Part 94

(_u_) Bottles which have contained petroleum, wash with thin milk of lime, which forms an emulsion with the petroleum, and removes every trace of it; by washing a second time with milk of lime and a small quantity of lime chloride, even the smell may be so completely removed as to render the vessel, thus cleansed, fit for keeping beer in. If the milk of lime be used warm, instead of cold, the operation is rendered much shorter. (_Ding. Pol. Jl._)

(_v_) Decanters.--There is often much difficulty experienced in cleaning decanters, especially after port wine has stood in them for some time. The best way is to wash them out with a little pearlash and warm water, adding a spoonful or two of fresh slaked lime if necessary. To facilitate the action of the fluid against the sides of the glass, a few small cinders may be used.

(_w_) Ditto.--Soak the decanters for some hours in warm soda and water; if there is much cutting on the outside, a brush will be necessary to remove the dirt and stains from the crevices. Cut a potato into small dice, put a good handful of these into the decanter with some warm water, shake the decanter briskly until the stains disappear; rinse in clean cold water, and let them drain until dry. Vinegar and sauce cruets can be cleaned in the same way.

_Gloves._--Kid. (_a_) Make a strong lather with curd soap and warm water; lay the glove flat on a board, the bottom of a dish, or other unyielding surface; dip a piece of flannel in the lather and well rub the glove with it till all the dirt is out, turning it about so as to clean it all over. Dry in the sun or before a moderate fire. When dry they will look like old parchment, and should be gradually pulled out and stretched. (_b_) Have a small quantity of milk in a cup or saucer, and a piece of brown Windsor or glycerine soap in another saucer. Fold a clean towel or other cloth 3 or 4 times thick, and spread the glove smoothly on the cloth. Dip a piece of flannel in the milk, and rub it well on the soap. Hold the glove firmly with the left hand, and rub it with the flannel towards the fingers. Continue this operation until the glove, if white, appears of a dirty yellow; or, if coloured, until it looks dirty and spoiled, and then lay it to dry. Gloves cleaned by this method will be soft, glossy, and elastic. (_c_) French method: Put the gloves on your hands and wash them in spirits of turpentine until they are quite clean, rubbing them exactly as if washing your hands; when finished, hang them in a current of air to dry and to take off the smell of the turpentine. (_d_) Eau de Javelle, 135 parts; ammonia, 8; powdered soap, 200; water, 150. Make a soft paste, and use with a flannel.

Washleather. (_e_) Take out the grease spots by rubbing with magnesia or with cream of tartar. Then wash with soap dissolved in water as directed for kid gloves, and afterwards rinse, first in warm water and then in cold. Dry in the sun, or before the fire.

Buckskin.--(_f_) To ¼ lb. Paris white add the same quantity of scraped pipeclay and 3 oz. best isinglass; boil all well down, stirring the while. Put the compound on thick, and, when dry, beat it well out by clapping your hands together, &c.; then carefully iron the gloves with a hot smoothing-iron. (_g_) When dirty, wash 3 times in clean warm (not hot) “soap lather.” Put a little blue in, wring them well, then put them in as good a form as you can--as nearly what they should be when dry as practicable. When nearly dry, but sufficiently damp to form to the hand, put them on; if difficult to get on, damp a little; then press or push them off, and when dry (from the fire) they will be as good as new, and white and clean, and not mark anything. (_h_) 1 oz. gum arabic to 1 lb. white lead (powder), free from lumps, to be well dissolved and strained through muslin; afterwards mix your lead stiff and put it by until perfectly hard. Be very careful not to leave water in the box or sponge after using. (_i_) Take ½ lb. prepared chalk, ½ lb. prepared alum, 3 cakes pipeclay, ½ oz. oxalic acid, ½ oz. isinglass, 1 oz. powdered pumice, 1 tablespoonful starch, 6 tablespoonfuls sweet oil, 2 oz. white soap. To be mixed in boiling water; the oxalic acid and prepared alum to be added last.

All gloves are better and more shapely if dried on glove trees or wooden hands.

_Hands._--The hands are apt to be stained or tainted by contact with many substances in everyday use. The following are most common.

Tar. (_a_) Rub with fresh orange or lemon peel.

(_b_) Mix together pulverised extract of liquorice and oil of aniseed to the consistency of thick cream; rub on thoroughly with the hand, then wash off with soap and warm soft water.

