THE HOUSEWIFE’S ROOM. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Plate Powders.—(a) Equal parts precipitated iron subcarbonate, and prepared chalk. (b) An impalpable rouge may be prepared by calcining iron oxalate. (c) Take quicksilver with chalk, ½ oz., and prepared chalk 2 oz., mix them. When used, add a small quantity of spirits of wine, and rub with chamois leather. (d) Put iron sulphate into a large tobacco pipe, and place it in a fire for ¼ hour, mix with a small quantity of powdered chalk. This powder should be used dry. (e) The following makes a liquid polish for silver plate—3 to 4 dr. potassium cyanide, 8 to 10 gr. silver nitrate, and 4 oz. water; apply with a soft brush, wash the object thoroughly with water, dry with a soft linen cloth, and polish with a chamois skin. (f) Take 2 oz. hartshorn powder and boil it in 1 pint water; soak small squares of damask cloth in the liquid, hang them up to dry, and they will be ready for use, and better than any powders. (g) Add by degrees 8 oz. prepared chalk in fine powder to a mixture of 2 oz. spirits of turpentine, 1 oz. alcohol, ½ oz. spirits of camphor, and 2 dr. aqua ammonia; apply with a sponge, and allow it to dry before polishing. (h) Mix together 1 oz. fine chalk, 2 oz. cream of tartar, 1 oz. rottenstone, 1 oz. red-lead, and ¾ oz. alum; pulverise thoroughly in a mortar. Wet the mixture, rub it on the silver, and, when dry, rub off with a dry flannel, or clean with a small brush. (i) An excellent preparation for polishing plate may be made in the following manner:—Mix together 4 oz. spirits of turpentine, 2 oz. spirits of wine, 1 oz. spirits of camphor, and ½ oz. spirits of ammonia. To this add 1 lb. whiting, finely powdered, and stir till the whole is of the consistency of thick cream. Use this preparation with a clean sponge, cover the silver with it, so as to give it a coat like whitewash. Set the silver aside till the paste has dried into a powder; then brush off, and polish with a chamois leather. A cheaper kind may be made by merely mixing spirits of wine and whiting together.
Silver and Plated Goods.—(a) East Indian jewellers never touch silver ware with any abrasive substance, but use, instead of polishing paste, &c., slices of lemons; the goods to be cleaned are well rubbed with these, and then left in a pan for a few hours, covered with slices. For delicate jewellery, a large lime is cut in half, the article inserted, the two halves applied together and tied up for some hours; the article is then washed in several waters, placed in a pan of nearly boiling soapsuds, stirred about, rinsed, and dried on a metal plate, the smooth parts being gently rubbed with wash-leather, if required. (b) Potassium cyanide solution (rather weak) dissolves off the dirty surface gradually, but great care is required. (c) Green tamarind pods (potash oxalic) are greater detergents for gold and silver than lemons, and are often employed for the purpose of removing stains, firemarks, &c. (Boston Journal of Chemistry.) (d) Eisner states that a polish equal to that obtained by the use of the finest plate powder, can be produced by simply cleaning the silver in water in which potatoes have been boiled. (e) Dead or engraved silver goods should never be cleaned with plate powder, but be washed out with a soft brush and some strong alkali, and well rinsed afterwards. When the dead or frosted parts are quite dry, the polished parts are carefully cleaned with powder. (f) The following directions are given by a silversmith in Christiania:—Silver filagree work is best cleaned by the application of spirit of ammonia by means of a soft brush, and afterwards thoroughly washing in soft-soap and warm water, and rinsing in clean warm water, and quick drying by linen rags, blotting-paper, or some similar clean absorbent. Should this method, after several repetitions, cease to have the required effect, the article will have to be sent to a silversmith to be heated and boiled in acid. The best mode of preservation is to wrap the article in tissue paper before placing it in the case. (g) The simplest and cleanest substance for cleaning silver articles is, according to Professor Davenport, soda hyposulphite. It acts quickly, and is inexpensive. A rag or a brush, moistened with a saturated solution of the salt, cleanses even strongly oxidised silver surfaces in a few seconds, without the application of any polishing powder. (h) Mix 8 oz. prepared chalk, 2 oz. turpentine, 1 oz. alcohol, 4 dr. spirits of camphor, and 2 dr. liquor of ammonia. Apply this mixture to the article with a sponge, and allow to dry before polishing. (i) Dissolve 12 oz. potassium cyanide in 1 qt. water; dip in this solution, and brush it with a stiff brush until clean; then wash and dry. (j) A paste composed of washed whiting, precipitated magnesia carbonate, and precipitated iron peroxide. (k) Gin. (l) Apply whiting mixed with sweet oil on a shammy. (m) Take 2 qt. water, ½ oz. hartshorn, and 1 oz. whiting, and boil the whole together. While boiling, put as many of the silver or plated articles into the vessel as it will conveniently hold, and let remain for 5 minutes; withdraw, and leave to dry. Polish with clean linen or woollen rags, which, after being soaked in the above-named liquor, have been well wrung. Finally rub with a clean soft leather. (n) The ink eraser sold by stationers has the property of cleaning and brightening silver and gold mountings, such as meerschaum pipe fittings, pencil-cases, watch-cases, &c. (o) Cut some flakes of white curd soap, and put them into a saucepan of water to simmer; sew the ornaments up in a muslin bag, and place in the liquid for about 10 minutes whilst on the fire.
Tarnished Silver Lace.—(p) Sponge over with a weak solution of potassium cyanide. (q) Dab over with a cream of heavy magnesia and water, allowing this to dry, and then brushing it off with a soft-haired brush.
Zinc Vessels.—Zinc articles, if small, can be cleaned by being pickled in spirits of salt (hydrochloric acid) with water added, till the articles are nicely cleaned, in about 3 minutes, without being too strongly attacked, then washed and dried. Large articles like refrigerators are cleaned by being rubbed with a swab, dipped in raw spirits, then washed with water, and finished with whiting.
Paint.—(a) Paint should be more often swept than scrubbed, for too frequent scrubbing causes it to decay. Use as little soap as possible, and wash it off with plenty of clean water to prevent discoloration. To clean paint that has not been varnished, put upon a plate some of the best whiting; have ready some clean warm water, and a piece of flannel, which dip into the water and squeeze nearly dry; then take as much whiting as will adhere to it, apply it to the paint, when a little rubbing will instantly remove any dirt or grease; wash well off with water, and rub dry with a soft cloth. Paint thus cleaned looks equal to new, and, without doing the least injury to the most delicate colour, it will preserve the paint much longer than if cleaned with soap, and it does not require more than half the time usually occupied in cleaning.
(b) When painted work is badly discoloured, put 1 tablespoonful ammonia water into 1 qt. moderately hot water, and with the aid of flannel, wipe off the surface. Rubbing is not necessary.
(c) Take 1 oz. pulverised borax, 1 lb. shavings of best brown soap, and 3 qt. water. Put the soap and borax into the water, allow it to simmer until all the soap has been dissolved, stir it frequently, but do not allow it to boil. Apply it to the paint on a piece of old flannel, and rinse with clean water.
(d) Dissolve ½ oz. glue, and a bit of soft-soap the size of a walnut, in about 3 pints warm water, and with a well-worn whitewash brush well scrub the work, but not sufficient to get off the paint; rinse with plenty of cold clean water, using a washleather; let it dry itself. Work done in this manner will often look equal to new.
(e) First take off all the dust with a soft brush and pair of bellows. Scour with a mixture of soft-soap and fullers’ earth, and use lukewarm water. If there are any spots which are extra dirty, first remove these by rubbing with a sponge dipped in soap and water. Commence the scouring at the top of the door or wainscot, and proceed downwards; dry with a soft linen cloth. When cleaning paint, it is always better to employ two persons, one to scour and the other to rub dry.
Paint-brushes.—(a) To soften brushes that have become hard, soak them 24 hours in raw linseed oil, and rinse them out in hot turpentine, repeating the process till clean. (b) Wash in hot soda and water and soft-soap.
Paper and Books.—(a) The amateur book-cleaner had better begin to practise on some worthless volume, until he acquires the necessary skill. All traces of lime, &c., used in the cleaning process must be removed from the book, else in time it may be completely destroyed. The first thing to be done in a book that wants washing, is to cut the stitches and separate the work into sheets. Then a glance may be taken for the separation of those leaves or sheets which are dirty from those which have stains of ink or oil. The dirty leaves are now placed in a bath composed of ¼ lb. lime chloride and the same quantity of soda to about 1 qt. water. These are left to soak until the paper has regained its proper tint. The pages are now lifted out tenderly into a second bath of cold, and if possible running, water, where they are left at least 6 hours. This removes all traces of lime. The paper, when thoroughly dried by exposure, must be dipped into a third bath of size and water, and again laid out to dry. This restores the consistency of the paper. Pressure between printers’ glazed boards will then restore smoothness to the leaves. The toning of the washed leaves in accordance with the rest of the book is a delicate process, which requires some experience. Some shag tobacco steeped in hot water will usually give the necessary colouring-matter, and a bath in this liquid the necessary tone.
The process described above may do for water-stains; but if the pages are dirted by grease, oil, coffee, candle-droppings, or ink, different treatment will be required. Dilute muriatic acid with 5 times its bulk of water, and let the oil-stained pages lie in the liquid for 4 minutes—not longer. Then remove, and wash, as before, in cold water. If the grease is a spot in the middle of a page, place between 2 sheets of blotting-paper, or cover with powdered French chalk (the blotting-paper is preferable), and pass a hot iron over the place. This will melt the grease, which is immediately soaked up by the chalk or paper.
For dirty finger-marks, the following is recommended: Cover the mark with a piece of clean yellow soap for 2 or 3 hours, then wash with a sponge and hot water, and dip the page in weak acid and water. Give another bath of hot water, and then thoroughly cleanse with cold water. To remove ink-stains, dip the page in a strong solution of oxalic acid, then in a solution of 1 part muriatic acid and 6 water, after which bathe in cold water, and allow to dry slowly. Vellum covers which need cleaning may be made almost equal to new by washing with a weak solution of potash binoxalate, or, if not much soiled, warm soap and water. Grease may be removed from the covers of bound books by scraping a little pipe-clay, French chalk, or magnesia over the place, and then ironing with an iron not too hot, else it will discolour the leather. (Publishers’ Circular.)
