ON WASHING.
There is nothing, which tends more effectually to secure good washing,
than a full supply of all conveniences; and among these, none is more
important, than an abundance of warm and cold water: but, if this be
obtained, and heated, at a great expense of time and labor, it will be
used in stinted measure. The accommodations described on page 275, (Fig.
34,) are very convenient in this respect.
_Articles to be provided for Washing._
A plenty of soft water is a very important item. When this cannot be
had, ley or soda can be put in hard water, to soften it; care being used
not to put in so much, as to injure the hands and clothes. Two
wash-forms are needed; one for the two tubs in which to put the suds,
and the other for blueing and starching-tubs. Four tubs, of different
sizes, are necessary; also, a large _wooden_ dipper, (as metal is apt
to rust;) two or three pails; a grooved wash-board; a clothes-line,
(sea-grass, or horse-hair is best;) a wash-stick to move clothes, when
boiling, and a wooden fork to take them out. Soap-dishes, made to hook
on the tubs, save soap and time. Provide, also, a clothes-bag, in which
to boil clothes; an indigo-bag, of double flannel; a starch-strainer, of
coarse linen; a bottle of ox-gall for calicoes; a supply of starch,
neither sour nor musty; several dozens of clothes-pins, which are cleft
sticks, used to fasten clothes on the line; a bottle of dissolved gum
Arabic; two clothes-baskets; and a brass or copper kettle, for boiling
clothes, as iron is apt to rust. A closet, for keeping all these things,
is a great convenience. It may be made six feet high, three feet deep,
and four feet wide. The tubs and pails can be set on the bottom of this,
on their sides, one within another. Four feet from the bottom, have a
shelf placed, on which to put the basket of clothes-pins, the line,
soap-dishes, dipper, and clothes-fork. Above this, have another shelf,
for the bottles, boxes, &c. The shelves should reach out only half way
from the back, and nails should be put at the sides, for hanging the
wash-stick, clothes-bag, starch-bag, and indigo-bag. The
ironing-conveniences might be kept in the same closet, by having the
lower shelf raised a little, and putting a deep drawer under it, to hold
the ironing-sheets, holders, &c. A lock and key should be put on the
closet. If the mistress of the family requests the washerwoman to notify
her, when she is through, and then ascertains if all these articles are
put in their places, it will prove useful. Tubs, pails, and all hooped
wooden ware, should be kept out of the sun, and in a cool place, or they
will fall to pieces.
_Common Mode of Washing._
Assort the clothes, and put them in soak, the night before. Never pour
hot water on them, as it sets the dirt. In assorting clothes, put the
flannels in one lot, the colored clothes in another, the coarse white
ones in a third, and the fine clothes in a fourth lot. Wash the fine
clothes in one tub of suds; and throw them, when wrung, into another.
Then wash them, in the second suds, turning them wrong side out. Put
them in the boiling-bag, and boil them in strong suds, for half an hour,
and not much more. Move them, while boiling, with the clothes-stick.
Take them out of the boiling-bag, and put them into a tub of water, and
rub the dirtiest places, again, if need be. Throw them into the
rinsing-water, and then wring them out, and put them into the
blueing-water. Put the articles to be stiffened, into a clothes-basket,
by themselves, and, just before hanging out, dip them in starch,
clapping it in, so as to have them equally stiff, in all parts. Hang
white clothes in the sun, and colored ones, (wrong side out,) in the
shade. Fasten them with clothes-pins. Then wash the coarser white
articles, in the same manner. Then wash the colored clothes. These must
not be soaked, nor have ley or soda put in the water, and they ought not
to lie wet long before hanging out, as it injures their colors.
Beef's-gall, one spoonful to two pailfuls of suds, improves calicoes.
Lastly, wash the flannels, in suds as hot as the hand can bear. Never
rub on soap, as this shrinks them in spots. Wring them out of the first
suds, and throw them into another tub of hot suds, turning them wrong
side out. Then throw them into hot blueing-water. Do not put blueing
into suds, as it makes specks in the flannel. Never leave flannels long
in water, nor put them in cold or lukewarm water. Before hanging them
out, shake and stretch them. Some housekeepers have a close closet, made
with slats across the top. On these slats, they put their flannels, when
ready to hang out, and then burn brimstone under them, for ten minutes.
It is but little trouble, and keeps the flannels as white as new. Wash
the colored flannels, and hose, after the white, adding more hot water.
Some persons dry woollen hose on stocking-boards, shaped like a foot and
leg, with strings to tie them on the line. This keeps them from
shrinking, and makes them look better than if ironed. It is also less
work, than to iron them properly.