Disagreeable Odours. (_c_) Ground mustard, mixed with a little water, is an excellent agent for cleansing the hands after handling disagreeably or strongly odorous substances, such as cod-liver oil, musk, valerianic acid and its salts. Scale-pans and vessels may also be readily freed from odour by the same method. (Schneider.)

(_d_) All oily seeds, when powdered, answer for this purpose. Flax-seed meal, for instance, removes odours as well as mustard. The use of ground almond-cake as a detergent is well known. The explanation of this action is somewhat doubtful, but it is not improbable that the odorous bodies are dissolved by the fatty oil of the seed, and emulsionised by the contact with water. In the case of bitter almonds and mustard, the development of ethereal oil, under the influence of water, may perhaps be an additional help to destroy foreign odours. The author also mentions that the smell of carbolic acid may be removed by rubbing the hands with damp flax-seed meal, and that cod-liver-oil bottles may be cleansed with a little hot sesamé or olive oil. (Huber.)

Silver Nitrate. (_e_) Wash in solution of 10 parts potassium iodide, 1 iodine, 1 ammonia, in 100 water. (Liesegang.)

(_f_) Wash in strong solution of cupric chloride, and, about a minute later, in soda hyposulphite. (Underwood.)

Nitric Acid. (_g_) Wash immediately and put on some lime chloride.

(_h_) On the stain or stains place sufficient caustic soda (the usual reagent strength) with the end of the stopper (if the stain is all covered it will do); gently rub it with any solid for a few seconds, then wash it off; then gently rub the spot with a finger nail, when it will come off almost completely; put on a little dilute hydrochloric acid, when the spot will disappear entirely. If not, repeat the whole process, which will be sure to remove it without the least injury to the hand.

(_i_) Wash the hands in a solution of soda-ash and bleaching powder, add the solution of soda-ash to the bleaching liquor as long as a precipitate forms, then wash; the remaining stains will wear off in time. Wash in this daily till the stains are completely removed.

Potassium Bichromate. (_k_) Rub the stains with a solution of sulphurous acid, and subsequently wash with distilled or soft water. (_l_) To a warm, strong solution of soda hyposulphite add a small quantity of sulphuric acid; this may then be used on the stains with similar effect. (_Photo. News._)

_Ivory and Bone Articles._--(_a_) Spirit of turpentine is very efficacious in removing the disagreeable odour and fatty emanations of bones or ivory, while it leaves them beautifully bleached. The articles should be exposed in the fluid for 3 or 4 days in the sun, or a little longer if in the shade. They should rest upon strips of zinc, so as to be a trifle above the bottom of the glass vessel employed. The turpentine acts as an oxidising agent, and the product of the combustion is an acid liquor which sinks to the bottom, and strongly attacks the ivory if allowed to touch it.

(_b_) Make a thick puddle of common whiting in a saucer. Brush well with a tooth-brush into the curved work. Brush well out with plenty of clean water. Dry gently near the fire. Finish with a clean dry hard brush, adding one or two drops (not more) of sweet oil.

(_c_) Mix about a tablespoonful of oxalic acid in ½ pint boiling water. Wet the ivory over first with water, then with a tooth-brush apply the acid, doing one side at a time, and rinsing; finally dry in a cloth before the fire, but not too close.

(_d_) Take a piece of fresh lime, slake it by sprinkling it with water, then mix into a paste, which apply by means of a soft brush, brushing well into the interstices of the carving; next set by in a warm place till perfectly dry, after which take another soft brush and remove the lime. Should it still remain discoloured, repeat the process, but be careful neither to make it too wet nor too hot in drying off, or probably the article might come to pieces, being most likely glued or cemented together. If it would stand steeping in lime water for 24 hours, and afterwards boiling in strong alum water for about an hour and then dried, it would turn out white and clean. Rubbing with oxide of tin (putty powder) and a chamois leather, will restore a fine gloss afterwards.

(_e_) Well clean with spirits of wine, then mix some whiting with a little of the spirits, to form a paste, and well brush with it. It is best to use a rubber of soft leather where there are no delicate points; put a little soap on the leather, and dip into the paste and rub the ivory until you get a brilliant polish, finish off with a little dry whiting; the leather should be attached to flat wood surface, and rub briskly.

