Another mode of preventing the ill effects of damp in walls on wall-paper, is to cover the damp part with a varnish formed of naphtha and shellac, in the proportion of 1/4 lb. of the latter to a quart of the former. The smell of the mixture is unpleasant, but it wears off in a short time, and the wall is covered with a hard coating utterly impervious to damp, and to which the wall paper can be attached in the usual way.
334. No Wet Scouring In Winter
Bedrooms should not be scoured in the winter time, as colds and sickness may be produced thereby. Dry scouring upon the French plan, which consists of scrubbing the floors with dry brushes, may be resorted to, and will be found more effective than can at first be imagined. If a bedroom is wet scoured, a dry day should be chosen—the windows should be opened, the linen removed, and a fire should be lit when the operation is finished.
A Wife's Art is Displayed in a Table Well Laid.
335. To Get Rid of a Bad Smell in a Room Newly Painted.
Place a vessel full of lighted charcoal in the middle of the room, and throw on it two or three handfuls of juniper berries, shut the windows, the chimney, and the door close; twenty-four hours afterwards, the room may be opened, when it will be found that the sickly, unwholesome smell will be entirely gone. The smoke of the juniper berry possesses this advantage, that should anything be left in the room, such as; tapestry, &c., none of it will be spoiled.
336. Smell of Paint
To get rid of the smell of oil paint, let a pailful of water stand in the room newly painted.
337. Airing a Larder
If a larder, by its position, will not admit of opposite windows, a current of air should be admitted by means of a flue from the outside.
338. Keeping a Door Open
To keep a door open, place a brick covered neatly with a piece of carpeting against it, when opened sufficiently.
339. To Ascertain whether a Bed be Aired
Introduce a drinking glass between the sheets for a minute or two, just when the warming-pan is taken out; if the bed be dry, there will only be a slight cloudy appearance on the glass, but if not, the damp of the bed will collect in and on the glass and assume the form of drops—a warning of danger.
340. To prevent the Smoking of a Lamp
Soak the wick in strong vinegar, and dry it well before you use it; the flame will then burn clear and bright.
341. Encrusted Tea-Kettles
Water of every kind, except rain water, will speedily cover the inside of a tea-kettle with an unpleasant crust; this may easily be guarded against by placing a clean oyster-shell or a piece of stone or marble in the tea-kettle. The shell or stone will always keep the interior of the kettle in good order, by attracting the particles of earth or of stone.
342. To Soften Hard Water
To soften hard water. or purify river water, simply boil it, and then leave it exposed to the atmosphere.
343. Cabbage Water
Cabbage water should be thrown away immediately it is done with, and the vessel rinsed with clean water, or it will cause unpleasant smells.
344. Disinfectants
A little charcoal mixed with clear water thrown into a sink will disinfect and deodorize it. Chloride of lime and carbolic acid considerably diluted, if applied in a liquid form, are good disinfectants, and carbolic powder—a pink powder with a smell resembling tar, and sold at about 2d. per lb.—is both useful and effective. The air of a bedroom may be pleasantly sweetened by throwing some ground coffee on a fire shovel previously heated.
345. Chimney Smoking
Where a chimney smokes only when a fire is first lighted, it may be guarded against by allowing the fire to kindle gradually, or by heating the chimney by burning straw or paper in the grate previous to laying in the fire.
346. Ground Glass
The frosted appearance of ground glass may be very nearly imitated by gently dabbing the glass over with a paint brush dipped in white paint or any other oil colour. The paint should be thin, and but very little colour taken up at one time on the end of the bristles. When applied with a light and even touch the resemblance is considerable.
347. Oiling Clocks
Family clocks ought only to be oiled with the very purest oil, purified by a quart of lime water to a gallon of oil, in which it has been well shaken, and suffered to stand for three or four days, when it may be drawn off.
348. Neat Mode of Soldering
Cut out a piece of tinfoil the size of the surfaces to be soldered. Then dip a feather in a solution of sal ammoniac, and wet over the surfaces of the metal, then place them in their proper position with the tinfoil between. Put the metals thus arranged on a piece of iron hot enough to melt the foil. When cold the surfaces will be found firmly soldered together.
