The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-02-19
To SOAK OR NOT TO SOAK
That Is an Important Question Dis
cussed Sunday Night.
What Chemistry Says and What the '.Black
aTamnies'' of the South Did
About the Laundry.

''lo soak or not to soak" is question
important in any consideration of laundry
methods. Very much has been said on
both sides-much more remains unsaid.
Safety seems to me to lie somewhere
along what the Irishman calls the "middle
exthreme.''
That is to say, while dirt is unquestion-
ably removed with less of wear aud tear
after it is freely softened, any long lying
in any alkaline solution is not merely in
furious to fibre and fabric, but has ten
dency to fix dirt through chemical reac-
ton.
This is all the more likely to be the case
If washing fluids or powders are in use.
The fluids almost invariably contain am
monia or chloride of lime, with a proper
ton OF borax. With powders it 10 much
the same. They are for the most part
formed OF soap too hard TO dissolve readily
that has been sliced, dried, crushed and
mixed with powdered borax or potash.
All the vegetable oils SO largely used by
soap makers throw down, by Standing,
fatty solid, known to the trade as
''foots.' 1t is this solid, sopari fled with
the very strongest alkalies. which sup
piled the soap for grinding into pow
ders. Naturally when free alkali is
added to the powder the strength
OF it is dangerously increased.
HOW TO USE WASHING POWDERS.
Still these washing powders and fluids
can be used with safety if proper care is
taken. Where the wash water 10 hard.
tablespoonful of either powder or fluid
may be stirred with advantage through
each tubful before putting in the clothes.
1t s0ftens the water and saves the dis
agreeable, gritty feeling OF hands and
wrists.
But never. by any means, add either
while garments are in the water. To do
so is to invite the premeditated poverty
of patches. 1t is likely to rest on the
cloth instead of dissolvlng or blending
with the water. Invariably, then, the
strong alkali will eat holes, great or
small, sometimes a fine powdering ell
over as though the garment had been
peppered with shot, sometimes taking out
Jagged spots the bigness Of your palm.
OPINION OF THE BLACK MAStMIEs.
Black mammies down south in The DAYS
when they were past mistresses of Iaun-
dry work held f'soaking over night in
adherence.
Their practice was to wet soiled clothes
thoroughly with water barely lukewarm,
let them lie for perhaps ten minutes ''to
soften the dirt, - then soap and rub and
boil and rinse. And certainly their clothes
We're of a cleaner white than the tradi-
tlonal driven snow, and sweet-smelling as
new cut grass land.
KEROSENE AS a BLEACH.
Half a teacup of kerosene added to a
boiler of clothes helps to Written them
without injury to the texture. Very
yellow pieces should have turpentine-the
spirits, not the gum-in place OF kero-
sene.
The main objection to overnight soak
ing is that it does too much. First, the
soak, or all1ah, combines with the dirt.
rendering it soluble. But by standing
twelve hours or SO, new compounds are
formed, not so evident, it may be, as the
original soilure, but really not less un-
clean and much harder to remove. That
is why clothes come so often from the tub
and ironing board full of dead, heavy
smell.
The weight OF authority seems to in6i-
cate this pattern of wash day
Rise early, breakfast moderately late.
Before the meal, put your clothes to soak,
first wetting them thoroughly in clear
water.
ADVANTAGES OF SOAP JELLY.
You will save time by dissolving your
soap. To do it expeditiously cut a cake
in fine shavings over night and first thing
in the morning pour enough water over it
to make q clear jellylike mass. OF this
soap jelly stir enough into tub OF water
to make a moderate lather. Put in
the pieces without further soaking and
let them remain till breakfast is out of
the way. Half cup of spirits of turpen-
tine put in with the soap before dissolving
adds to its cleansing power.
Soap thus softeued is n mighty saving
of muscular effort. Have it thick enough
to dip comfortably with the scooped finger
tips and one wrist motion will accom-
plish what would otherwise require pain
full rubbing.
a last word. If your conscience or your
convenience demands over night soaking
be sure your clothes are SO weighted as to
remain wholly under water, Air is neces-
sary to the mysterious germs that fructify
in darkness. If air is shut wholly away
you shut away likewise a possibility of
finding some lurking plague enmeshed in
your clean clothes.