(_f_) When ivory ornaments get yellow or dusky-looking, wash them well in soap and water, with a small brush to clean the carvings, and place them while wet in full sunshine; wet them 2 or 3 times a day for several days, with soapy water, still keeping them in the sun; then wash them again, and they will be beautifully white.

(_g_) Rub with soda bicarbonate applied on a tooth-brush dipped in warm water.

_Leather Goods._--(_a_) Carriage tops that have faded and become grey can be restored by washing with a solution composed of 4 oz. nut-galls, 1 oz. each of logwood, copperas, clean iron filings, and sumach berries; put all but the iron filings and copperas in 1 qt. best white wine vinegar, and heat nearly to boiling point; then add the copperas and iron filings; let stand for 24 hours, and strain off the liquid; apply with a sponge. This is equally good for restoring black cloths.

(_b_) Enamelled leather tops that have been soiled by dust and rain should be washed with soft water and Castile or crown soap. Apply the water with a sponge and then scrub with moderately stiff brush; cleanse with clean water and dry with a “shammy.” Never apply any kind of oil or top dressing without first cleaning the leather.

(_c_) Mouldy Leather.--Remove the surface mould with a dry cloth, and with another cloth apply pyroligneous acid.

(_d_) Russet Leather-covered Mountings.--Remove all stains and dirt by rubbing the leather with a cloth and a little oxalic acid, and restore the colour and finish by the use of salts of lemon (tartaric acid) applied with a woollen cloth. Rub the leather until a good polish is produced.

(_e_) Rubber-covered Mountings.--Rub the covered as well as the metallic parts with a “shammy” and a little tripoli, and finish with a clean woollen cloth.

(_f_) Chamois-leather.--Make a solution of weak soda and warm water, rub plenty of soft-soap into the leather, and allow it to remain in soak for 2 hours, then rub it well until it is quite clean. Afterwards rinse it well in a weak solution composed of warm water, soda, and yellow soap. If rinsed in water only, it becomes hard when dry, and unfit for use. The small quantity of soap left in the leather allows the finer particles of the leather to separate and become soft like silk. After rinsing, wring it well in a rough towel, and dry quickly; then pull it about and brush it well, and it will become softer and better than most new leathers.

(_g_) Morocco Leather.--Strain well over a board, and scour with stiff brush, using tepid water and soft-soap, made slightly acid with oxalic acid; when done, unstrain the leather, and dry in a cool place; do not saturate the leather, but keep the board inclined; when dry, rub a little oil lightly over the surface with a rag.

(_h_) Saddles.--If much soiled, wash the leather with a weak solution of oxalic acid and water, and, when dry, with the watery portion of beef blood. The latter can be preserved by adding a little carbolic acid, and keeping it in a bottle tightly corked.

(_i_) Brown saddles may be cleaned to look as well as new by the use of tepid water and crown soap; if the latter cannot be had, use pure Castile soap.