(b) Press powdered fullers’ earth lightly upon the greasy spot, and allow it to soak out the grease.
(c) Hannett says the spots may be removed by washing the part with ether, chloroform, or benzine, and placing between white blotting-paper, then passing a hot iron over.
(d) A more expeditious, and thought by some, the best way, is to scrape fine pipe-clay, magnesia, or French chalk on both sides of the stain, and apply a hot iron above, taking great care that it is not too hot.
(e) After gently warming the paper, take out all the grease you can with blotting-paper, and a hot iron, then dip a brush into essential oil of turpentine, heated almost to ebullition, and draw it gently over both sides of the paper, which must be kept warm. Repeat the operation until all is removed, or as often as the thickness of the paper may render necessary. When all the grease is removed, to restore the paper to its former whiteness, dip another brush in ether, chloroform, or benzine, and apply over the stain, especially the edges of it. This will not affect printers’ or common writing ink.
(f) Lay on a coat of indiarubber solution over the spot, and leave it to dry. Afterwards remove with a piece of ordinary indiarubber. Any operation with ether, chloroform, or benzine, should never be conducted by candle-light, as their vapour is apt to kindle even at several feet from the liquid. (d) will remove grease from coloured calf, even if the spot be on the under side of the leather; it may thus be clearly drawn right through.
(g) Apply a solution of pearlash (in the proportion of 1 oz. pearlash to 1 pint water) to oil-stained drawing-paper.
Parchment and Vellum.—(a) Immerse in a solution of acetic acid, and gently rub the stained parts while wet on a flat board with lump pumice, then bleach with lime chloride. This process was recommended in the English Mechanic. It is not very successful, but it makes it white enough for bookbinding. It has, however, the objectionable qualities of not making the parchment flexible, and when dried it is as hard as a board, and it has no gloss like the virgin parchment. On no account must the parchment be washed in very hot water, or held before a fire, as it will shrivel up in a most provoking manner.
(b) Benzine applied with a sponge. It will remove almost every stain, and does not destroy the texture in the least.
Pictures, Prints, and Frames.—Pictures.—(a) Remove the works from their frames, and first of all examine the surface of each separately and with care. Then, if there are no cobweb cracks, no cockled-up edges of bits of paint likely to peel off, and no unburst bubbles of colour, take an old soft cloth, and some white of egg, and wash the surface, a square inch at a time, with a spiral motion of the hand, not pressing too heavily. If there is much dirt, make a basin of bread, treacle, and new milk with a trifle of turpentine in it, and wash with soft flannel and sponge; after, use white of egg. If mildew from damp walls has attacked the canvas, and even the surface, let a committee of artists be called; there are so many varieties of this form of injury, it is well to understand the particular case. If coal gas, foul air, or other pollution is suspected of having injured the varnish, an artist chemist, learned in varnishes of the different schools, must prescribe; but if the surface is injured, or the colour scales off, no amateur can repair the crack; and in every case, before returning the well-cleaned and well-rubbed surfaces to their frames, let good plate glass be securely fastened over each to prevent future injury.
(b) Pictures may be cleaned by rubbing the thumb over the painting moistened with saliva, or by a raw potato cut in half and rubbed evenly over the picture.
(c) Dissolve a little common soda in urine, then add a grated potato and a little salt; well rub this over the paintings till clean. Wash off in spring water, and dry with a clean cloth.
(d) First rub the picture well with good whisky, which will make the varnish come off in froth, then wash well with cold water, and when dry varnish again; this will restore the picture to its original colour unless very old. Keep the picture covered from dust till the varnish is dry.
(e) The painting is first removed from the frame, and the dust and smoke brushed off with a pencil or feather. After this it is washed with a sponge dipped in well water. It is next covered with a thick layer of soap; shaving soap is the best for the purpose, because it remains moist and does not dry on. After the soap has been on 8 or 10 minutes it is all washed off with a strong brush or pencil, adding a little water if necessary. The soap that still adheres is rinsed off sufficiently with water, and the picture left to dry. When completely dry, it is further cleansed with nitro-benzol—also known as nitro-benzine, artificial oil of bitter almonds, or essence of mirbane. It is a yellowish oily, poisonous liquid, with a powerful smell of bitter almonds. It is formed when coal-tar benzol is mixed with fuming or concentrated nitric acid under suitable precautions. The nitro-benzol is poured into a dish, and a clean linen rag is dipped in it, and passed over the painting. This quickly removes all the adherent dirt. This linen rag must be frequently exchanged for a clean one. When the rag remains clean after going over it repeatedly, the cleansing is finished. If the colours look dull after going over it the last time and letting it dry, it is given a thin coat of the finest olive oil, and after a while must be varnished with a good, quickly-drying varnish. (Von Bibra.)
(f) The picture had better first be sponged with cold water and allowed to dry, then apply solution of hydrogen peroxide with a clean sponge in successive lines, not going over the same surface twice; again allow to dry. If the solution is sufficiently strong, the painting is now tolerably clean; if not, a second or third application is necessary. Peroxide of hydrogen, hydroxyl, or hydrogen di-oxide (H2O2), owing to the readiness to part with half its combining weight of oxygen, is a powerful bleaching agent; but the way in which it serves to clean oil paintings is accounted for thus:—Sulphuretted hydrogen, which is present in the atmosphere, especially in the neighbourhood of towns, attacks the lead in the paint and forms lead sulphide, which is readily soluble in peroxide of hydrogen, water and lead sulphate being the result; thus
PbS + 4H2O2 = PbSO4 + 4H2O (J. T. C. Williams.)
Prints.—(a) Presuming these to be mounted, proceed in the following manner. Cut a stale loaf in half, with a perfectly clean knife; pare the crust away from the edges. Place them on a flat table, and rubbing the surface with the fresh-cut bread, in circular sweeps, lightly but firmly performed, will remove all superficial markings. Soak the prints for a short time in a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid, say 1 part acid to 100 of water, and then remove them into a vessel containing a sufficient quantity of clear chloride of lime water to cover them. Leave them here until bleached to the desired point. Remove, rinse well by allowing to stand an hour in a pan in which a constant stream of water is allowed to flow, and finally dry off by spreading on clean cloths. Perhaps may require ironing between two sheets of clean paper.
(b) Put on a smooth board, cover it thinly with common salt finely pounded; squeeze lemon juice upon the salt so as to dissolve a considerable proportion of it; elevate one end of the board, so that it may form an angle of about 45° or 50° with the horizon. Pour on boiling water from a tea-kettle until the salt and lemon-juice be all washed off; the engraving will then be perfectly clean, and free from stains. It must be dried on the board, or on some smooth surface, gradually. If dried by the fire or the sun it will be tinged with a yellow colour.
(c) Hydrochloric acid, oxalic acid, or eau de Javelle may be employed, weakened by water. After the leaves (if it be a book) have by this means been whitened, they must be bathed again in a solution of soda sulphate, which will remove all the chlorine, and leave the pages white and clean. They will, however, have lost all firmness of texture, owing to the removal of the size from the paper. It will, therefore, be advisable to give a bath of gelatine and alum made with boiling water, to which may be added a little tobacco, or any other simple substance to restore the tint of the now too white paper.
(d) Immerse each mildewed sheet separately in a solution made in the proportions of ½ lb. lime chloride to 1 pint water. Let it stand, with frequent stirring, for 24 hours, and then strain through muslin, and finally add 1 qt. water. Mildew and other stains will be found to disappear very quickly, and the sheets must then be passed separately through clear water, or the lime chloride, if left in the paper, will cause it to rot. Old prints, engravings, and every description of printed matter may be successfully treated in the same manner.
(e) “I have in my time cleaned many hundreds. The plan which I adopt is as follows:—I place them, one or two at a time, in a shallow dish, and pour water over them until they are completely soaked or saturated with it. I then carefully pour off the water, and pour on to the prints a solution of lime chloride (1 part liquor calcis chloratæ, to 39 of water). As a general rule, the stains disappear as if by magic, but occasionally they are obstinate. When that is the case, I pour on the spot pure liquor calcis chloratæ, and if that does not succeed, I add a little dilute nitro-muriatic acid. I have never had a print which has not succumbed to this treatment—in fact, as a rule they become too white. As soon as they are clean they must be carefully washed with successive portions of water until the whole of the chlorine is got rid of. They should then be placed in a very weak solution of isinglass or glue, and many collectors colour this solution with coffee-grounds, &c., to give a yellow tint to the print. They should be dried between folds of blotting-paper, either in a press or under a heavy book, and finally ironed with an ordinary flat-iron to restore the gloss; placing clean paper between the iron and the print. Grease stains are much more difficult. I find benzine best. Small grease spots may be removed by powdered French chalk being placed over them, a piece of clean blotting-paper over the chalk, and a hot iron over that.” (F. Andrews.)
(f) Mildew often arises from the paste used to attach the print. Take a solution of alum of medium strength and brush on back and face of the engraving 2 or 3 coats, then make the frame air-tight by pasting a strip of paper all round the inside of glass, leaving about ½ in. overlapping (taking care not to paste the paper on the glass, so as to be seen from the front), then place your glass in frame, take the overlapping piece and paste to side of rebate; place your picture in position, spring backboard in, and then place a sheet of strong paper (brown) on the table, damp it, and paste round back of frame, lay it on to the paper, leave to dry, cut level. If this does not answer there will be no help for it, but dust off as the mould accumulates. Do not brush on surface with the alum if the engraving is coloured, but several coats on the back.
