SOAP-SUDS

Chronicle (Levin), 30 September 1946, Page 7

SOAP-SUDS

(Contributed by the Sarah Anne Rhodes Fellowship, in Home Science.) Boiled Home-made Soap. — 11b of . caustic soda, 3 pints of cold water, 5lbs of fat, ^lb resin, 5 quarts of water. Put 11b of caustic soda in the 3 pints of cold water in an enamel basin at night. Next day put 5 quarts of water in the copper or other suitable contamer, adding olbs of clean fat, Jlb crushed resin.' Bring to boiling point and add slowly the soda and water that have been soaking overnight. Boil ali slowly for half an hour. Be careful to boil slowly to prevent the mixture from boiling over. Kemove from fire or copper and pour into a container to set. Kerosene tinh cut sideways make good eontainers. Next day cut blocks with stout cord or small pliable wire. Store for four to six weeks before using. If desired £lb of barox or two tablespoons of waterglass may be well stirred into the soap before it is removed from the fire. Clever Mary. — 1 eake of sandsoap, 2 cups of boiling water, 1 small packet of soap extract, 1 cup of boiling water. Slired the cake of sandsoap iiuely and dissolve it in two cups of boiling water, stirring until suiooth. Dissolve the soap extract in the oue cup of boiliug water and stir until dissolved. Stir tlie two mixtures together until a paste of fairly smootli consistency is foriued. Pour into tius while still hot. Mechanic's Hand Soap (paste). — 3 Ibs." of liome-niade soap, 6 cups of water (7 if soap is very dry), 1 tablespoon of borax, 3ozs. of light mineral oil, 5lbs of powdered pumice stone. Sliave 31bs of home-made soap and iiielt it in 6 cups of water. Add I tablespoon of borax and 3ozs. of liglit mineral oil. Wlieu this is tho'rougiily blended, allow it to cool to a thic.k consistency and work in 5ibs of pumice stone powder. Keep in a can or glass jar. Cover tightly to prevent the paste from drying out. This recipe makes l'llbs. Recipe for Clear Starch (boiled). — 24 tablespoons starch (level measure), 4 teaspoon of borax (to make less 1 viscous and more pliable). Mix the starch and borax to a smootli paste anil thoroughly stir until the mixture is quite clear. Strain, dividing • starch if necessary into that required for whites whicli sliould be put through hot starch, and that required for - coloured articles whicli may bleed or ! fade with lieat and therefore require " cool starch. Water Softeners. — Soap may lie saved by spfteniilg water with washing soda before the soap is added. Hardness is due to ininerals in solution in the water. Water can be softened by -adding an alkali whicli unites with the miuerals. If soap is used for softeniug water, it ; combines with the miuerals to form a 1 scum around the edge of the tui). This mineral soap gets into the fibres of : elothes, giving a grey appearance. This . is wasted soap. If a cheap water softener is used before the soap is 1 added, all the soap will form suds. Oonimon household WatCr-softeners are washing soda, borax and ammonia. • Washinga soda is the strongest and therefore the cheapest.^ It can be purchased at any gt oe^r's. Javelle Water, (bleach.for cottons and linens). — 11b washing soda, 1 quart of cold water, 11b of bleaching powder (chloride of lime). Dissolve the soda in the water and add bleaching powder. Stir well and strain through muslin, then put "into a glass-stoppered. bottle. To usd: Stretch the stain across tlie mouth of a cup and drop Javelle water Oh with a glass rod. Dip another glass rod into oxalic acid solution and drop 011 stain alternately. Rinse and repeat process. When the stain is removed, wash the materiai well to remove bleach. Home-maide Stain. — loz. of pennauganate of potash (Condy's crystals), 1 quart of warm water. Mix well until all the crystals are dissolved to form a violet liquid. To use: Make a homeuiade mop by firmly fastening stips of cloth to the end of a stick. Test the stain on an iuconspicuous place 011 the floor or 011 a piece of the same lioard as the floor. Dilute with more water if too dark. Spread evenly and not too thickly and wipe ofl; excess liquid at once with a piece of old soft cloth. Two Good Hints. — Here are two ways of using up seraps of soap wliich are always being left over in the kitchen or batliroom. 1. Get an empty tin, about the size of a 71b treacle tin, give it a wire handle and" into it put all the soap seraps. Fill it with water and set it 011 the back of the stove. This makes un excellent soap jelly for use when disli washing, and is mucli more ecouomicttl than soap powder. If tlie seraps of soap are added from time to time and the water in tlie tin replenislied as the soap jelly is used up, there will ahvavs be a ready supply. 2. Seraps" of toilet soap, whicli are always being found in the batliroom, can be tied in a piece of open-weave materiai and used in the back porch or kitchen for washing hands. This will not only use up the seraps of soap lmt will also save waste of the larger cakes of soap.