_Marble_, _Stone_, _Plaster_, _&c._--Marble.--(_a_) Take finely powdered pumice and vinegar; wash the surface with the mixture, and leave it for several hours, then brush hard and wash clean. When dry, rub with whiting and washleather. (_b_) Equal parts caustic potash, quicklime, and soft-soap; make into a thick paste with water, and apply with a brush; leave for about a week, and apply again and again until the stain has disappeared. (_c_) 2 parts soda (carbonate), 1 of pumice, and 1 of finely powdered chalk. Mix into a fine paste with water. Rub this over the marble, and the stains will be removed; then wash with soap and water. (_d_) Wash thoroughly with soda and warm water to remove any grease, and apply oxalic acid by laying a piece of white cotton cloth saturated upon the spots for a short time. If it destroys the polish, repolish with oxide of tin and water applied with a cloth. If the stains are not deep, rub the surface only with the oxalic acid and water upon a small piece of cloth quickly, and wash, to free the marble of acid. Then, to give it a gloss, rub with chalk wet with water. (_e_) Marble figures may be washed clean by putting them out in a heavy shower. (_f_) Spots from sulphur and phosphorus, caused by lucifer-matches, can be extracted from marble by carbon bisulphide. (_g_) Removing rust from marble depends upon the solubility of iron sulphide in a solution of potassium cyanide. Clay is made into a thin paste with ammonium sulphide, and the rust-spot is smeared with the mixture, care being taken that the spot is only just covered. After a lapse of 10 minutes, this paste is washed off, and replaced by one consisting of white bole mixed with a solution of potassium cyanide (1:4), which is in its turn, washed off after a lapse of about 2½ hours. Should a reddish spot remain after washing off the first paste, a second layer may be applied for about 5 minutes. (_h_) Brush the dust off with a piece of chamois, then apply with a brush a good coat of gum arabic about the consistency of thick mucilage, expose it to the sun or wind to dry. In a short time it will peel off. If all the gum should not peel off, wash it with clean water and a clean cloth. If the first application does not have the desired effect, it should be tried again. (_i_) Rub with the following solution: ¼ lb. soft-soap, ¼ lb. whiting, 1 oz. soda, and a piece of blue the size of a walnut; rub it over the marble with a piece of flannel, and leave on for 24 hours, then wash off with clean water, and polish the marble with a piece of flannel or an old piece of felt. (_j_) Take 2 parts common soda, 1 of pumice, and 1 of finely powdered chalk; sift through a fine sieve, and mix with water; rub it well over the marble; then wash the marble over with soap and water. (_k_) To take stains out of white marble, take 1 oz. ox-gall, 1 gill lye, 1½ tablespoonfuls turpentine; mix, and make into a paste with pipeclay; put on the paste over the stain, and let it remain for several days. (_l_) To remove oil-stains, apply common clay saturated with benzine. If the grease has remained on long, the polish will be injured; but the stain will be removed. (_m_) Ironmould or ink-spots may be taken out in the following manner: Take ½ oz. butter of antimony and 1 oz. oxalic acid; dissolve in 1 pint rain-water; add enough flour to bring the mixture to a proper consistency. Lay it evenly on the stained part with a brush, and, after it has remained for a few days, wash off, and repeat the process if the stain be not wholly removed.

Stone.--(_n_) To remove grease from stone steps or passages, pour strong soda and water boiling hot over the spot, lay on a little fullers’ earth made into a thin paste with boiling water, let remain all night, and if the grease be not removed, repeat the process. Grease may sometimes be taken out by rubbing the spot with a hard stone--not hearth-stone--using sand and very hot water, with soap and soda.

Plaster.--(_o_) By means of Dutch rush or shave-grass (_Equisetum hyemale_), or exceedingly fine sandpaper, the plaster must be rubbed over in an equal manner, and in every part. The rubbing, being done in a skilful manner, opens the pores of the plaster; then brush it over with the thick oil used for moulding, which will give it a very pleasing yellow tint, and at the same time great solidity. If, however, a white colour is preferred, soak the cast, after the first operation has been performed, in a stearine bath. If placed in a bath of hot stearine, and allowed to remain 4 hours, it will acquire almost the solidity and the polish of marble.

Alabaster.--(_p_) Make a paste with quicklime and water; spread this well over the discoloured article, and leave on for about 24 hours; then remove with soap and water, applying some friction on parts which are worse than others. (_q_) If not too much discoloured, clean with a strong lye of soap and water. (_r_) The superficial dirt and grease having been removed, wash with diluted muriatic acid.