Bedding should be washed in long days, and in hot weather. Pound
blankets in two different tubs or barrels of hot suds, first well mixing
the soap and water. Rinse in hot suds; and, after wringing, let two
persons shake them thoroughly, and then hang them out. If not dry, at
night, fold them, and hang them out the next morning. Bedquilts should
be pounded in warm suds; and, after rinsing, be wrung as dry as
possible. Bolsters and pillows can be pounded in hot suds, without
taking out the feathers, rinsing them in fair water. It is usually best,
however, for nice feathers, to take them out, wash them, and dry them on
a garret floor. Cotton comforters should have the cases taken off and
washed. Wash bedticks, after the feathers are removed, like other
things. Empty straw beds once a year.
The following cautions, in regard to calicoes, are useful. Never wash
them in very warm water; and change the water, when it appears dingy, or
the light parts will look dirty. Never rub on soap; but remove grease
with French chalk, starch, magnesia, or Wilmington clay. Make starch for
them, with coffee-water, to prevent any whitish appearance. Glue is good
for stiffening calicoes. When laid aside, not to be used, all stiffening
should be washed out, or they will often be injured. Never let calicoes
freeze, in drying. Some persons use bran-water, (four quarts of
wheat-bran to two pails of water,) and no soap, for calicoes; washing
and rinsing in the bran-water. Potato-water is equally good. Take eight
peeled and grated potatoes to one gallon of water.
_Soda-Washing._
A very great saving in labor is secured, by _soda-washing_. There have
been mistakes made in receipts, and in modes of doing it, which have
caused a prejudice against it; but if the soap be rightly made, and
rightly used, _it certainly saves one half the labor and time of
ordinary washing_.
_Receipt for Soda-Soap._
Take eight pounds of bar-soap, eight pounds of coarse soda, (the
sub-carbonate,) ten gallons of soft water, boiled two hours, stirring it
often. This is to be cooled, and set away for use. In washing, take a
pound of this soap, to the largest pail of water, and heat till it
boils. Having previously soaked the white clothes, in _warm_, not _hot_,
water, put them in this boiling mixture, and let them boil _one hour and
no more_. Take them out, draining them well, and put them in a tub, half
full of soft water. Turn them wrong side out; rub the soiled places,
till they look clean; then put them into blue rinsing-water, and wring
them out. They are then ready to hang out. Some persons use another
rinsing-water. The colored clothes and flannels must not be washed in
this way. The fine clothes may be first boiled in this water; it may
then be used for coarser clothes; and afterward, the brown towels, and
other articles of that nature, may be boiled in the same water. After
this, the water which remains, is still useful, for washing floors; and
then, the suds is a good manure to put around plants.
It is best to prepare, at once, the whole quantity of water to be used.
Take out about one third, and set it by; and every time a fresh supply
of clothes is put in, use a portion of this, to supply the waste of a
former boiling.
_Modes of Washing Various Articles._
_Brown Linens_, or _Muslins_, of tea, drab, or olive, colors, look best,
washed in hay-water. Put in hay enough, to color the water like new
brown linen. Wash them first in lukewarm, fair water, without soap,
(removing grease with French chalk,) then wash and rinse them in the
hay-water.
_Nankeens_ look best, washed in suds, with a teacup of ley added for
each pailful. Iron on the wrong side. Soak new nankeens in ley, for one
night, and it sets the color perfectly.
_Woollen Table-Covers_ and _Woollen Shawls_, may be washed thus: Remove
grease as before directed. If there be stains in the articles, take them
out with spirits of hartshorn. Wash the things in two portions of hot
suds, made of white soap. Do not wring them, but fold them and press the
water out, catching it in a tub, under a table. Shake, stretch, and dry,
neither by the sun nor a fire, and do not let them freeze, in drying.
Sprinkle them three hours before ironing, and fold and roll them tight.
Iron them heavily on the wrong side. _Woollen yarn_, should be washed in
very hot water, putting in a teacupful of ley, and no soap, to half a
pailful of water. Rinse till the water comes off clear.
_New Black Worsted and Woollen Hose_, should be soaked all night, and
washed in hot suds, with beef's-gall, a tablespoonful to half a pail of
water. Rinse till no color comes out. Iron on the wrong side.