(g) A plan recommended by Wm. Brooks is to get a dish or china tray a little larger than the engraving to be operated upon; if, smaller, there is a great risk of tearing and damaging the engraving. The bleaching agent used is Holmes’ ozone bleach. The strength preferred is 1 part bleach to 10 of water, well shaken up before pouring into the dish. A much stronger solution can be used (say 1 in 5), but the weaker it is the easier is its removal from the paper afterwards. The engraving is immersed in the solution face upwards, avoiding bubbles. The only caution to be observed is that the sodden engraving is somewhat rotten, and needs careful handling. If the engraving be only slightly stained, ½ hour will suffice to clean it, but if quite brown it may require 4 hours. After all the stains are removed, and the paper has regained its whiteness, pour the solution back into the bottle, as it can be re-used till it becomes discoloured; fill up the dish with water, changing frequently for about 3 hours, or place it in running water. When the engraving is sufficiently washed, it can be taken out, blotted off, and hung up to dry. When quite dry, it may be ironed on the back with a warm flat-iron, which must not be too hot. (Brit. Jl. Photog.)
(h) If the engravings are very dirty, take 2 parts salt and 1 soda, and pound them together until very fine. Lay the engraving on a board, and fasten it with drawing-pins, and then spread the mixture dry equally over the surface to be cleaned. Moisten the whole with warm water and a little lemon-juice, and, after it has remained about a minute, or even less, tilt the board up on its end, and pour over it a kettleful of boiling water, being careful to remove all the mixture, and avoid rubbing. If the engraving is not very dirty, the less soda used the better, as it has a tendency to give a yellow hue.
(i) Does not injure the quality or texture of the engraving. Immerse the print in a lye made by adding to the strongest muriatic acid its own weight of water; to 3 parts of this mixture add 1 of red oxide of lead or black oxide of manganese. If the print is very dirty, it may remain in the liquid 24 hours without harm. Indian ink stains should be first assisted out with hot water, and pencil marks with rubber or breadcrumbs. If there be old paste on the back, it must be removed with warm water. The saline crystals left after immersion are removed by several rinsings in warm water.
(j) To remove surface dirt from engravings and mezzotints, the most effectual plan is to use common bookbinders’ paste, applied with a paste brush, both to front and back of the print; the paste will take up the whole of the dirt, which will come away with the paste when it is removed with water. A bath of plain water completes the operation, from which the print will emerge as fresh as when first issued. Many a guinea has been earned by this simple but efficacious plan.
Frames.—(a) Fly-marks can be cleaned off with soap and water used sparingly on end of finger covered by piece of rag. When all cleared off, rinse with cold water, and dry with chamois leather; next buy 1 lb. (1d.) of common size, and 2 penny paint pans. Boil a little of the size in one of the pans with as much water as will just cover it. When boiled, strain through muslin into clean pan, and apply thinly to frames with camel-hair brush (called technically a “dabber,” and costing 6d. to 1s. each). Take care you do not give the frames too much water and “elbow grease.” On no account use gold size, as it is used only in regilding, and if put on over the gold would make it dull and sticky.
(b) Dissolve a very small quantity of salts of tartar in a wine bottle of water, and with a piece of cotton wool soaked in the liquid dab the frames very gently (no rubbing on any account, or you will take off the gilt), then stand up the frames so that water will drain away from them conveniently, and syringe them with clean water. Care must be taken that the solution is not too strong.
(c) If new gold frames are varnished with the best copal varnish, it improves their appearance considerably, and fly-marks can then be washed off carefully with a sponge. The frames also last many times longer. It also improves old frames to varnish them with it.
(d) Gilt frames may be cleaned by simply washing them with a small sponge, moistened with hot spirits of wine or oil of turpentine, the sponge only to be sufficiently wet to take off the dirt and fly-marks. They should not afterwards be wiped, but left to dry of themselves.
(e) Old ale is a good thing to wash any gilding with, as it acts at once upon the fly-dirt. Apply it with a soft rag; but for the ins and outs of carved work, a brush is necessary; wipe it nearly dry, and do not apply any water. Thus will you leave a thin coat of the glutinous isinglass of the finings on the face of the work, which will prevent the following flies’ fæces from fastening to the frame, as they otherwise would do.
(f) The Papier Zeitung recommends the following method of renovating gilt frames. It consists in applying with a camel-hair pencil a gum solution to which has been added gold bronze having the colour of the frame. Before mixing with the gum water the bronze must be washed with water until it runs off perfectly clear. If one application does not suffice, it may be repeated until the spot entirely disappears, but of course one coat must be dry before the next is applied. Spots treated in this way look very well at first, but it will not last, for it is not able to resist the moisture in the air unless it is specially prepared. For this purpose an ordinary bristle brush is rubbed with a piece of yellow wax until it is somewhat sticky, then it is passed very lightly over the spot several times as when dusting it. This gives it a very thin coat of wax that hardens in 2 or 3 days; in the meantime it must be protected against dust.
Sponge.—(a) First clean, wash, and squeeze out the sponges; then dip them into a 2 per cent. solution of potassium permanganate. Here they become quite brown (from separated manganic oxide); after 10 minutes, take out, wash in water, again well press, and dip into a 2 per cent. solution of oxalic acid [some prefer diluted sulphuric (1:20) or diluted hydrochloric acid (1:15)], in which they become perfectly white. Success mainly depends on the soaking in the permanganate solution; if they are macerated too short a time they do not become thoroughly white; if too long, they are apt to become rotten. (Siemens.)
(b) First clean the sponges by immersing in dilute hydrochloric acid. Then soak in a bleaching liquid, composed of 1 part sodium hyposulphite, 12 water, and 2 hydrochloric acid. After some time, remove and well wash. To the last wash-water a little glycerine is added in order to preserve the sponges soft. The liquid is best pressed out by passing the sponges through a clothes-wringer.
(c) Toilet sponges which have been in use, often become peculiarly slimy, fatty, and almost useless, owing to some action of the soap. Mere washing in distilled water does not remove the difficulty. It may be overcome by using fused calcium chloride. The sponge is pressed as much as possible, placed on a plate, the powdered calcium chloride is sprinkled upon it, and allowed to deliquesce upon the sponge. After about ½ hour, the sponge may be washed in water and dried, when it will become white. (Valta.)
(d) Soak the sponges, previously deprived of sand and dirt by beating and washing, in a 1 per cent. solution of potassium permanganate. Remove them, wash thoroughly with water, and press out the water. Next put them into a solution of ½ lb. sodium hyposulphite in 1 gal. water, to which 1 oz. oxalic acid has been added, and leave in the solution for 15 minutes. Finally, take out, and wash thoroughly. By this treatment the sponges are rendered perfectly white. Many sponges contain a more or less dark-coloured brownish core. If treated only with permanganate and acid, the core is either not bleached at all, or, if it has been somewhat bleached, the tint is apt to grow again darker. (Borham.)
(e) Soak for 10 minutes in a 2 per cent. solution of potash permanganate; then in a 2 per cent. solution of oxalic acid with the addition of a little sulphuric acid for about ½ hour; finally treat with a 2 per cent. solution of potash carbonate for ½ hour, wash, and dry. The solution of potash carbonate produces the yellow colour often particularly wanted. (Chem. and Drug.)
(f) A sponge employed in photographic manipulations for a few months loses all its valuable qualities, becoming black, hard, and greasy, and contaminating anything which it touches. To clean it, a solution of potash permanganate in water is prepared of such a strength that it appears of a wine colour, and into this the unserviceable sponge is immersed, and allowed to remain for some time. When taken out and squeezed, it is next put into a diluted muriatic acid of ordinary commercial quality, being immersed and kept saturated therein for some time as before. The most appropriate strength of this acid solution is about 10 parts water to 1 of acid. The sponge is taken out after sufficient treatment, squeezed well to free it from the acid, and then washed well in good spring water. When taken out, it will be found to be quite clean, to have again assumed its light colour, and to be free from all foreign matter. Sponges treated in this way become like new sponges, and can be used without any fear of their contaminating, even if employed for the filtration of neutral liquids. The main thing to be attended to in this plan of purifying sponge is to see that it is thoroughly saturated both by the permanganate and the acid solutions, which should be allowed ample time to soak through the mass; care must also be observed to wash the sponges thoroughly with plenty of water at the end of the operation. (Dr. J. Stinde.)
(g) When sponges get greasy, let them dry, and then work them with a small quantity of turpentine, and after a few minutes wash them with warm soap-and-water with a little bit of soda. This will get them quite clean with very little trouble. (E. T. Scott.)
(h) Put a handful of salt on the sponge, and rinse the salt well through the sponge. Let the sponge dry in a thorough draught of air. The latter precaution alone will keep sponges free from sliminess, unless they become saturated with soap.
(i) I tried the effect of sulphuric acid as follows:—In a large basin mixed about 1 pint water and 2 tablespoonfuls sulphuric acid (common oil of vitriol), then steeped the sponge about 2 hours, wrung it out several times in the acid, and finally well washed out the acid in clean water; it was then just like new, having regained its former size, colour, and elasticity, with not the slightest trace of its former sliminess. It was a large bath sponge, and in an extremely bad condition. (J. W. Jackson.)
(j) Dissolve some citric acid in water in a hand-basin, and wash the sponge in it as in (i).
Stuffed Specimens.—(a) Give a good brushing with a stiff clothes-brush. After this warm a quantity of new bran in a pan, taking care it does not burn, to prevent which quickly stir it. When warm, rub it well into the fur with your hand. Repeat this a few times, then rid the fur of the bran, and give it another sharp brushing until free from dust. (b) Sponge with white soap and warm water, rubbing well into and about the roots of the hair, but avoid using an excess of water to soak into the stuffing, or the specimen will, in all probability, never thoroughly dry, and moths and rot will be the result. Dry in a current of air as free from dust as possible; brush the fur occasionally as it dries (a coarse comb at first will, perhaps, separate the hairs better). Before putting it into its case, wash freely with benzoline, rubbing with the fur; you may never dread moths, and your specimen will always be clean if your case is properly made and closed up air-tight by means of paper pasted over every joint and crack.
Teapot.—(a) Fill with boiling water and add some strong washing soda; let it remain for a day or two. (b) Weak solution of spirits of salt (hydrochloric acid).
Textile Goods.—The arrangement of a laundry is dealt with in another section. The present section is concerned with the ordinary household washing, drying, ironing, and starching operations.