Who Never Tries Cannot Win the Prize.
349. Maps and Charts
Maps, charts, or engravings may be effectually varnished by brushing a very delicate coating of gutta-percha solution over their surface. It is perfectly transparent, and is said to improve the appearance of pictures. By coating both sides of important documents they can be kept waterproof and preserved perfectly.
350. Temperature of Furniture
Furniture made in the winter, and brought from a cold warehouse into a warm apartment, is very liable to crack.
351. Paper Fire-Screens
Paper fire-screens should be sized and coated with transparent varnish, otherwise they will soon become soiled and discoloured.
352. Pastilles for Burning
Cascarilla bark, eight drachms; gum benzoin, four drachms; yellow sanders, two drachms; styrax, two drachms; olibanum, two drachms; charcoal, six ounces; nitre, one drachm and a half; mucilage of tragacanth, sufficient quantity. Reduce the substances to a powder, and form into a paste with the mucilage, and divide into small cones; then put them into an oven, used quite dry.
353. Breaking Glass
Easy method of breaking glass to any required Figure.—Make a small notch by means of a file on the edge of a piece of glass, then make the end of a tobacco-pipe, or of a rod of iron of the same size, red hot in the fire, apply the hot iron to the notch, and draw it slowly along the surface of the glass in any direction you please: a crack will follow the direction of the iron.
354. Bottling and Fining
Corks should be sound, clean, and sweet. Beer and porter should be allowed to stand in the bottles a day or two before being corked. If for speedy use, wiring is not necessary. Laying the bottles on their sides will assist the ripening for use. Those that are to be kept should be wired, and put to stand upright in sawdust. Wines should be bottled in spring. If not fine enough, draw off a jugful and dissolve isinglass in it, in the proportion of half an ounce to ten gallons, and then pour back through the bung-hole. Let it stand a few weeks. Tap the cask above the lees. When the isinglass is put into the cask, stir it round with a stick, taking great care not to touch the lees at the bottom. For white wine only, mix with the isinglass a quarter of a pint of milk to each gallon of wine, some whites of eggs, beaten with some of the wine. One white of an egg to four gallons makes a good fining.
355. To Sweeten Casks
Mix half a pint of vitriol with a quart of water, pour it into the barrel, and roll it about; next day add one pound of chalk, and roll again. Bung down for three or four days, then rinse well with hot water.
356. Wrinkly Paintings
Oil paintings hung over the mantel-piece are liable to wrinkle with the heat.
357. To Loosen Glass Stoppers of Bottles
With a feather rub a drop or two of salad oil round the stopper, close to the mouth of the bottle or decanter, which must then be placed before the fire, at the distance of about eighteen inches; the heat will cause the oil to insinuate itself between the stopper and the neck. When the bottle has grown warm, gently strike the stopper on one side, and then on the other, with any light wooden instrument; then try it with the hand: if it will not yet move, place it again before the fire, adding another drop of oil. After a while strike again as before; and, by persevering in this process, however tightly it may be fastened in, you will at length succeed in loosening it.
358. The Best Oil for Lamps
The best oil for lamps, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, is that which is clear and nearly colourless, like water.
359. China or Wedgwood Teapots
China teapots are the safest, and, in many respects, the most pleasant. Wedgwood ware is very apt, after a time, to acquire a disagreeable taste.
The Best Physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Merryman.
360. Care of Linen
When linen is well dried and laid by for use, nothing more is necessary than to secure it from damp and insects. It may he kept free from the latter by a judicious mixture of aromatic shrubs and flowers, cut up and sewed in silken bags, which must be interspersed among the drawers and shelves. The ingredients used may consist of lavender, thyme, roses, cedar shavings, powdered sassafras, cassia, &c., into which a few drops of otto of roses, or other strong-scented perfume may be thrown.
