwrack
Ground to powder, often applied
to minor wounds to help with clotting. Online source: Altered
States Herbs
A white, crystalline, water-insoluble,
tasteless powder, CaCO3, occurring in nature in various forms, as calcite,
chalk, and limestone: used chiefly in dentifrices and polishes and in the
manufacture of lime and cement.
Calcium
Chloride
Used like rock salt, to melt
ice on roads and driveways. Also used in highway construction, paper industry.
Online Source: www.esvco.com/ESVPRICE.HTM
Used to provide that much sought-after
"chalky" texture for antacids, laxatives, diuretics, and other bowel-related
liquid medications. You can synthesize it yourself: Take one 5-inch length
of schoolhouse chalk. Grind in a mortar until a fine powdery consistency
is achieved. Use 1 gram powder per dosage as recommended.
Carbontetrachloride
Cleaning
Fluid
Christmas
Ornaments, Glass
Glass
Ball Ornaments
See Glass Ball Ornaments
Citric
acid
beta-hydroxytricarballylic
acid Also
Vitamin C
A white powder extracted
from the juice of citrus and other acidic fruits (such as lemons, limes,
pineapples and gooseberries). It's also produced by the fermentation of
glucose. Available at health food stores, often disguised as powdered vitamin
C, or any store that sells home canning supplies or wine making supplies.
It acts as a preservative - keeps the color in canned foods, etc. Online Sources: My
Sweet Victoria Great
American Spice Company.
Copper
Sulfate
Bluestone
Used to make green fireplace flames. Can
also be added to non-medicated drinks to produce bizarre and amusing effects. Online Source: The
Chemistry Store Bostick
& Sullivan
Corn
Cob, Processed
Litter
Material
Use in potpourri to hold scent.
Try the pet dept. at Walmart or specialty pet stores.
A complex salt, composed
of iron, ammonia and citric acid. Very soluble in water and having a mild
iron-metallic taste. Often used in food and water purification, making blueprints
and therapy for iron deficiency. Store in tight, light resistant containers
in a cool place. Available at wholesale drug company or photographic supply
house. Online source: Bostick
& Sullivan
Extracted from the
seeds of grapefruits, a natural citricidal preservative. Can be used in
many ways for household disinfection and can also be used as a preservative
in soaps, toiletries and cosmetics. Online Sources: From
Nature With Love
Primus, 10 S. Strawberry
Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, 215-923-8090
Hydrochloric
Acid
Muriatic
Acid
(muratic acid; chlorohydric
acid; hydrogen chloride)
Dangerous, will react with water or steam to produce toxic or corrosive
fumes. Precautions: Wear appropriate clothing such as, rubber gloves, aprons,
and face-shield. Use in fume hood, avoid breathing in vapors. Always pour
the acid into the water, when diluting. If permitted, dispose down the drain
with running tap water, never pour an acid into the solvents bottle.
Hydrogen
Peroxide
Peroxide
Available at any
drug store
Hydrophyllic
Gel
Soil
moist
This is the stuff
that goes inside neckerchiefs, etc. When wet, the crystals expand to a gel
state and keep you cool in summer. Online source: Soil
Moist
Common brand - Mrs.
Stewart's Liquid Bluing. It is composed of a colloidal solution of Prussian
Blue which is used as a blue pigment that makes fabrics that have yellowed
or grayed turn white again. Online Source: www.grayandholt.com/stewart.htm
Lead
Acetate
Sugar
of Lead
Lead
Tero-oxide
Red
Lead
Lye
Available at most
grocery stores, Brand name - "Red Devil Lye"
A white, crystalline,
water-soluble, poisonous acid, first discovered in the juice of the wood
sorrel species of oxalis and obtained by reacting carbon monoxide with sodium
hydroxide or certain carbohydrates with acids or alkalis: used chiefly for
bleaching, as a cleanser, and as a laboratory reagent. Online Source: www.chemistrystore.com/oxalic_acid.htm Bostick
& Sullivan
Cream
of Tarter, Carbonic acid, dipotassium salt, Pearl ash, Potash, salt of wormwood,
Dipotassium carbonate, Carbonate of Potash
Grocery stores as
cream of tarter in spice section. In the wintertime in Germany and Scandinavia,
this ingredient is used like baking soda to make traditional butter cookies
crisp. Online sources: Tavolo,
Everything for Cooks
Odorless, colorless,
tasteless, and very inexpensive food additive that will inhibit & stop
mold growth in high moisture foods -- especially after they have been sealed
up in an air tight container. Some Health Food stores will carry potassium
sorbate. Online Source: Lumen
Foods, Lake Charles, LA
Used for explosives
and fertilizer, among other things. Saltpeter is also used as a sexual appetite
suppressant, which makes it a useful item to have around the house. Available
at drug stores.
