Year: 1874




In the average household few things suffer
more from i'll usuage than porcelain and glass,
especially the finer kinds of such ware. We
copy from the Boston Journal of Chemistry
few practical suggestions ON the best methods
of cleansing and preserving these fragile ma
terials.


One of the most important things is to season
glass and china to sudden change of tempera-
ture, so that they will remain sound after ex
posure to sudden heat and cold. This is best
done by placing the articles in cold water,
which must gradually be brought to the boil
ing point, and then allowed to cool very slow
ly, taking several hours to do it. The Common
e. -sae materials the more care in this respect
is required. The very best glass and china is
always we'll seasoned or annealed, as the man
ufacturers say, before it is sold. If the wares
are properly seasoned in this way, they may
be washed in boiling water without fear of frac-
ture except in frosty weather, when, even, with
the best annealed wares, care must be taken
not to place them suddenly in too hot water
All China that has any gliding upon ii may on
no account be rubbed with cloth Of any kind,
but merely rinsed first in hot and afterwards
in cold water, and then left to drain till dry
If the gliding is very dull and requires polish
ing, it may now and then be rubbed with soft
wash leather and little dry whiting; but this
operation must not be repeated more than once
year, otherwise the gold will be most certain
ly rubbed off and the china spoilt. When the
plates, etc, are put away in the china closet,
pieces of paper should be placed between them
to prevent scratches on the glaze or painting as
the bottom of all ware has little particles of
sand adhering to it, picked up from the oven
wherein it was glazed. The china closet should
be in dry situation, as damp closet will soon
tarrish the gliding of the best crockery.


In a common dinner service, it is great evil
to make the plates too hot, as it invariably
cracks the glaze on the surface, if not the plate
itself. We all know the resut-tcomes apart;
"nobody broke it" ats was cracked before, or
"cracked long time ago." The fact is, when
the glaze is injured, every time the ''thngs'
are washed the water gets to the interior, swells
the porous clay, and makes the whole fabric
rotten. In this condition they will also absorb
grease; and when exposed to farther heat the
grease makes the dishes brown and dscolored.
If an old, ill-used dish be made very hot in
deed, tcaspoonful of fat will be seen to exude
from the minute fssures upon its surface
These latter remarks apply more particularly
to common wares.


As rule, warm water and soft cloth is all
that is required to keep glass in good condi-
ton pure water bottles and wine decanters, in
order to keep them bright must be rlnsed out
with little muriatic acid, which is the best
substance for removing the "fur" which collects
in them. The acid is far better than ashes,
sand or.shot for the ashes and sand scratch
the glass, and if any shot is left in by accident
the lead is poisonous.


Richly cut glass must be cleansed and pol
ished with a soft brush, upon which very lit
tie fine chalk or whiting is put; by this means
the lustre and brlliancy are preserved.