361. Repairing Linen
In all cases it will he found more consistent with economy to examine and repair all washable articles, more especially linen, that may stand in need of it, previous to sending them to the laundry. It will also be prudent to have every article carefully numbered, and so arranged, after washing, as to have their regular turn and term in domestic use.
362. Mending
When you make a new article always save the pieces until "mending day," which may come sooner than expected. It will be well even to buy a little extra quantity for repairs. Read over repeatedly the "
Domestic Hints
" (
pars
.
1783
-
1807
). These numerous paragraphs contain most valuable suggestions, that will be constantly useful if well remembered. They should be read frequently that their full value may be secured. Let your servants also read them, for nothing more conduces to good housekeeping than for the servant to understand the "system" which her mistress approves of.
363. Cleansing of Furniture
The cleaning of furniture forms an important part of domestic economy, not only in regard to neatness, but also in point of expense.
364. Method of Cleansing
The readiest mode indeed consists in good manual rubbing, or the application of a little elbow-grease, as it is whimsically termed; but our finest cabinet work requires something more, where brilliancy of polish is of importance.
365. Italian Varnish
The Italian cabinet-work in this respect excels that of any other country. The workmen first saturate the surface with olive oil, and then apply a solution of gum arabic dissolved in boiling alcohol. This mode of varnishing is equally brilliant, if not superior, to that employed by the French in their most elaborate works.
366. Another Method
But another mode may be substituted, which has less the appearance of a hard varnish, and may always be applied so as to restore the pristine beauty of the furniture by a little manual labour. Heat a gallon of water, in which dissolve one pound and a half of potash; and a pound of virgin wax, boiling the whole for half an hour, then suffer it to cool, when the wax will float on the surface. Put the wax into a mortar, and triturate it with a marble pestle, adding soft water to it until it forms a soft paste, which, laid neatly on furniture, or even on paintings, and carefully rubbed when dry with a woollen rag, gives a polish of great brilliancy, without the harshness of the drier varnishes.
367. Marble Chimney-Pieces
Marble chimney-pieces may also be rubbed with it, after cleaning the marble with diluted muriatic acid, or warm soap and vinegar; but the iron or brass work connected with them requires other processes.
368. Polished Iron Work
Polished iron work may be preserved from rust by an inexpensive mixture, consisting of copal varnish intimately mixed with as much olive oil as will give it a degree of greasiness, adding thereto nearly as much spirit of turpentine as of varnish.
369. Cast Iron Work
Cast iron work is best preserved by the common method of rubbing with black-lead.
370. Rust
If rust has made its appearance on grates or fire-irons, apply a mixture of two parts of tripoli to one of sulphur, intimately mingled on a marble slab, and laid on with a piece of soft leather. Or emery and oil may be applied with excellent effect; not laid on in the usual slovenly way, but with a spongy piece of fig wood fully saturated with the mixture. This will not only clean but impart a polish to the metal as well.
371. Brass
Brass ornaments, when not gilt or lacquered, may be cleaned in the same way, and a fine colour given to them, by two simple processes.
372. First Brass Process
The first is to beat sal ammoniac into a fine powder, then to moisten it with soft water, rubbing it on the ornaments, which must be heated over charcoal, and rubbed dry with bran and whiting.
373. Second Brass Process
The second is to wash the brasswork with roche alum boiled in strong ley, in proportion of an ounce to a pint; when dry, rub it with fine tripoli. Either of these processes will give to brass the brilliancy of gold.
374. Carpets
If the corner of a carpet becomes loose and prevents the door opening, or trips every one up that enters the room, nail it down at once. A dog's-eared carpet marks the sloven as well as the dog's-eared book. An English gentleman, travelling some years ago in Ireland, took a hammer and tacks with him, because he found dog's-eared carpets at all the inns where he rested. At one of these inns he tacked down the carpet, which, as usual, was loose near the door, and soon afterwards rang for his dinner. While the carpet was loose the door could not be opened without a hard push; so when the waiter came up, he just unlatched the door, and then going back a couple of yards, he rushed against it, as his habit was, with a sudden spring, to force it open. But the wrinkles of the carpet were no longer there to stop it, and not meeting with the expected resistance, the unfortunate waiter fell full length into the room. It had never entered his head that so much trouble might be saved by means of a hammer and half a dozen tacks, until his fall taught him that makeshift is a very unprofitable kind of shift. There are a good many houses in England where a similar practical lesson might be of service.
