Classic Cook Books
< last page | next page >
page 190
them out, and they will be perfectly clean and white. This soap can be made for
two cents per pound.
Ley and Soda Preparation for Washing Clothes.
To sixteen gallons of water, put one gallon of lime water; twelve ounces of soft
soap, or if hard soap it must be first melted, and four ounces of soda; put them
together in your wash kettle, and when nearly boiling, put in the clothes, being
careful to have them as much of a kind as possible; they should be wet first
with common water; boil one hour, then wash, scald and blue as usual. The
limestone should remain in the water at least four days before it is used, and
be about of the strength of limewater for drinking, and the same stone will do
for several times if good. The ley will do for boiling a second set of clothes
by adding a little more, and afterwards for towels and coarse things. Prints and
flannels must not be boiled.
Volatile Soap,
And Directions for Washing Clothes.
Cut up three pounds of country hard soap into three pints of strong ley; simmer
it over the fire until the soap is dissolved, and add to it three ounces of
pearl-ash: pour it into a stone jar, and stir in half a pint of spirits of
turpentine, and a gill of spirits of hartshorn; cover the jar tight, and tie a
cloth over it.
To use the soap, have a tub half full of water as hot as you can bear your hands
in; assort the clothes, and, beginning with the cleanest of them, rub a small
quantity of the soap on the soiled parts of each article, and immerse them in
the water one by one, until it will cover no more: let them soak for fifteen or
twenty
< last page | next page >
Classic Cook Books
|