Show THE LAUNDRY CUPBOARD I Mary Himnnii Abel Instructs Housekeepers House-keepers How to Fit UpI Up-I FOR THE ORDINARY WASH 1 j The laundry cupboard even if it1 t must find accommodation on the upper half of the kitchen pantry is an indis pensasble part of a housekeeping outfit Sooner or later in every well regulated house it must take shape and also very much as we shall describe it And those who think it would be quite LT too much trouble to put this laundry cupboard aU at once in working order would think differently if they could remember the vexations the loss of time and even the serious blunders that have incited them to each purchase pur-chase in their own slowlyaccumulated store A MONEY ADVANTAGE The new print has been ruined for lack of the right chemical to use in washing it The gray stain on the pique kilt remaining obstinate under soap and knuckle treatment the garment gar-ment has been thrown aside as worthless worth-less expensive cleaning powders and soaps have been used because their cheaper Substitutes have not been prepared pre-pared in time A little study put on the matter to begin with a few in telligent purchases an hour for labelling and arranging and you would have been ready for emergencies To the housekeeper who believes in leaving washing to the laundress spots and stains to the chemical cleansesr I and general cleansing to the kitchen maid with the lcep of unlimited patent I appliances it can only be said we do l not seem to have reached that stage I in our industrial development when this scheme will work satisfactorily I The laundress is often Ignorant the chemical cleanser is expensive and even the patent powders and soaps are not warranted to wort without intelligence in the user First in our laundry cupboard will come the materials for the ordinary washing J Soap of a reliable make will be bought by the box and well dried elsewhere else-where only the weeks supply being kept in the cupboard Next washing soap or sodium carbonate car-bonate dissolved and kept in a bottle ready for use The label should indicate indi-cate the strength and the proportion in which it is to be used as one pound to the gallon a pint of the solution to be used with a tubful of water If the washing must be dorie with hydrant water always containing1 as it does more or less lime soda will be almost necessary for softening it which it does by causing the lime in solution to fall out as insoluble calcium carbonate carbon-ate BLUING A CAUSE OF IRONRUST The bluing will come next on the shelf Mrs Richards in the Chemistry Chem-istry of Cooking and < Gleaning tells us that of fifteen specimens of bottle bluing examined not one was found to be anything but Prussian blue a chemical that has now quite superceded the dearer indigo She adds the caution that since Prussian blue Is decomposed alkili in such a manner that its iron can fix itself into the cloth as iron rust unusual care must be taken in rinsing the soap from the clothes before putting them into the bluing water We come now to the chemicals to be used in the more delicate parts of the wash Ammonia to soften the water for the finer flannels and borax for fine muslins or printsboth milder and safer alkalies than soda and soap but too expensive for the entire wash FIXING COLORS We shall also have a small bottle of sugar of lead for fixing the colors in doubtful prints and muslins one teaspoonful tea-spoonful to a pail of water This leads to the removal of spots and stains from clothing and here we tread on ground where we would like to have the chemist as our leader It is 5q fact the dyers art that we are practicing in nowever bungling a way both when we fix the fruit grass or ink stain in the fabric and when with the chemicals at our command we attempt at-tempt their removal I knew an old lady who dyed faded ribbons with tea and set the color with strong soap suds and pokeberry juice with some simple moodant used to play quite a role in home dying Now when the various substances containing coloring matters are inadvertently inad-vertently brought in contact with clothing and linen we have but another illustration of the discomfortthat attends at-tends matter out of placewe do not wish to complete the dyeing process I iwe wish rather to retrace our steps and do so intelligently we must give some study to the subject MOODANTS AND SOLVENTS 15 It is well known to the dyer that a given coloring matter will be greedily taken up by one sort of fiber as wool while another as cotton can only be induced to take and hold it by the help of what is J nown as a moodant Soap is a moodant as we know to our cost when the fruit stain has been fixed in the table linen by washing with soap Now in any case our efforts to remove re-move a spot or stain is to find what the chemists call a solvent or in most cases to transform the coloring matters that we wish to be rid of into others that are colorless or to break them up into such as our great solvent water can act on and carry away We are not to forget in the first place that we cannot shut up in the laundry cupboard our best solvents heat and light Hot water alone is a wonderful i agent The suns rays shining shin-ing on clean country snow or grassplot grass-plot are unequalled bleachers We have in this bleaching a true chemical process a burning or oxidation though without flame The oxygen ofthe air made active by moisture and sunlight and by the vegetative processes going on inthe leaf seizes greedily on many substances especially organic coloring matters This power we utilize when we lay the timeyellowed garment ont on-t e June grass or aid with direct sunlight sun-light the action of the chemical that we apply to a stain It is wejl also to remember that many socaljed stains can be mechanically mechani-cally disIQdged A good hard rub on the wash board does sometimes work wpn er if the fabric will stand it Sufasto removal of stains scrubbing and scouring not to speak of polishing we are far from proficient in this l3 I i J Z I I country our whole search is for easy I ways I A housekeeper of scientific tendencies rejoiced to hear that muriatic acid i would remove the iron stain deposited on the watercloset basin but the woman employed for housecleaning regarded re-garded the suggestion with disfavor I always use brick dust and flannel rag she remarked and sure enough the iron stain proved in this instance to be easily enough removed without chemicals But to return to our laundry cup board it must contain besides the bot tles to be enumerated some wellglazed bowls that are on no account to be mixed with kitchen utensils and a glass rod for rubbing in an acid or other chemical too strong to be touched touch-ed with the hands An ordinary medicine medi-cine dropper will also be found useful MARY HINMAN ABEL |