The first step is to sort the dirty linen the day before washing actually takes place. White goods should be separated from coloured, and linen from woollen. Repairs may often be considerably reduced by doing them while the articles are soiled and before the ordeal of the washtub has converted thin places into holes and small holes into large ones.
Much labour is saved by putting the articles in soak overnight, which dislodges the dirt and avoids the hard rubbing otherwise necessary. A good soak mixture is an inch cut off a bar of soap to every 4 gal. of water used, and a dessert spoonful of washing powder, allowing both soap and powder to dissolve before introducing the clothes. For body linen the water should be hot, for bed linen it may be cold. Curtains, blinds, fringes, and other articles which harbour dust and smoke should be soaked in plain cold water. Another excellent soak mixture is made as follows:—Dissolve 2 lb. soap in 5½ gal. nearly boiling water; add 3 tablespoonfuls ammonia and 1 of spirits of turpentine; soak the clothes in this mixture for 3 hours before washing.
On washing day the first care is to get a copper full of boiling water. Meantime the articles in soak can be prepared. Always commence operations with the most delicate goods.
Thus laces and fine muslins are dealt with first. If to be boiled they must be tied up in a clean coarse muslin bag, but usually they will hardly require this treatment, but simple washing will suffice. In this case pass them into a hot soak mixture as already described and work them with the hands without rubbing, till clean. Then rinse, first in warm water, then in cold; fold; roll up in a clean towel, and put aside ready for starching.
Go over the body linen in soak and pay special attention to stains and extra dirty spots. Wring the articles as free as possible from the dirty water, beginning always with the finest, and put into another tub containing a warm soak; here wash again, and then pass through a tub of clean cold water to remove adhering suds. Next fill the copper with clean cold water and add the same quantities of soap and washing powder as before; wring the goods out of the cold washwater, put them into the copper, bring to boiling, and let boil for 10-15 minutes. Pass successive lots into the copper in the same way, replenishing the water, soap, and washing powder as needed. Each lot as taken from the boiler should be rinsed first through hot and then through cold water, well wrung, dipped, an article at a time, in water containing some blue, wrung out, shaken, folded, and put on one side. The bluewater will need additions of blue occasionally.
When all the body linen has gone through the copper, the table and bed linen may follow in the same way; but after the second rinsing on leaving the copper these articles can at once be hung out to dry. The kitchen linen will come last and be washed in the suds of the previous batches.
Drying should always be at least partially effected in the sun if possible. When available, nothing is better than exposing linen on a clean lawn. Failing this it must be hung on wires or ropes provided for the purpose. Galvanised wire lasts longer and is cleaner than rope. Both require rubbing clean with a damp cloth before use. After sunning, the drying must always be completed before a good fire, especially in the case of body linen. Table and bed linen should be taken in while still damp, and folded and mangled before drying by the fire. Body linen is not mangled, but ironed or starched.
Ironing may be done without starching, or with. Calicoes are generally ironed on the right side, as they thus keep clean for a longer time. In ironing a frock, first do the waist, then the sleeves, then the skirt. Keep the skirt rolled while ironing the other parts, and set a chair to hold the sleeves while ironing the skirt, unless a skirt-board be used. Silk should be ironed on the wrong side, when quite damp, with an iron which is not very hot, as light colours are apt to change and fade. In ironing velvet, turn up the face of the iron, and after damping the wrong side of the velvet, draw it over the face of the iron, holding it straight; always iron lace and needlework on the wrong side, and put them away as soon as they are dry.
Starching is applied chiefly to shirts, cuffs, and collars, and in a rougher way to print dresses and white petticoats. A good cold-water starch is prepared as follows. Mix in a basin 3 tablespoonfuls of laundry starch and sufficient cold water to make a paste; then add 1 teaspoonful of white soap shredded and dissolved in warm water and 1 teaspoonful powdered borax, mixed in ½ teacupful of boiling water; stir well together till it froths. To starch collars, &c., wring them from bluewater a few at a time, well rub them in the starch, and wring hard, stirring up the starch for each fresh lot; rub them a few at a time, fold, and pass through a close mangle or wring hard in a towel. Iron immediately.
Boiled starch for shirts, &c., is made in the following manner. (a) Into a warm basin put 4 tablespoonfuls of starch; rub down with warm water to a thickish paste; add 1 in. cut off the end of a bedroom composite candle, a piece of spermaceti as large as a pea, and 4 drops turpentine. Slowly pour in boiling water, with vigorous stirring till the starch turns transparent without losing its thickness. Take the shirts in a damp state, and first dip the fronts and collars, squeezing them tightly, and then the cuffs; be expeditious, as the starch should be used quite hot. Rub moderately, hang up to dry; when quite dry, damp with cold water, fold with the two sides of the front in contact, and roll up for a day before ironing, wrapping in a damp cloth if the weather is dry.
(b) A liquid starch gloss which is well recommended consists of 5 oz. glycerine and 2 oz. each spermaceti, gum senegal (cheap gum arabic) and borax in 49 oz. water, mixed and boiled together; 2 or 3 teaspoonfuls of this are added to ¼ lb. boiled starch.
Ironing starched goods requires more care. For cold-starched cuffs and collars it is well to have a table with a thick flannel and a clean cotton or linen cloth tightly stretched upon it. Lay the collar evenly on the table, and run a moderately hot iron lightly along the wrong side first; turn it, and do the same on the right side. Repeat this once or twice rather quickly until it begins to feel a little dry. Then press heavily and evenly on the right side, pulling out button-holes, and ironing them straight. A fine polish is put on by using the edge of the iron, and rubbing with it from the top of the collar to the band, leaning heavily. Curl the collar, and put aside to harden. Cuffs are ironed in the same way; if reversible, with a band in the middle, the band is ironed thoroughly and finished first.
Hot-starched cuffs and collars are ironed in the same way but with a hotter iron.
When ironing a shirt, lay the back of the sleeve smoothly on the table; iron each side smoothly. Iron the wrist-band smoothly, wrong side first, and then right side. Next iron the shoulder-strap, then the neck-band or collar, doing the latter extremely carefully, and polishing it nicely. Now double the back of the shirt, and iron it on both sides. Spread the shirt out, and iron all the front except the breast. Lay a board covered with flannel under the breast, and iron very nicely, polishing highly at the last. Hang up to dry well, fold neatly, and put away.
The following curious recipe is recommended for restoring linen which has been scorched at the fire in drying. “It is almost needless to premise that if the tissue of linen is so much burnt that no strength is left, it is useless to apply the following composition; for nothing could prevent a hole from being formed, although the composition by no means tends to injure the fabric. But if the scorching is not quite through, and the threads not actually consumed, then the application of this composition, followed by 2 or 3 good washings, will restore the linen to its original colour; the marks of the scorching will be imperceptible, and the place will seem as white and perfect as any other part of the linen. Mix well together 2 oz. fullers’ earth reduced to powder; 1 oz. hen’s dung; ½ oz. cake soap, scraped; and the juice of 2 large onions, obtained by the onions being cut up, beaten in a mortar, and pressed. Boil this mass in ½ pint strong vinegar, stirring it from time to time, until it forms a thick liquid compound. Spread this composition thickly over the entire surface of the scorched part, and let it remain on 24 hours. If the scorching was light, this will prove sufficient, with the assistance of two subsequent washings, to take out the stain. If, however, the scorching was strong, a second coating of the composition should be put on after removing the first; and this should also remain on for 24 hours. If, after the linen has been washed twice or thrice, the stain has not wholly disappeared, the composition may be used again, in proportion to the intensity of the discoloration remaining, when a complete cure will seldom fail to be effected. It has scarcely ever happened that a third application was found necessary. The remainder of the composition should be kept for use in a gallipot tied over with bladder.”
Having dealt with the general operations, it will be well to add a few notes on special processes for certain classes of goods.
Bed Ticks.—Apply starch by rubbing it in thick with a wet cloth, then put the tick in the sun. When dry, rub it with the hands. If necessary, repeat the process, and the soiled part will be as clean as new.
Black Goods.—After washing, rinse in water containing salt, to fix the colour.
Chintzes.—As coloured dresses, adding a little ammonia to the water.
Coloured Dresses.—As flannels, omitting the washing powder. Wash quickly in warm water, wring hard, wash again, rinse in cold water and hang to dry.
Crape Scarfs.—If the fabric be good, these can be washed as frequently as may be required, and no diminution of their beauty will be discoverable, even when the various shades of green have been employed among other colours in the patterns. In cleaning them, make a strong lather of boiling water, suffer it to cool; when cold, or nearly so, wash the scarf quickly and thoroughly, dip it immediately in cold hard water in which a little salt has been thrown (to preserve the colours); rinse, squeeze, and hang it out to dry in the open air; pin it at its extreme edge to the line, so that it may not in any part be folded together. The more rapidly it dries the clearer it will be.
Flannels.—The great difficulty in washing flannels, blankets, and all woollen goods without causing excessive shrinkage is due to the nature of the fibres, which, under the conditions of rubbing and heat, become matted together in a kind of felt, reducing the dimensions of the article and adding to its thickness. The following recipes for washing such goods, are all destined to prevent this felting process.
(a) The water should be only warm, not boiling, and soda silicate or caustic ammonia is preferable to soap as a detergent. Flannels well soaped and shrunk when first fulled always remain softer and shrink less ultimately than those not so treated. The felting power of wool varies considerably, and it should be selected accordingly for fabrics intended to be frequently washed. Flannels should not be rubbed or beaten in washing, merely rinsed, and soiled spots soaped and brushed with a soft brush. It is important not to press the material until thoroughly dry.
(b) Buy the flannel in the piece, put it into a tub, and cover it with boiling water, turning it about with a stick to allow the air to escape from between the folds. Leave it in the water until the next day, when take out and hang on a line to drain and dry. It must not be wrung or pressed, but allowed to get rid of the water in its own way. When made up into trousers or jackets, it will never shrink any more; but in the case of shirts, there may be a slight shrinking in the course of time, though not to nearly the usual extent. Flannel should be washed in lukewarm water, and without soda, when, if it has been properly shrunk before being made up, it will last very well.