_To Cleanse Gentlemen's Broadcloths._ The common mode, is, to shake, and
brush the articles, and rip out linings and pockets; then to wash them
in strong suds, adding a teacupful of ley, using white soap for light
cloth; rolling and then pressing, instead of wringing, them; when dry,
sprinkling them, and letting them lie all night; and ironing on the
wrong side, or with a thin dark cloth over the article, until
_perfectly_ dry. But a far better way, which the writer has repeatedly
tried, with unfailing success, is the following: Take one beef's-gall,
half a pound of salæratus, and four gallons of warm water. Lay the
article on a table, and scour it thoroughly, in every part, with a
clothes-brush, dipped in this mixture. The collar of a coat, and the
grease-spots, (previously marked by stitches of white thread,) must be
repeatedly brushed. Then, take the article, and rinse it up and down in
the mixture. Then, rinse it up and down in a tub of soft cold water.
Then, without wringing or pressing, hang it to drain and dry. Fasten a
coat up by the collar. When perfectly dry, it is sometimes the case,
with coats, that nothing more is needed. In other cases, it is necessary
to dampen the parts, which look wrinkled, with a sponge, and either pull
them smooth, with the fingers, or press them with an iron, having a
piece of bombazine, or thin woollen cloth, between the iron and the
article.
_To manufacture Ley, Soap, Starch, and other Articles used in Washing._
_To make Ley._ Provide a large tub, made of pine or ash, and set it on a
form, so high, that a tub can stand under it. Make a hole, an inch in
diameter, near the bottom, on one side. Lay bricks, inside, about this
hole, and straw over them. To every seven bushels of ashes, add two
gallons of unslacked lime, and throw in the ashes and lime in alternate
layers. While putting in the ashes and lime, pour on boiling water,
using three or four pailfuls. After this, add a pailful of cold soft
water, once an hour, till all the ashes appear to be well soaked. Catch
the drippings, in a tub, and try its strength with an egg. If the egg
rise so as to show a circle as large as a ten cent piece, the strength
is right; if it rise higher, the ley must be weakened by water; if not
so high, the ashes are not good, and the whole process must be repeated,
putting in fresh ashes, and running the weak ley through the new ashes,
with some additional water. _Quick-ley_ is made by pouring one gallon of
boiling soft water on three quarts of ashes, and straining it. Oak ashes
are best.
_To make Soft-Soap._ Save all drippings and fat, melt them, and set them
away, in cakes. Some persons keep, for soap-grease, a half barrel, with
weak ley in it, and a cover over it. To make soft-soap, take the
proportion of one pailful of ley to three pounds of fat. Melt the fat,
and pour in the ley, by degrees. Boil it steadily, through the day, till
it is ropy. If not boiled enough, on cooling, it will turn to ley and
sediment. While boiling, there should always be a little oil on the
surface. If this does not appear, add more grease. If there is too much
grease, on cooling, it will rise, and can be skimmed off. Try it, by
cooling a small quantity. When it appears like gelly, on becoming cold,
it is done. It must then be put in a cool place and often stirred.
_To make cold Soft-Soap_, melt thirty pounds of grease, put it in a
barrel, add four pailfuls of strong ley, and stir it up thoroughly. Then
gradually add more ley, till the barrel is nearly full, and the soap
looks _about right_.
_To make Potash-Soap_, melt thirty-nine pounds of grease, and put it in
a barrel. Take twenty-nine pounds of light ash-colored potash, (the
_reddish_-colored will spoil the soap,) and pour hot water on it; then
pour it off into the grease, stirring it well. Continue thus, till all
the potash is melted. Add one pailful of cold water, stirring it a great
deal, every day, till the barrel be full, and then it is done. This is
the cheapest and best kind of soap. It is best to sell ashes and buy
potash. The soap is better, if it stand a year before it is used;
therefore make two barrels at once.
_To make Hard White Soap_, take fifteen pounds of lard, or suet; and,
when boiling, add, slowly, five gallons of ley, mixed with one gallon of
water. Cool a small portion; and, if no grease rise, it is done: if
grease do rise, add ley, and boil till no grease rises. Then add three
quarts of fine salt, and boil it; if this do not harden well, on
cooling, add more salt. Cool it, and if it is to be perfumed, melt it
next day, put in the perfume, and then run it in moulds, or cut it in
cakes. _Common Hard Soap_, is made in the same way, by using common fat.
_To manufacture Starch_, cleanse a peck of unground wheat, and soak it,
for several days, in soft water. When quite soft, remove the husks, with
the hand, and the soft parts will settle. Pour off the water, and
replace it, every day, with that which is fresh, stirring it well. When,
after stirring and settling, the water is clear, it is done. Then
strain off the water, and dry the starch, for several days, in the sun.
If the water be permitted to remain too long, it sours, and the starch
is poor. If the starch be not well dried, it grows musty.