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Classic
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page 467
soft water so that it may not rot. This amount of cloth may be bleached in
fourteen or fifteen minutes.
A POLISH FOR LEATHER.
Put a half pound of shellac broken up in small pieces into a quart bottle or
jug, cover it with alcohol, cork it tight, and put it on the shelf in a warm
place; shake it well several times a day, then add a piece of camphor as large
as a hen's egg; shake it well, and in a few hours shake it again and add one
ounce of lamp-black. If the alcohol is good, it will all be dissolved in two
days; then shake and use. If the materials were of the proper kind, the polish
correctly prepared, it will dry in about five minutes, giving a gloss equal to
patent leather. Using aniline dyes instead of the lampblack, you can have it any
desired color, and it can be used on wood or hard paper.
TO SOFTEN WATER.
Add half a pound of the best quick lime dissolved in water to every hundred
gallons. Smaller proportions may be more conveniently managed, and if allowed to
stand a short time the lime will have united with the carbonate of lime, and
been deposited at the bottom of the receptacle. Another way is to put a gallon
of lye into a barrelful of water, or two or three shovels full of wood-ashes,
let stand over night; it will be clear and soft.
WASHING FLUID.
One gallon of water and four pounds of ordinary washing soda, and a quarter of a
pound of soda. Heat the water to boiling hot, put in the soda, boil about five
minutes, then pour it over two pounds of unslaked lime, let it bubble and foam
until it settles, turn it off and bottle it for use. This is the article that is
used in the Chinese laundries for whitening their linen, and is called "Javelle
water;" a tablespoonful put into a suds of three gallons, and a little, say a
quarter of a cupful, in the boiler when boiling the clothes, makes them very
white and clear. Must be well-rinsed afterwards. This preparation will remove
tea stains, and almost all ordinary stains of fruit, grass, etc. This fluid
brightens the colors of colored clothes, does not rot them, but should not be
left long in any water; the boiling, sudsing, rinsing and blueing, should be
done in quick succession, until the clothes are ready to hang on the line.
HARD SOAP. (Washing.)
Six pounds of washing soda, and three of unslaked lime. Pour on four gallons of
boiling water, let it stand until perfectly clear, then drain off, and put in
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