375. Cleaning Carpets
Take a pail of cold water, and add to it three gills of ox-gall. Rub it into the carpet with a soft brush. It will raise a lather, which must be washed off with clear cold water. Rub dry with a clean cloth. Before nailing down a carpet after the floor has been washed, be certain that the floor is quite dry, or the nails will rust and injure the carpet. Fuller's earth is used for cleaning carpets, and weak solutions of alum or soda are used for reviving the colours. The crumb of a hot wheaten loaf rubbed over a carpet has been found effective.
376. Carpet-Beating
Beat a carpet on the wrong side first; and then more gently on the right side. Beware of using sticks with sharp points, which may tear the carpet.
377. Sweeping Carpets
Persons who are accustomed to use tea-leaves for sweeping their carpets, and find that they leave stains, will do well to employ fresh cut grass instead. It is better than tea-leaves for preventing dust, and gives the carpets a very bright, fresh look.
378. Making a Carpet Last Longer
A half-worn carpet may be made to last longer by ripping it apart, and transposing the breadths.
379. Sweeping a Stair-Carpet
A stair carpet should never be swept down with a long broom, but always with a short-handled brush, a dust-pan being held closely under each step of the stairs during the operation of sweeping.
380. Cleaning Oilcloth
Oilcloth should never be scrubbed with a brush, but, after being first swept, it should be cleansed by washing with a large soft cloth and lukewarm or cold water. On no account use soap or hot water, as either will injure the paint, and in time remove it.
381. Cleaning Straw Matting
Straw matting may be cleaned with a large coarse cloth dipped in salt and water, and then wiped dry. The salt prevents the matting from turning yellow.
Eat Not to Dulness — Drink Not To Elevation.
382. Method of Cleaning Paper-Hangings
Cut into eight half quarters a quartern loaf, two days old; it must be neither newer nor staler. With one of these pieces, after having blown off all the dust from the paper to be cleaned, by the means of a good pair of bellows, begin at the top of the room, and, holding the crust in the hand, wipe lightly downward with the crumb, about half a yard at each stroke, till the upper part of the hangings is completely cleaned all round. Then go round again, with the like sweeping stroke downwards, always commencing each successive course a little higher than the upper stroke had extended, till the bottom be finished. This operation, if carefully performed, will frequently make very old paper look almost equal to new. Great care must be taken not to rub the paper hard, nor to attempt cleaning it the cross or horizontal way. The surface of the bread, too, must be always cut away as soon as it becomes dirty, and the pieces renewed as often as may be necessary.
383. Cleaning Rosewood Furniture
Rosewood furniture should be rubbed gently every day with a clean soft cloth to keep it in order.
384. Cleaning Ottomans and Sofas
Ottomans and sofas, covered with cloth, damask, or chintz, will look better for being cleaned occasionally with bran and flannel.
385. Polishing Dining-Tables
Dining tables may be polished by rubbing them for some time with a soft cloth and a little linseed oil.
386. Mahogany
Mahogany frames of sofas, chairs, &c., should be first well dusted, and then cleaned with a flannel dipped in sweet oil or linseed oil.
387. To Clean Cane-bottom Chairs
Turn the chair bottom upwards, and with hot water and a sponge wash the canework well, so that it may become completely soaked. Should it be very dirty you must add soap. Let it dry in the open air, or in a place where there is a thorough draught, and it will become as tight and firm as when new, provided none of the strips are broken.
388. Alabaster
Stains may be removed by washing with soap and water, then whitewashing the stained part, letting it stand some hours, then washing off the whitewash, and rubbing the stained part with a flannel moistened with lukewarm soap and water.