The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-07
SCIENCE ON WASH DAY
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IMPORTATION BUREAU
BY Frederic j. Haskin. Director
Washington. ID. C.

Washington, D. c., June 6--Science
has invaded the laundry. After SOW
ing the puzzling problems of how
many Galleries of proteid and car
bohydrate we should get when we
buy eleven cents worth of fish, the
microscope and the testrtube have de-
termined how often stiff collar
should stand starching before IL
cracks at the edges. Seriously speak
ing, the problem of making the family
clothing last as long as possible is
hardly secondary to that of making
the family food go as far as possible.
In wartime, textiles are only second
to foods in their value and import
ance in Germany, steps are being
taken to enforce the burial of the dead
in paper garments, so that cloth. may
be saved for the living
The recent Investigations into the
fine points of washing and the mys-
FERROUS reasons for the rapid deter
ioration of some kinds of wash goods
were made by the Mellon Institute OF
Industrial Research, which is connect
ed with the University of Pittsburgh
The research was undertaken at the
instigation of the national association
of laundry-owners, but the results in
clude many points of interest to any
citizen who has clothes and sheets
and tablecloths to wash, neither they
are Numbered at home or in power
laundry.
Few people have any clear idea of
how long a shirt or a collar or a ia
bleCloth ought TO wear, and how often
it ought to stand being Numbered.
With garments used for personal wear
it is a little more difficult to make
comparisons. because some people
give their clothes harder usage than
others. but a napkin or a tablecloth
gets about the same amount of wear
in any household The investigators
took the experience of a certain large
hotel as typical They estimate that
the napkins and tablecloths in this no.
tel have been Numbered 22S times in
the period of two and a half years
since they We're first purchased, and
they are still in perfectly good condi-
ton for further use. Some of the
napkins show Thin spots, but there are
no holes or ragged edges. This is re-
garded as a satisfactory record, indi-
eating that the quality of the linen
was good, and that it had been prop
erly treated and washed. This lot of
linen was of good grade, but not es-
pecially high-priced.
The Investigators find that there are
three essential factors IN the long life
or any piece of wash goods. 1t must
be of good quality to begin with. it
must be properly treated, and it must
be properly washed. The factor of
quality has to be seen to when the
purchase is made. The matter of
proper treatment is deserving of more
attention than it usually gets.
1t is fact not generally realized in
the average household that the life of
any article or garment which is wash
ed regularly depends not only on the
NUMBER OF times it goes to the laun-
dry, but also on how badly soiled it is
II clothes and linen are badly spotted
ana stained they do not last as long
because they must be washed longer
and more vigorously. If you pick up
solled towel or napkin to rub the
dust off your shoes, it may come from
the laundry as clean as the day it was
bought, but its life has been shortened.
A year or two ago any traveller might
have noticed the porters on the Pull
man cars using soiled pillow-slips to
dust the seats and windows, and soiled
towels to shine the passengers shoes.
But the Pullman company does its own
laundry work, on a huge scale, and it
was not long before the company dis
covered that this practice was costing
them heavily in the long run, and they
put stop to it
Particular attention was paid by the
investigators to the life of the starched
collar. This is matter of Importance
to laundries. because whatever portion
of the washing is done at home the
collar goes to the steam laundry. The
| Investigators even state that the rise
| of the power laundry has been prac-
| tically parallel with the growth in
popularity of the starched collar, altho
nowadays the laundries are reaching
cut for all the household work. Many
| laundrleS place mark in cipher or
each collar to keep track of the num-
Der of times it goes thru the wash. In
! the course of the research, a dozen
new collars were taken and put thru
the process of washing and starchine
again and again. These collars had a
life of about forty trips through the
| laundry before they began to crack al
the edges. Similar collars that were
| being worn by customers usually
cracked on about the twentieth trip
showing that the actual wear in use
| accounts for about half the life of {
collar, and wear IN laundering for the
rest. The scientists also state tina
much of the damage to collars is done
by putting them on hastily and taking
them off roughly, so that by exercising
care in these processes, the wearer car
greatly increase the life of a collar.
That exposure to the air in dryini
tends to weaken cloths and fabric
| was shown by another series of tests
| which indicate that clothes SHOULD
| not be left on the line any longer thai
is absolutely necessary. This is espec
tally the case in cities and suburb
| where there is a. considerable amour
of smoke in the air. A handkerchief
was exposed on the roof of cit,
building for % days. At the end o
that time it showed a loss of so pc
cent or three-fifths of its strength.
The substances contained in smok
are known to have an injurious effec
on fabrics. This explains why curtain
usually begin to wear out on the lin
marked by the open sash of the win
dow. Managers of large hotels hav
long realized this fact. and they hav
their curtains washed before they &C
tually begin to look soiled. in orde
to remove the substance deposited b
the smoky air. 1t is said that if thi
practice were generally followed II
private households the life of the aver
age curtain would be considerabl
heightened.
That the washing of fabrics too FIRE