_Metal Goods._--Brass.--(_a_) Wash with rock alum, boiled in a strong lye in the proportion of 1 oz. to a pint; polish with dry tripoli. (_b_) The government method prescribed for cleaning brass, and in use at all the United States arsenals, is claimed to be the best in the world. The plan is to make a mixture of 1 part common nitric acid and ½ part sulphuric acid, in a stone jar, having also ready a pail of fresh water and a box of sawdust. The articles to be treated are dipped into the acid, then removed into the water, and finally rubbed with sawdust. This immediately changes them to a brilliant colour. If the brass has become greasy, it is first dipped in a strong solution of potash and soda in warm water; this cuts the grease, so that the acid has free power to act. (_c_) Rub the surface of the metal with rottenstone and sweet oil, then rub off with a piece of cotton flannel, and polish with soft leather. (_d_) A solution of oxalic acid rubbed over tarnished brass soon removes the tarnish, rendering the metal bright. The acid must be washed off with water, and the brass rubbed with whiting and soft leather. (_e_) A mixture of muriatic acid and alum dissolved in water imparts a golden colour to brass articles that are steeped in it for a few seconds. (_f_) First boil your articles in a pan with ordinary washing soda, to remove the old lacquer; then let them stand for a short time in dead aquafortis; then run them through bright dipping ditto. Swill all acid off in clean water, and brighten the relieved parts with a steel burnisher; replace in clean water, and dry out in beech sawdust. Next place your work on stove till heated, so that you can with difficulty bear your hand on articles, and apply pale lacquer with brush: the work will burn if heated too much or too rapidly. (_g_) Put a coat of nitric acid over the part you want cleaned, with a piece of rag; as soon as it turns a light yellow, rub it dry, and the brass will present a very clean appearance; if not, repeat. (_h_) Oxalic acid and whiting mixed and applied wet, with brush, and brushed again when dry with soft plate-brush to polish with dry whiting. (_i_) The general idea is to use strong oil of vitriol or a strong solution of oxalic acid. Now, these two substances are very corrosive, and, although they undoubtedly clean the brasswork most effectually, they do mischief in literally eating it away, so that delicate engraving and fine edges soon disappear. In cases of brass name-plates, these acids gradually insinuate themselves underneath the black filling of the letters, generating gas, and forcing it up bit by bit. The best thing to use is lemon pulp: the waste lemon from grog or lemonade does excellently. It should be tied up in a piece of rag, plum-pudding fashion, and when it becomes dry it should be dipped in water. After the brasswork has been rubbed with the lemon it should be well washed with water, and then finished off with rottenstone and oil. One word about brass plates. There is no greater eyesore to those who worship neatness than to see a rim of worn-away paint round the brass plate on the hall door of an otherwise well-appointed house. Such a defect may be easily avoided by cutting out a piece of thick cardboard to the shape of the plate, and covering over with it the paint surrounding the metal during the process of cleaning. Another fatal mistake is to suppose that the black letters require cleaning; they do not, and any efforts in this direction only result in their being gradually worn away. (_j_) Embossed Surfaces.--Make a mixture of 1 part nitric acid, 2 water, and 6 hydrochloric acid. Boil the articles to be cleaned in a strong soda-lye, and then leave them in the above solution, until they become covered with a black layer. Remove from the mixed acids, rinse in plenty of water, and use a fine scratch-brush to remove the black mud. When clean, rinse in hot water, and dry in hot sawdust. Articles thus treated acquire a brilliant lustre. To give a very rich orange-yellow tone to the brass, the nitric acid may be replaced by an equivalent weight of powdered alum. (_k_) Brass Instruments.--If the instruments are very much oxidised or covered with green rust, first wash them with strong soda and water. If not so very bad, this first process may be dispensed with. Then apply a mixture of 1 part common sulphuric acid and 12 of water, mixed in an earthen vessel, and afterwards polish with oil and rottenstone, well scouring with oil and rottenstone, and using a piece of soft leather and a little dry rottenstone to give a brilliant polish. In future cleaning, oil and rottenstone will be found sufficient. (_l_) Take a strip of coarse linen, saturate with oil and powdered rottenstone, put round the tubing of instrument, and work backwards and forwards; polish with dry rottenstone. Do not use acid of any kind, as it is injurious to the joints. To hold the instrument, get a piece of wood turned to insert in the bells; fix in a bench vice. The piece of wood will also serve for taking out any dents you may get in the bells. (_m_) Oil and rottenstone for this purpose are, though very efficacious, objectionable on account of dirt, on account of the oil finding its way to the pistons, and because the instrument cleaned in this manner so soon tarnishes. Dissolve some common soda in warm water, shred into it some scraps of yellow soap, and boil it till the soap is all melted. Then take it from the fire, and when it is cool add a little turpentine, and sufficient rottenstone to make a stiff paste. Keep it in a tin box covered from the air, and if it gets hard, moisten a small quantity with water for use.

Scale-pans.--(_n_) Pour sufficient ammonia in the pan to cover the bottom, and rub briskly till dry with a handful of dry pine sawdust. For very dirty pans, take about 1 dr. potash bichromate, powder it in a mortar, mix it with 2 or 3 times its bulk of concentrated sulphuric acid, and add twice as much water. With this rub the pans (having a care for the fingers), rinse well, and finish with rottenstone.