480. Bingham's Patent Wash Mixture

480.    Bingham's Patent Wash Mixture. Take 5 pounds of bar soap, shave fine, add 1 quart of lye, 1/4 ounce pearlash, dissolved over a slow fire. When dissolved, put into a vessel prepared for it to stand in; then add 1/4 pint turpentine, 1 gill hartshorn; stir well, and it is ready for use.

481. To Make Washing Fluid

481.    To Make Washing Fluid. To 1 gallon of common soft soap, (such as is made by the usual method of boiling the lye of wood ashes and fat together), take 4 ounces sal-soda, 1/2 gallon rain or soft water, and 1/2 gill spirits of turpentine; place them all in a pot over the fire, and allow the mixture to boil a few minutes; it is then ready for use, and can be kept in any earthen or stoneware vessel.

482. Washing Made Easy

482.    Washing Made Easy. The washerwomen of Holland and Belgium, so proverbially clean, and who get their linen so beautifully white, used refined borax as washing powder instead of soda, in the proportion of 1/2 a pound of borax powder to 10 gallons of water. They save soap nearly one half. All the large washing establishments adopt the same mode. For laces, cambrics, etc., an extra quantity of powder is used; and for crinolines (requiring to be made stiff) a stronger solution is necessary. Borax, being a neutral salt, does not in the slightest degree injure the texture of the linen. Its effect is to soften the hardest water, and therefore it should be kept on the toilet table.

483. White Lye for Washing

483.    White Lye for Washing. This is made by pouring a pailful of boiling water over 4 or 5 quarts of ashes. Let it stand a while to infuse; then pour in cold water to settle it, when you can pour it off clear. This is very good to boil dirty clothes in. When made nice, is equal to soda, and does not, unless made extremely strong, injure the clothes.

484. To Wash Linen in Salt Water

484.    To Wash Linen in Salt Water. Drop into sea water a solution of soda or potash. It will become milky, in consequence of the decomposition of the earthy salts, and the precipitation of the earths. This addition renders it soft, and capable of washing. Its milkiness will have no injurious effect.

485. To Wash an Alpaca, Mousse-line-de-Laine, or Lama Dress

485.     To Wash an Alpaca, Mousse-line-de-Laine, or Lama Dress that has Bright or Delicate Colors. Boil 1 pound best rice in 1 gallon water for three hours. When boiled, pour off what will be sufficient to starch the dress; wash the dress well in the remainder, rice and all, using the rice for soap; rinse it in clean cold water, wring it well, then starch it with the rice water that was kept for that purpose, and hang it before the fire to dry. When dry enough, iron with a cool iron, as it is liable to scorch. If some parts of the dress get too dry, they must be damped with a wet cloth whilst ironing. No soap must be used. The best way is to boil the rice on the previous day, and merely warm it up the next morning, for then you have the day before you to complete the whole, as the dress must on no account lie damp, even for an hour, or the colors will be sure to run. This receipt will be found equally well suited to delicate painted muslins and piqu'es as to lama and alpaca dresses.