Hydrated
Silica
Silicic Acid
or
Amorphous Silicon Dioxide
Hydrated silica is
a derivative of silica (silicon dioxide) an abundant compound that forms
about 12% of the earth’s surface. Sand and obsidian are common forms of
silica. In hydrated form, this ingredient is an odorless, tasteless white
gelatinous substance which is chemically inert. Used in toothpaste, as a
dessicant for absorbing moisture, such as when drying flowers. Available
at many craft stores, Ames, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Joanne's Fabrics stores, floral
supply stores and some nurseries.
Silver
Nitrate
Colorless, coarse,
crystalline powder. Used in the production of light sensitive silver halides
for photography, mirror silvering, indelible inks. Can stain just about
anything black. For more information, see www.bostick-sullivan.com/silver.htm.
And this is an interesting discussion of the uses of silver nitrate vs.
silver carbonate: www.potters.org/subject21971.htm. Online Source: Bostick
& Sullivan
Soap
Flakes
We are still trying
to locate a source for soap flakes. Ivory Snow is no longer making soap
flakes, just the detergent. An alternative for recipes calling for soap
flakes is to shave or grate your own flakes using bars of ivory soap.
Sodium
Bicarbonate
Baking
Soda
Grocery stores.
Sodium
Bisulfate
Sani-Flush
(75%)
Grocery stores or
drug stores.
Sodium
Borate
Borax
Grocery stores or
drug stores. (Look in laundry soap section)
Sodium
Carbonate
Washing
Soda
Grocery stores or
drug stores.
Sodium
Chlorate
Used in blow torches.
Available at hardware store
Sodium
Chloride
Table
salt
Grocery stores.
Sodium
Hydroxide
Caustic
soda, sodium hydrate and lye
Available in grocery
stores as Lye/drain cleaners. Found in some of the photo solutions. Nearly
identical properties to Potassium Hydroxide Online Sources: Rainbow
Meadow Bostick
& Sullivan - Shipped as Hazmat -- Extra Charge
Sodium
Hypochlorite
Bleach
Sodium
Nitrate
Salt
peter
Available at drug
stores
Sodium
Oxide
Sand
Sodium
Silicate
Water
Glass
An alkaline salt,
prepared by calcining diatomaceous earth. quartz, or sand with sodium hydroxide
or sodium carbonate. The salt consists of varying proportions of sodium
oxide and silica. such as Na2SiO3. Acts as a "binder", used in paper manufacture. Online Source: Chemistry
Store Bostick
& Sullivan
Used in aquariums,
available at pet supply stores, specialty aquarium stores. Online Source: (20% Solution)
www.esvco.com/ESVPRICE.HTM#PROD2
Sulfuric
Acid
Battery
Acid
Oil of vitriol, dipping
acid. A very powerful, acidic oxidizer which can ignite or even explode
on contact with many materials, i.e. acetic acid, acetone+ HNOs, alcohols,
+ H202, NH4OH, HCL, NaOH, and others. Dangerous when heated, emits highly
toxic fumes; will react with water or steam; can react with oxidizing or
reducing materials.
A hydrous mineral
consisting of magnesium-silicate (3MgO.4SiO2.H2O). Commercial talc is seldom
if ever a pure mineral and therefore its physical and chemical properties
usually vary over a relatively wide range. A commercial talc, such as soapstone,
when ground into a very fine powder generally has a soft and greasy feel
and is usually creamy to greenish-white in color. A good natural alternative
to talc is arrowroot powder.
White, powdery substance,
prepared by grinding chalk or some other source of calcium carbonate. When
mixed with linseed oil it forms putty, and with water and several other
substances it constitutes whitewash. It is used as a pigment, called Spanish
white, as a filler in paints, for polishing metalware, and for various other
purposes.