(c) The great principle is, not to have the water any hotter than a lady’s hand can comfortably bear. Cut up, overnight, some pieces of yellow or mottled soap, into a large saucepan of cold water; next morning allow this to heat gradually, until all melted. Have two tubs of the hot water ready, into which pour some of the melted soap, and whisk it with the hand to make a thoroughly good lather. The first tub must be more than double the strength of the second, which latter should have plenty of blue in. In the first tub wash the white flannels, without rubbing any soap on, excepting on stains of perspiration, &c. Directly after they have been done through the first tub, do them in the same way through the second, shake well, and hang out immediately. Coloured flannels can follow in the same way. Stockings should always have a third wash. The small pieces of soap left in the bedroom soap-dishes come in nicely for melting down.
(d) Flannel should be soaked in cold hard water before making, and hung up to drain and dry without any squeezing or handling in the water. After this it will not shrink in washing. Fill a tub with spring water, place the flannel in it, and take out as soon as it sinks to the bottom. It does not lose the appearance of new flannel when dry.
(e) To prevent shrinking in washing, soak the flannel for a night in cold water when dirty, and the next morning wash with curd soap in very lukewarm water. Do not wring, but press the water out and hang to dry.
(f) White Flannel. Use pipeclay, which should be mixed to proper consistency in a pipkin; stand on the fire till warm, stir with wax candle for 5 minutes, add a modicum of soap and a dash of Prussian blue, and stand by to cool, and always use cold, laid on with a sponge, and dry in shady breeze. For grease spots, lay over them pure clay, size the thickness of a crown piece, then place in the sun, and the clay will absorb all the grease without fail. When trousers are dry, rub them to loosen the clay, which brush off, and you will have cleaner looking trousers than by washing, and they will be fit to wear two or three times without pipeclaying. The same for flannel jackets.
(g) In order to keep flannel from shrinking and felting as much as possible, dissolve 1 oz. potash in a bucketful of rain-water, and steep the fabric in it for 12 hours. Next heat the water with the cloth in it, wash it out without rubbing, simply drawing it through several times. Then place the flannel in another bath consisting of 1 spoonful wheat flour to 1 pint water, and wash in like manner. Then rinse in lukewarm rain-water. Flannel washed in this manner becomes very clean, and will scarcely shrink or felt.
(h) It must strictly be observed that the heat does not rise beyond 100° F., and the fabric to be washed must be immersed in a bath of boiled soap, to which 1¼ dr. sal ammoniac per pint of fluid have been added; ¼ hour’s immersion in a well-covered vessel will have dissolved the fat and dirt sufficiently, and a beating or rubbing will no longer be necessary in order to wash the fabric clean. Very dirty spots are rubbed in with soap, and brushed with a soft brush. If one washing is not to satisfaction, repeat the process in a weaker soap bath, observing the same cautionary rules, and conclude with rinsing in cold water. It is also important not to smooth the fabric in a half-moist condition; because in this case, the condition of felting is complied with in this operation; while smoothing of the sharply dried substance is performed without being accompanied by the evil effects of shrinkage. The addition of sal ammoniac is to be left out with sensitive colours.
(i) Scotch methods for Shawls.—Scrape or cut up 1 lb. soap, and boil in a small quantity of water. When sufficiently cool, beat to a jelly with the hand, at the same time mixing with it 3 tablespoonfuls spirits of turpentine, and 1 of spirits of hartshorn. Wash the shawl thoroughly in this, then well rinse in cold water, and, when all the soap is out, in salt and water. This last need only be done when the shawl contains delicate colours. Then fold the shawl between two sheets, being careful not to let two folds of the shawl come together. Mangle, and afterwards iron with a very cool iron.
(j) To wash red or scarlet flannel when soiled, mix a handful of flour in a quart of cold water, and boil 10 minutes. Add this to some warm suds, and wash the flannel gently, rinsing rather than rubbing; rinse in 3 or 4 warm waters, and the brightest scarlet will never lose its colour. Soft soap or olive soap should be used for woollen goods in preference to bar soap.
(k) After rinsing, a wringing machine dries them better than any other method. The drying must be done rapidly, and the articles should be shaken and pulled during the drying.
Lace.—(a) Washing Black Lace.—Mix bullocks’ gall with sufficient hot water to make it as warm as you can bear your hand in, and pass the lace through it. It must be squeezed, not rubbed; and it will be well to perfume the gall with a little musk. Rinse through 2 cold waters, tinging the last with a little blue. After drying, put it into some stiffening made by pouring boiling water on a very small piece of glue; squeeze out, stretch, and clap it. Afterwards, pin out on a linen cloth to dry, laying it very straight and even, and taking care to open and pin the edge very nicely. When dry, iron on the wrong side, having laid a linen cloth over the ironing blanket.
(b) Cleaning White Lace.—Boil gently for 15 minutes in a solution of white soap; put it into a basin holding warm water and soap, and keep gently squeezing it (do not rub it) till it is clean, and then rinse it from the soap. Then take a vessel of cold water, into which put a drop or two of liquid blue; rinse in it. Have ready some very clear gum arabic water, or some thin rice-water. Pass through it. Then stretch out even, and pin to dry on a linen cloth, making the edge as straight as possible; open out all the scallops, and fasten each with a pin. When dry, lay a piece of thin muslin smoothly over it, and iron on the wrong side.
(c) Ditto.—Cover an ordinary wine bottle with fine flannel, stitching it firmly round the bottle. Tack one end of the lace to the flannel, then roll it very smoothly round the bottle, and tack down the other end, then cover with a piece of very fine flannel or muslin. Now rub it gently with a strong soap liquor, and, if the lace is very much discoloured or dirty, fill the bottle with hot water, and place it in a kettle or saucepan of suds and boil it for a few minutes, then place the bottle under a tap of running water to rinse out the soap. Make some strong starch, and melt in it a piece of white wax and a little loaf sugar. Plunge the bottle 2 or 3 times into this and squeeze out the superfluous starch with the hands; then dip the bottle in cold water, remove the outer covering from the lace, fill the bottle with hot water, and stand it in the sun to dry the lace. When nearly dry take it very carefully off the bottle, and pick it out with the fingers. Then lay it in a cool place to dry thoroughly.
(d) Ditto.—Take a black bottle covered with clean linen or muslin, and wind the blond round it (securing the ends with a needle and thread), not leaving the edge outward, but covering it as you proceed. Set the bottle upright in a strong cold lather of white soap and very clear soft water, and place it in the sun, having gently with your hand rubbed the suds up and down on the lace. Keep it in the sun every day for a week, changing the lather daily, and always rubbing it slightly when you renew the suds. At the end of the week, take the blond off the bottle, and (without rinsing) pin it backward and forward on a large pillow covered with a clean tight case. Every scallop must have a separate pin; or more, if the scallops are not very small. The plain edge must be pinned down also, so as to make it straight and even. The pins should be of the smallest size. When quite dry, take it off, but do not starch, iron, or press it. Lay it in long loose folds, and put it away in a pasteboard box.
(e) Thread Lace.—As in (d).
(f) Ditto.—When it has been tacked to the bottle, take some of the best sweet oil and saturate the lace thoroughly. Have ready in a wash-kettle, a strong cold lather of clear water and white Castile soap. Fill the bottle with cold water, to prevent its bursting, cork it well and stand it upright in the suds, with a string round the neck secured to the ears or handle of the kettle, to prevent its shifting about and breaking while over the fire. Let it boil in the suds for an hour or more, till the lace is clean and white all through. Drain off the suds and dry it on the bottle in the sun. When dry, remove the lace from the bottle and roll it round a white ribbon-block; or lay it in long folds, place it within a sheet of smooth white paper, and press it in a large book for a few days.
(g) Starching Lace.—Use a very thin boiled starch or the liquor in which rice has been boiled. Dip the lace in the starch, and squeeze out. Clap between the folds of a towel to partially dry it. Lay wrong side up on the table, slightly picked out, and place a piece of muslin over. Rub a cool iron over several times, till a little dry. Take up, and with the fingers pick it out to show the pattern and the edge. Iron again. Pick out once more, carefully draw to each side, and give a final ironing. The iron must be very cool, or the lace will be stiff; moving it about in the hands, and drawing it out tends to make it flexible.
Loose Colours.—As black.
Silk Goods.—(a) Silk scarfs and stockings are best washed in tepid water, with white soap dissolved in it, then rinsed quite free from soap, wrung dry in a towel, and ironed dry on the wrong side with a muslin cloth between the iron and the silk.
(b) Heat some rain or soft water, and while on the fire cut into it slices of good yellow soap, to make a lather; put the stockings in while the lather is warm, but not scalding, and wash in two such waters (a wineglassful of gin in the first water is an improvement); rinse well in lukewarm water, having ready a second rinsing water, in which is mixed a little blue (not the common kind, but such as is used for muslins and laces), or rose pink, which can be procured at a chemist’s, and is used in the same way as the blue, by tying it up in a piece of flannel and squeezing it into the water. After rinsing, put the stockings between towels and let them get almost dry; place on a small sheet, lay out quite flat, as they are when first purchased, tack to the sheet with a needle and thread, turn the sheet over them, and mangle. If it is not convenient to mangle them, the next best plan is to put 4 or 6 stockings one upon the other between muslin, lay them on a stone doorstep, and beat them with the rolling pin. They must not be mangled or beaten in towels, as the pattern of the towels would be impressed on them. If the stockings have lace fronts they will more particularly require the tacking mentioned above to make them look nice. No soda or washing powder of any kind must be put to them. They must be done quickly.
Stains, Removing.—The great difficulty in eradicating stains is to do so without damaging the often delicate tints of the fabric. Following is a synopsis of the best plans in use, arranged according to the nature of the substance causing the stain.
Acids.—Nearly all acids produce a red discoloration on goods dyed black or blue with vegetable dyes. If the acid is strong, the fabric will probably be locally destroyed as well as stained. The best treatment for all acids is the immediate application of a strong alkali, either ammonia, potash, or soda, but ammonia is the most satisfactory. When once the stain is old nothing will efface it. Nitric acid stains are the most troublesome, as the acid bleaches away the original colour. Repeated moistening with a very strong solution of potash permanganate (Condy’s fluid may be used as a weak substitute) followed by rinsing with water, is said to be effective.
