Universal Cleaner

Green soap....... 20 to 25 parts

Boiling water......          750 parts

Liquid ammonia,

caustic......... 30 to 40 parts

Acetic ether........ 20 to 30 parts

Mix.

To Clean Playing Cards

Slightly soiled playing cards may be made clean by rubbing them with a soft rag dipped in a solution of camphor. Very little of the latter is necessary.

To Remove Vegetable Growth from Buildings

To remove moss and lichen from stone and masonry, apply water in which 1 per cent of carbolic acid has been dissolved. After a few hours the plants can be washed off with water.

Solid Cleansing Compound

The basis of most of the solid grease eradicators is benzine and the simplest form is a benzine jelly made by shaking 3 ounces of tincture of quillaia (soap bark) with enough benzine to make 16 fluidounces. Benzine may also be solidified by the use of a soap with addition of an excess of alkali. Formulas in which soaps are used in this way follow: I.—Cocoanut-oil soap. 2 av. ounces Ammonia water.. . 3 fluidounces Solution of potassium........... 1.5 fluidounces

Water enough to

make........... 12 fluidounces

Dissolve the soap with the aid of heat in 4 fluidounces of water, add the ammonia and potassa and the remainder of the water.

If the benzine is added in small portions, and thoroughly agitated, 2.5 fluid-ounces of the above will be found sufficient to solidify 32 fluidounces of benzine.

II

Castile soap, white.     3.5 av. ounces

Water, boiling.....     3.5 fluidounces

Water of ammonia    5 fluidrachms Benzine enough to

make...........    16 fluidounces

Dissolve the soap in  the water, and when cold, add the other ingredients.

To Clean Oily Bottles

Use 2 heaped tablespoonfuls (for every quart of capacity) of fine sawdust or wheat bran, and shake well to cover the interior surface thoroughly; let stand a few minutes and then add about a gill of cold water. If the bottle be then rotated in a horizontal position, it will usually be found clean after a single treatment. In the case of drying oils, especially when old, the bottles should be moistened inside with a little ether, and left standing a few hours before the introduction of sawdust. This method is claimed to be more rapid and convenient than the customary one of using strips of paper, soap solution, etc.

Cork Cleaner

Wash in 10 per cent solution of hydrochloric acid, then immerse in a solution of sodium hyposulphite and hydrochloric acid. Finally the corks are washed with a solution of soda and pure water. Corks containing oil or fat cannot be cleaned by this method.

To Clean Sponges

Rinse well first in very weak, warm, caustic-soda lye, then with clean water, and finally leave the sponges in a solution of bromine in water until clean. They will whiten sooner if exposed to the sun in the bromine water. Then repeat the rinsings in weak lye and clean water, using the latter till all smell of bromine has disappeared. Dry quickly and in the sun if possible.