Stains on Locknit

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 71, 1 November 1940, Page 44

Stains on Locknit

Dear Aunt Daisy, Please can some learned reader give me a namesake of yours a means to remove olive oil from locknit night wrap-pers-both old and new stains, in old and new garments. I’ve received so much help from your very excellent paper, I trust this will prove fruitful. — "Daisy" (Christchurch Public Hospital). Well, we must do what we can, Daisy, to live up to our reputation. Olive Oil stains are very difficult to remove completely, especially old ones, and artificial silk presents difficulties of its own, for some solvents have a detrimental effect upon it. In its early stages, some years ago, this material was still more difficult to deal with, and I remember receiving a letter from a listener who had soaked an artificial silk garment in some solution, only to find that the article had completely disappeared! However, this does not happen nowadays, and I would advise you to try soaking the wrappers in eucalyptus for some hours, and then washing in warm soft suds with a drop or two of ammonia added. You could repeat the treatment two or three times, if the first seems to show any hopeful result. Carbon-tetra-chloride is another excellent remedy-leave the stain soaking for a long time, and then wash as before. If neither of these methods is any good, get the chemist to make you up equal parts of benzol and ether, and use that in the same way. I think the new stains will be fairly easily removed, but I am not sure of the older ones. Will you write again and tell us what success you have? 7 Pee as