Dissolve in 1 gallon of cold soft water 1 pound of concentrated lye and 2 ounces each of powdered am monia (muriate of ammonia) and salts of tartar. Preserve in glass bottles or fruit jars, tightly corked. Use a cupful of this fluid with a bar of soap and boil 15 minutes.
Or make a saponaceous lye by boil ing 1 gallon of wood ashes in suf ficient soft water to dissolve the ashes, then add 2 or 3 handfuls of fresh quicklime. Mix thoroughly while boil ing and afterwards cool until the sed iment settles. Draw off the pure water and add 1 pint of oil or melted grease strained through cheese cloth for each 20 quarts of this liquid. Ashes from hard wood are the best, but if the ashes do not contain a suf ficient amount of alkali a small amount of potash or soda may be added. The result should be a milk white liquor. Use 1 cupful to a boil erful of water with 1 pound of shaved hard soap.
Or this composition, used by the French: hard soap, 1 pound; water, 6 gallons; spirits of turpentine, ounce; aqua ammonia, I ounce. Mix well and bottle ready for use.
Or brown soap, 2 pounds. Cut it up and put it into a clean pot, adding 1 quart of clear soft water. Set over the fire and melt thoroughly, stir ring it up from the bottom occasion ally. Take from the fire and stir in real white vinegar, 1 teaspoonful; aqua ammonia, 2 large teaspoonfuls; spirits of turpentine, 7 large teaspoonfuls. Stir all well together, put the mixture immediately into a stone jar, and cov er without delay so that the ammonia will not evaporate. Keep it closely covered.
Washing Powders. — Commercial washing powders, such as pearline, soapine, and the like, are said by chemists to be composed of hard white soap ground to powder and mixed with pulverized sal soda in ap proximately equal parts. Hence they are liable to the same objections as sal soda, which is well known to con tain an excess of alkali. They are, however, useful for dishwashing, scrub bing, and many other purposes. They can be made at home much more cheaply than they can be purchased.
To make washing powder, melt in a double boiler 1 ounce of good white glue in 1 gallon of hot water to make a thin glue size. Mix equal parts of
granulated soda ash with granulated sal soda, pulverizing them into grains about the size of coarse sand by means of a rolling pin. Pour over this mixture the solution of glue, or use instead pure linseed oil and stir until the mass forms a stiff, thick paste. Spread out the whole on a table top or other flat surface in a warm room to dry.
Or, instead of the solution of glue, use a solution of 1 pint of linseed oil to 1 gallon of water.
Soap Jelly.—Dissolve 1 teaspoonful of any good washing powder in a cupful of hot water, or dissolve any desired quantity of shaved hard white or yellow soap in twice its own bulk of hot water, using a double boiler. Use instead of soft soap for delicate fabrics.
Kerosene for Washing.—This is a favorite labor-saving article in many households. Use for each boilerful of water 1 pound of good hard soap in shavings and 1 teaspoonful of kero sene to each pail of water, or about 2i tablespoonfuls for a wash boiler two thirds full of water. Should it be necessary to add more water after the first or second boiling, put in pound of shaved soap and 1 table spoonful more of kerosene. This mix ture will not injure fabrics and will evaporate when the clothes are laun dered so as to leave no odor. When kerosene is used very little rubbing will be required.
Special Hints.—When rinsing large linen pieces, as sheets, tablecloths, and large towels, gather the middle of the piece into the hand and souse the edges in the water several times. This leaves the selvage smooth and ready for the iron.
If a little cooked starch is put into the rinsing water it will add just enough stiffness to launder properly and will give to old linen the appear ance of new.
A little pipe clay dissolved in the water in which the linens are washed will assist in cleansing the more soiled articles, and also in giving them the appearance of having been bleached.
The addition of a teaspoonful of paraffin will assist in removing stains.
A small vegetable brush may be used to apply soap and water to the spots on the coarser linens, and a nail brush is convenient to use on the deli cate fabrics.