Anilines.—(a) Wash out in alcohol containing some acetic acid, unless the colours of the fabric would be damaged by acetic acid, in which case use alcohol alone. (b) Try a solution of sodium sulphite.
Coffee, Chocolate, &c.—Apply a mixture of glycerine and egg-yolk; wash out with warm water, while still damp iron on the reverse side with a moderately hot iron.
Dust.—White and cotton coloured goods only require beating and brushing. For old dry stains on coloured silk and woollen goods, apply alcohol mixed with yolk of egg, let dry, and scrape off; wipe away remaining traces of the egg by means of a linen rag dipped in warm water.
Fruits, Red Wine, Vegetable Dyes.—The greater part may be removed without leaving a stain, if the spot be rinsed in cold water in which a few drops of aqua ammoniæ have been placed, before the spot has dried. Wine stains on white materials may be removed by rinsing with cold water, applying locally a weak solution of chloride of lime or dilute chlorine water, or eau de javelle (potash or soda hypochlorite), and again rinsing in an abundance of water. Some fruit stains yield only to soaping with the hand, followed by fumigation with sulphurous acid (fumes of burning sulphur); but the latter process is inadmissible with certain coloured stuffs. If delicate colours are injured by soapy or alkaline matters, the dye must be renewed by applying colourless vinegar of moderate strength. For coloured cotton and woollen materials, the stain is washed with hot soapy water (to which more or less chlorine water has been added, according to the fastness of the dyes), rinsed in water containing a little ammonia, dipped in a solution of soda hyposulphite and then in a solution of tartaric acid, and finally washed in hot water. For silk and satin goods the same programme must be followed but with very dilute solutions. Another plan is to treat with salts of sorrel (hydrogen potassium oxalate) or with solution of soda hypochlorite. The latter especially must be carefully removed when the object is attained. Another well-tried plan, when space is available, is to spread the stained fabrics on the ground in the open air, smear the spots with soap, and sprinkle ground potash or common salt upon them. Water is added and replaced when lost by evaporation. After 2 or 3 hours’ exposure the whole fabric may be washed, and will usually be found freed from its stains.
Grass.—White goods need only be washed in boiling water. Coloured goods, whether cotton, woollen, silk, or satin, are damped with a solution of tin chloride and immediately washed out in abundance of water.
Grease.—(a) Simple washing in soap and water. (b) Stains from oil colours will yield to a mixture of soap and caustic potash. (c) Chalk, fullers’ earth, or steatite (French chalk) diffused through a little water to form a thin paste, spread upon the spot, allowed to dry, and then brushed out. (d) Ox-gall and yolk of egg. The ox-gall should be purified, to prevent its greenish tint from degrading the brilliancy of dyes or the purity of whites. Thus prepared it is most effective, especially for woollens. It is diffused through its own bulk of water, applied to the spots, and rubbed well in with the hands till the stains disappear, after which the stuff is washed with soft water. (e) Volatile oil of turpentine will take out recent stains, for which purpose it ought to be previously purified by distillation over quicklime. Wipe the stain with a sponge dipped in oil of turpentine, cover with filter paper (blotting-paper) and pass a hot iron over several times; finally wash out in warm soapy water. (f) Benzine or essence of petroleum is commonly used for removing grease spots; but these liquids present the inconvenience of leaving, in most cases, a brownish ring. To prevent this, the garments, &c., should be laid out flat, in daylight, upon a cake of plaster of Paris, or upon some folds of blotting-paper, moistened with sulphuric ether, otherwise known as rectified ether, and rubbed gently with a soft brush or clean linen rag. This process, if necessary, may be repeated. It neither injures the colour nor the material, and evaporates completely on exposure to the air. Another remedy is to scatter powdered gypsum or lycopodium on the moist surface, brushing the powder away when dry. (g) Equal parts strong ammonia water, ether, and alcohol form a valuable cleaning compound. Pass a piece of blotting-paper under the grease spot, moisten a sponge, first with water to render it “greedy,” then with the mixture, and rub with it the spot. In a moment it is dissolved, saponified, and absorbed by the sponge and blotter.
Gelatine, Glue, Blood, Sugar.—Wash in clean warm water.
Green nuts, Tanning Juices.—Wash white goods in weak eau de javelle or chlorine water. For coloured goods, first damp, and then touch the spot with more or less dilute chlorine water, afterwards rinsing in clean water.
Ink, Ironmould.—For ink stains, dilute hydrochloric acid, which must subsequently be carefully washed out, will mostly be found effectual. For the same purpose oxalic acid or salts of sorrel (hydrogen potassium oxalate) may also be employed, and that most economically, in fine powder to be sprinkled over the stains and moistened with boiling water. The action of these solvents may be hastened by gentle rubbing, or still better by placing the stained portion of the fabric in contact with metallic tin. If there is much ironmould to be removed, dyers’ tin salt (stannous chloride) will perform the same work at less expense than the oxalic acid compounds. Another solvent for such stains consists of a mixture of 2 parts argol with 1 of powdered alum. On coloured cotton and woollen goods let a drop from a burning tallow candle fall on the stain, and then wash out in a concentrated solution of pyrophosphate of soda. On fast dyes, lime chloride or tartaric acid may be used. On fine silk or satin goods damp with strong vinegar and leave covered for some time with beechwood ashes, washing finally in strong soapy water. Some iron stains submit to a washing in a solution of yellow prussiate of potash with addition of sulphuric acid; the blue colour thus produced is removed by rinsing in a solution of potash carbonate. One of the simplest and most efficacious removers of ink stains is milk, applied instantly.
Lime and other Alkalis.—If white goods, wash out in clean water. For coloured cottons or woollens, silk or satin, wet the stuff, and apply successive drops of dilute citric acid; when the stain has disappeared, wash thoroughly in clean water.
Mildew.—(a) Dip the spot into a strained weak solution of lime chloride (2 teaspoonfuls to 1 qt. water) for a moment and expose to the sun for a few minutes; repeat till gone, and then rinse thoroughly in clean water. (b) Soak in water for an hour and then sun. (c) Moisten with lemon juice and lay in the sun. (d) Moisten with lemon juice, cover with a paste of soft-soap and chalk, and sun for ½ hour; repeat till gone.
Milk, Soup.—For white goods, wash thoroughly in soapy or lye water; for coloured cottons and woollens, wipe the stain with a sponge dipped in pure turpentine-oil or benzine, remove excess with blotting-paper, and wash out in warm soapy water. For silks and satins use purest benzine ether.
Nitrate of Silver.—(a) Dip in a neutral solution of copper chloride and touch the spot with a crystal of soda hyposulphite dipped in ammonia. (b) Damp with solution of potash hypermanganate and dip into solution of potash bisulphite. (c) Moisten with solution of mercury bichloride (a deadly poison). (d) Moisten repeatedly with very weak solution of potassium cyanide and rinse thoroughly in clean water.
Oil, Paint, Varnish.—(a) New stains will submit to carbon bisulphide, or spirits of turpentine. (b) Cover old stains with butter or olive oil, and when softened apply first spirits of turpentine and then benzine. (c) For white goods, and coloured cottons and woollens, damp the patch, and pass a sponge dipped in turpentine-oil or benzine repeatedly over the stain, then lay on a sheet of blotting-paper and pass a hot iron over; finally wash out in warm soapy water. (d) For silks and satins spread on a thin paste of ether and magnesia carbonate; when the ether has volatilised, brush away the magnesia, or rub with crumb of bread.
Perspiration.—Wash in a solution of soda hyposulphite, and then bleach if the goods are white.
Stearine, Wax.—Remove with a knife; place a piece of wet linen beneath, cover the stain with several layers of blotting-paper, and pass a hot iron over. Any remaining trace can be removed by a sponge dipped in benzine.
Tar, Pitch, Resin.—For coloured cottons and woollens the stuff is damped, and fat is applied to the stain, on which soap is well rubbed. The soap is allowed to act for a few minutes, and is washed out alternately with oil of turpentine and hot water. If this has not succeeded, the yellow of egg mixed with some oil of turpentine is applied, and when this has dried it is scratched away, and thorough washing out in hot water ensues. The last method is the washing of the stuff in water mixed with a little muriatic acid, and thorough rinsing out in pure river water. For silk and satin, the stuff is wetted, and a sponge dipped in a solution of ether and chloroform is rubbed over the stain. If the stain is no longer noticeable, white clay is strewn over it, over which blotting-paper is placed, and the stain is extracted by passing a hot smoothing iron over. If this process has not been successful, the yellow of egg mixed with chloroform is used in the same manner.
Unknown origin.—(a) For white goods, and coloured cotton goods, a small quantity of soap is dissolved in lukewarm water, and for each pint is added a coffee spoonful of ammonia. The stain is wiped with a sponge steeped in this fluid, and the material is finally washed out in water. (b) For coloured woollen stuffs, dissolve 20 parts ox-gall, 40 of borax, 500 of spirit, and 200 of ammonia, adding 30 of glycerine and the yellow of two eggs. The stuff is washed in this boiling solution. It is subsequently rinsed in clean warm water, and dried in the air, but not in the sun. (c) For silk and satin, dissolve 40 parts borax and 10 of soap in 70 of diluted spirit and 30 of ether, adding 10 of magnesia carbonate and the yellow of two eggs. The mixture is applied to the stain, and the stuff is washed in lukewarm water, rinsed in cold water, and dried at a moderate warmth, being subsequently ironed with a moderately hot iron.
Urine.—Wash in alcohol or very weak solution of citric acid.
Vinegar, Wine, Acid Fruits.—For white goods, wash out in clean water, to which ammonia has been added. For coloured cotton and woollen materials, silk, and satin, diluted ammonia is spread over the satin, and when it has disappeared a thorough washing in water ensues.
Wine, Beer, Punch.—Wash in soapy and then clean hot water.
Tobacco Pipes.—A very simple and effective plan. Cut ½ in. from the end of an ordinary cork, and fit it tightly into the bowl of the pipe. Then with a knife cut a hole through the cork wide enough to admit the nozzle of a water tap with a little pressure, turn on the water gently until the flow through the stem is sufficiently strong, and let it run until the pipe is clean.
Violin.—(a) Use soap and water, but avoid its running through the “f” holes. Clean the interior with dry rice.
(b) Moisten the solid parts with salad oil, then mix same oil and spirits of wine together in a basin, trying its strength first on a part of the neck or scroll, then with a piece of white linen rag, dipped in the oil and spirit, rub the soiled parts, keep shifting the rag as it gets dirty: it will take several days to do, but keep the parts well soaked, where dirty, with oil after every rubbing; but by no means scrape it.
(c) Ordinary paraffin oil. Slightly saturate a rag of soft silk, and proceed to wash your violin therewith. The effect is almost magical; the paraffin dissolves the crust of dirt and resin and cleans the varnish without injuring.
(d) For the outside, a strongish solution of washing-soda, applied with piece of flannel. If you find the soda remove the varnish (as it does with some oil-varnishes), use soap-and-water, and then paraffin. When clean, rub with linseed-oil; spirits of wine removes the old resin at once, but sometimes takes the varnish with it. For the inside, get a handful of rice, steep in solution of sugar and water 5 minutes, strain off, and nearly dry the rice till just sticky. Put in at sound-holes and shake till tired. This will pick up all dirt, then turn out.
Violin Bows.—(a) Take a small piece of flannel, wet it (cold process), well rub it with best yellow soap, double it, holding the hair gently between the finger and thumb, rub gently till clean, using plenty of soap; rinse flannel, wipe off, then wipe dry with a piece of calico or linen; in an hour afterwards it will be ready for the resin. (b) A solution of borax-and-water.
Wall-papers.—To remove oil stains or marks where people have rested their heads, from wall-papers, mix pipeclay with water to the consistency of cream, lay it on the spot and allow it to remain till the following day, when it may be easily removed with a penknife or brush.
Watches.—A correspondent of the Watchmaker and Metal-worker tells how he cleans watches with benzine. The method may be useful for other fine work. He says: I immerse the parts in benzine and dry in boxwood sawdust. This gives the gilding a fresh, new look, which I have not been able to get by any other process. The movement must be entirely taken down. The dial screws may be screwed down tightly and left, but all parts united with screws must be separated, so that there will be no places where the benzine can remain and not be at once absorbed by the sawdust. I have a large alcohol cup, which I fill about half full of benzine, taking down my movement and putting the larger pieces in the fluid. The scape wheel, balance, and delicate parts I treat separately, that they may not be injured by contact with the heavier pieces. I then take the pieces one at a time, and tumble them into the sawdust. In a few seconds they will be dry, when I pick them out and lay in a tray, using brass tweezers, which do not scratch. I treat all the parts in this way except the mainspring, when a slight use of the brush and clean chamois will remove all dust. Of course, the holes must be cleaned with a pointed peg; and I wipe out the oil sinks with chamois over the end of a blunt peg, but it is not often necessary to clean the pinions with a peg; they will come out of the sawdust bright and clean. The mainspring must not be put in benzine unless you want it to break soon after. The fluid seems to remove the fine oily surface which a spring gets after working for a time, and which is very desirable to retain; so I clean my springs by wiping with soft tissue paper. If they are gummy, I put on a little fresh oil to soften, and wipe off, being careful not to straighten out the springs.
Vermin, Destroying
Vermin, Destroying.—Before proceeding to classify the various kinds of noxious creatures whose presence is objectionable to man, and giving hints for their destruction or removal, it will be well to put forward a word of caution against using any substance which will poison the vermin in situations where their bodies can putrefy unseen and produce unpleasant and injurious odours. Wherever poisons are mentioned in the following recipes their use is intended exclusively away from the dwelling, and there are many sound reasons why poisons should be avoided on all occasions.
Insects.—As this word is commonly used in the household it embraces a considerable number of small creatures outside the class known as insects to naturalists, and may be regarded as including all winged and creeping vermin.
Before descending to special remedies against different insects a few lines may be devoted to that universal insecticide the so-called “Persian insect powder.” This is of two kinds, one produced in the Transcaucasian region and another in Dalmatia. The first is the produce of Pyrethrum roseum and P. carneum, and the last of P. cinerariæfolium [Chrysanthemum turreanum], all common wild flowers in their special districts. The useful part of the plants is their flowers, which are gathered when half developed, in dry weather, dried in the shade under cover, ground to powder, and stored in air-tight vessels. The plants can be cultivated in warm climates. The Dalmatian gives the stronger powder, or perhaps the powder sold there is less adulterated. Experiments have conclusively proved that while these powders are perfectly harmless to human beings and domestic animals, they are distinctly poisonous to all insects having open mouth parts, such as bees, wasps, ants, mosquitoes, flies, fleas, bugs, dragon-flies, spiders, carpet-beetles, &c.
Ants.—(a) White ants will eat the whole timber work of a house without noise. They bore close to the surface of the wood, but without destroying it, so that there is no visible indication of what they are doing. They will even bore through the boards of a floor and up the legs of a table, leaving the latter a mere shell. The principal woods used in this country which are said to resist the white ant are cedar, greenheart, ebony, and lignum vitæ, and the heartwood of jarrah. Pitch pine is sometimes attacked. White ants will not attack new teak, but will bore through teak to get at yellow pine. Arsenic seems to prevent the attack of these insects, and is sometimes used for this purpose in the concrete, mortar, paint, and plaster of buildings. Arsenic is also mixed with aloes, soap, &c., to form a wash to exterminate these insects. Creosoting is an effectual preservative against white ants, but on account of its smell is only adapted for out-door work, and can hardly be applied to very dense tropical timbers. A cheap source of arsenic for this purpose is the lime arsenite residue from aniline dyeworks.
(b) Black Ants.—Scatter a few leaves of green wormwood about their haunts. (c) To clear them from pantries, chalk the shelves upon which the provisions are put, so that the ants cannot move about; or apply moistened fly-paper and lay about the pantry; or apply quassia tincture, and soak crumbs of bread with it, and lay it about the pantry. (d) Leave a vessel, such as a butter-crock, containing at the bottom a few stewed prunes, or a little water in which prunes have been stewed, uncovered in the places frequented by the ants; it will attract them, and thousands will drown in it. (e) Boil pieces of string in beer and sugar, and lay them in the ants’ way; collect once in 24 hours, when they will be found covered with ants, and drop into boiling water. (f) Pour benzoline down the holes. (g) Pour boiling water down the holes. (h) Rooms on a ground floor may be cleared by carefully pouring some strong oil of vitriol down each hole. This will be fatal to the living insects and all their eggs, but will destroy flooring, plaster, and bricks wherever it touches.
(i) Red Ants.—Grease a plate with lard, and set it where the insects abound. They prefer lard to anything else, and will forsake sugar for it. Place a few sticks around the plate for the ants to climb up on. Occasionally turn the plate bottom up over the fire, and the ants will fall in with the melting lard. Reset the plate, and in a short time you will catch them all.
Blackbeetles.—(a) Keep a hedgehog. (b) Set a deep dish or earthen pan, containing a little sugared beer by way of attraction; it will entrap the insects in vast numbers, if a few pieces of wood are inclined against the sides to serve as ladders. They will tumble in when they reach the edge, and the glazed sides will prevent their getting out. (c) Immediately before bedtime, strew the floor of those parts of the house most infested with the vermin with the green peel, cut not very thin, from the cucumber. (d) A mixture of Persian insect powder and powdered wormseed, thrown about where they frequent. (e) Use powdered borax, about ½ lb. to each room. It requires perseverance and care in its use. It should be scattered about freely wherever they congregate, and particularly in cracks and crevices where they can hide from it. It may be blown or forced by the blade of a knife into narrow cracks. The effect of the borax is to cause them to emigrate. It may kill a few, which will be found afterwards in a dried withered up condition lying about on the floor. They may be swept up without injury to carpets or furniture.
Bugs.—The following are paste poisons:—(a) 1 oz. mercurial ointment, ¼ oz. corrosive sublimate, ¼ oz. Venetian red. (b) Soft soap and cayenne pepper. (c) Soft soap and corrosive sublimate. (d) Soft soap and strong snuff. The following are washes for furniture or floors:—(a) A small quantity (6d. worth) salts of wormwood, dissolved in a bucket of hot writer. (b) Solution of pyroligneous acid, arsenite of potash, decoction of oak bark, and garlic. (c) 2 dr. corrosive sublimate, 8 oz. spirits of wine rubbed in mortar till dissolved, then add ½ pint spirits of turpentine. (d) 1 lb. each sal ammoniac, and corrosive sublimate, 8 gal. hot water. (e) 1½ oz. camphor, 8 oz. each spirits of turpentine and spirits of wine. (f) Weak solution of zinc chloride. (g) Benzine. (h) Equal parts spirits of turpentine and kerosene. Application:—(a) The room must be thoroughly cleared; take the bed and bedclothes into the open air, and beat them thoroughly; take the bedstead to pieces, and after a thorough purification with hot water, plug every hole and crevice with one of the pastes given above; stop all cracks, &c., in the floor and walls with the paste also. (b) Empty the room; scrape off all paper and burn immediately on the spot in charcoal brazier; fill all cracks in plaster, paint, and wormwood with a poison paste; scent the floor with a wash; burn all old scraps of carpet.
Crickets.—(a) Half fill some jampots with water and set at night. (b) A covered box with perforated lid containing a little salt or oatmeal.
Earwigs.—Place lengths of hollow bean-stalk or other tube where the insects collect, and each morning empty them into boiling water by blowing sharply through.
Fleas.—In Beds.—(a) Sprinkle chamomile flowers in the bed. (b) Use young leaves of wild myrtle in the same way. (c) Strew fresh mint under the beds. (d) Have walnut leaves about the person. (e) Place a piece of new flannel in the bed, and there seek the vermin. (f) Sprinkle the bed or night dress with a little solution of camphor in spirits of wine. (g) Sponge your person with camphor water-¼ oz. camphor, ½ oz. tincture of myrrh in 1 qt. water, shake well before use.
In Rooms.—(a) Slice a strong onion and rub the bottom edge of the trousers. The favourite point of attack is at the ankles and the legs up to the knee; they do not jump so much from above. (b) Make a strong decoction of laurel leaves by filling a large copper with the leaves, adding as much water as possible, and boil for 4 or 5 hours. Then take the leaves away, and deluge the floors with the boiling hot liquor. The liquor will but very slightly discolour the ceilings, which can be whitened again.
On Animals.—(a) Oil of pennyroyal will certainly drive them off; but a cheaper method, where the herb flourishes, is to dip dogs and cats into a decoction of it once a week. Mow the herb and scatter it in the beds of pigs once a month. Where the herb cannot be got, the oil may be procured. In this case, saturate strings with it and tie them around the necks of dogs and cats, pour a little on the back and about the ears of hogs, which you can do while they are feeding, without touching them. By repeating these applications every 12 or 15 days, the fleas will leave the animals. Strings saturated with the oil of pennyroyal, and tied around the neck and tail of horses, will drive off lice; the strings should be saturated once a day. (b) Equal parts ox-gall, oil of camphor, oil of pennyroyal, extract of gentian, spirits of wine; wash.
Flies.—In Rooms.—(a) A castor-oil plant growing in the room kills many and drives away the rest. (b) A bunch of walnut leaves keeps them out. (c) A large, handsome Japanese lily (Lilium auratum) behaves like the castor-oil plant. (d) Soak blotting-paper in a solution of sugar of lead, and sweeten with molasses. (e) Mix treacle, moist sugar, or honey with 1/12 of orpiment. (f) Boil ¼ oz. of quassia chips in 1 pint water for 10 minutes; strain; add 4 oz. molasses. (g) Spread laurel oil on picture frames, curtains, &c. (h) When going to bed, blow some Persian or Dalmatian insect powder into the air of the room and close it for the night; burn the dust swept from the room in the morning.
On Animals.—(a) Procure a bunch of smartweed, and bruise it to cause the juice to exude. Rub the animal thoroughly with the bunch of bruised weed, especially on the legs, neck, and ears. Neither flies nor other insects will trouble him for 24 hours. The process should be repeated every day. A very convenient way of using it, is to make a strong infusion by boiling the weed a few minutes in water. When cold it can be conveniently applied with a sponge or brush. Smartweed is found growing in every section of the country in the United States, usually on wet ground near highways. (b) Scatter lime chloride on a board in the stable or pen.
Harvest Bugs.—Smear the legs all over with (a) Decoction of colocynth; (b) strong vinegar; (c) paraffin; (d) thick soap lather; (e) tincture of iodine; (f) benzine; (g) tar ointment (h) 1 oz. insect powder (Dalmatian) macerated in 1 oz. weak spirit, and then diluted with 2½ oz. water.
Mosquitoes and Gnats.—To keep them away from the person:—(a) 1 oz. each olive oil and oil of tar, ½ oz. each glycerine, spirit of camphor, and oil of pennyroyal, 2 dr. carbolic acid; mix and shake well before use. (b) Sponge with 1 oz. camphor dissolved in 1 qt. cold water. (c) Dissolve as much camphor as possible in olive or castor oil, boil down the oil to half, and smear on the face and hands. (d) Mix 3 oz. olive oil, 2 oz. oil of pennyroyal, 1 oz. glycerine, 1 oz. ammonia; shake well; apply, avoiding the eyes. (e) Rub lime juice on the skin. (f) Essential oil of lemon. (g) Rub with bruised laurel leaves. (h) Dust the face and hands with potato flour. (i) Vaseline or petroleum ointment. (j) Rub on 4 oz. glycerine, 4 dr. oil of turpentine, 2½ dr. oil of spearmint. (k) Hang a piece of camphor in a muslin bag from the topmost coat button-hole. (l) Dissolve in a cupful of water as much alum as the water will contain—in other words, make the strongest solution possible of alum and water; add ⅓ proportion of aromatic vinegar, and ¼ of glycerine; keep it in small flat phials convenient for the pocket, and apply it constantly during the day. Rae mentions that he does not believe without its alleviating influence he would have been able to carry out his journey in Lapland, so severe were the attacks of these insect pests.
Driving from Bedstead.—Hang on the bedstead: (a) a few bruised leaves of pennyroyal; (b) a sponge dipped in camphorated spirit; (c) a bunch of elder; (d) a bunch of wormwood; (e) a bough of ash.
Driving from Room.—Burn: (a) Camphor in a tin dish over a candle so that it evaporates without igniting; (b) cow-dung; (c) wormwood; (d) juniper wood sawdust.
Moths.—Numerous opinions have been expressed from time to time as to the most effective means of preventing the ravages of the larva of the “clothes-moth.” The most practical may be summarised as follows. (a) When the number of garments or other fabrics is small an efficient plan is found to be to keep them exposed to the air and liable to constant disturbance, with occasional shaking and beating. (b) One writer finds it a very good plan to put winter things, such as curtains, furs, heavy shawls, dresses, extra blankets, &c., away in wine cases, papered inside and out with newspaper; when nailed down, every crack or crevice is pasted over. This should be done in April, before any moths are about; the clothes are then safe. Other articles which cannot well be packed away for the summer, such as dress-coats, are quite safe if folded in plenty of sound newspaper. (c) Another states that articles put away for 5 years in a warehouse were perfectly uninjured in all cases where they were completely wrapped in linen, while every part not thus protected was more or less destroyed by moth. (d) One experimenter placed 4 moths in the balance, and found that they weighed 2¾ gr. They were then placed in a watch-glass, and dried over the steam of boiling water. There remained ·830 gr., say 30 per cent., or, in other terms, if 100 lb. of the grubs were dried they would lose 70 lb. or 7 gal. of water (and this is exclusive of what the insect must have lost in perspiration and other animal functions). The remedy which suggested itself was, that if we could render our garments absolutely dry, even if the mother moth should deposit her eggs, they could not grow or live in the absolute absence of moisture; and that if we could place our garments for a short time, during the moth season, May and June, in a close chamber, heated by steam pipes to the boiling point, aided by a little chloride of calcium, on trays to absorb moisture, the necessary conditions would be met; and even if the mother moth had succeeded in depositing her eggs before the hot chamber process had been applied, it would still prove effective, as the eggs would be hard-boiled and rendered unproductive. Possibly if drying ovens were kept available at a small charge, they would find extensive employ, as the losses incurred by dealers in furs is immense; and in private families for the treatment of clothing, blankets, and other articles they would be of great value. (e) The use of a vacuum and hot gases has been under experiment by the Government of the United States. It is believed that a large cylinder of boiler iron may be filled with woollen goods, either cloth or made-up garments, in unbroken bales or boxes; the top screwed on air-tight; the air exhausted by an air-pump worked by the steam engine, and the vacuum filled after a sufficient time to kill all active developed moths and grubs, with air which has passed through a stove filled with ignited charcoal or anthracite coal. This atmosphere will contain no supporter of respiration; it consists of nitrogen, carbonic acid, and carbonic oxide, and some watery vapour, with a little sulphur and traces of other volatile impurities contained in the fuel. The carbonic oxide is a violent poison. The other gases named are all either inert, unable to support life, or positively noxious. They will penetrate under the pressure of 15 lb. to the sq. in. into every nook and cranny between the folds of the goods, and into every empty pore of the woollen fibres themselves. They can be introduced at such a temperature as may be determined to be best and sufficient. Experiments at Nottingham reported in the Journal of Applied Science show, if correctly performed, that woollen goods may be exposed for 3 hours to an atmosphere in a close vessel heated to 250°F. (121°C.) without injury, and that even 295°F. (146°C.) is not seriously injurious to the fibre, though it changes the colours of some goods. One difficulty in caring for great quantities of these goods is the labour and exposure incident to opening packages, taking out to handle separately each article, exposing it after brushing to the attacks of the moths, always ready for action at the only season when this overhauling is needed. (f) The larva of the clothes-moth will only attack and devour substances that immediately serve it for food, and will not gnaw through the most flimsy envelope, provided this is not edible. But still in these the most careful folding will fail to keep them out, as the tiny hatchlings will find their way through the seams; these should be pasted together, but as the insects are particularly fond of paste this should be poisoned either with a little corrosive sublimate or by triturating some camphor with it. Moths will never eat through brown paper. This must be of the right sort, i.e. made from old tarred ropes, and smelling of tar. Larvæ of clothes-moths, if they can get at nothing else, will feed on ordinary paper if kept in a damp place. The protection of the wrappers consists in their coarse tarry nature. (g) Dust the articles with alum dried to a cinder and powdered. (h) Mix 2 oz. snuff, 4 oz. cedar sawdust, 1 oz. black pepper, 1 oz. camphor, 1 dr. lupulin (hop flowers), and blow it into corners with a powder bellows. (i) Soak blotting-paper in a mixture of oil of camphor and spirits of turpentine, and lay it among the goods. (j) Prof. Riley says that the early days of June should herald vigorous and exterminating warfare against these subtle pests. Closets, wardrobes, all receptacles for clothing, should be emptied and laid open, their contents thoroughly exposed to light and air, and well brushed and shaken before being replaced. In old houses much infested with moths all cracks in floors, wainscots, shelves, or furniture, should be brushed over with spirits of turpentine. Camphor or tobacco should be placed among all garments, furs, plumes, &c., when laid aside for the summer. To secure cloth linings of carriages from the attacks of moths, sponge them on both sides with a solution of corrosive sublimate of mercury in alcohol, made just strong enough not to leave a white mark on a black feather. Moths may be killed by fumigating the article containing them with tobacco or sulphur, or by putting it, if practicable, into an oven heated to about 150° F. (k) Nothing is better than Mikado moth papers (Fleming, 101 Leadenhall St., E.C.), placed between folds of the articles to be protected, and occasionally renewed.