Save phials and bottles; apothecaries and grocers will give something for them.

Woollens should be washed in very hot suds, and not rinsed; lukewarm water shrinks them. Silk should be washed in water almost cold; hot water turns it yellow. It may be washed in suds made of white soap; but no soap should be put on it. It will not do to smooth all silk with a hot iron; either rub it dry with a soft cloth, or put it between towels, and press it with weights.

How To Take Spots Out Of Cloth

Sal ammoniac, one ounce; rectified spirit, two wine-glasses full; aqua distillata. one and a half pints. Apply with a sponge.

Recipe For Ink

Half a pint of good stale beer, two ounces of galls, half an ounce of copperas, half an ounce of gum arabic pulverized, a quarter of an ounce of rock alum. This is to be kept in a pitcher close to the fire for a week, frequently stirred with a stick, and slightly covered with a large cork. The ink will never mould nor lose its color or substance. It will bear half as much beer for future use. If it thickens, thin it with beer.

How To Take An Impression From A Writing

Add a little sugar to the ink you write with, then lay a sheet of thin unsized paper, damped with a sponge, upon the writing, and pass over it, very lightly, a flat smoothing-iron, moderately heated.

How To Sweeten Casks

When musty it is best to unhead large casks, and whitewash them with quicklime. Or they may be matched with sulphur mixed with a little nitrate of potash, and afterwards well washed. Small casks may be sweetened by washing them first with sulphuric acid, and then with clean water.

How To Preserve Brass Ornaments

Beat sal ammoniac into a fine powder, then moisten it with soft water, rubbing it on the ornaments, which must be heated over charcoal, and rubbed dry with bran and whiting.

How To Color Harness

The color of harness that has become rusty or brown by wear may be restored to a fine black, after the dirt has been sponged off. Boil logwood chips in three quarts of soft water, to which add three ounces of nut-galls finely powdered, and one ounce of alum; simmer the whole together for half an hour, and it will be fit for use. A harness blacking is thus made: Melt two ounces of mutton suet with six ounces of beeswax, then add one ounce of indigo, finely powdered, six ounces of sugar-candy, dissolved in water, and two ounces of soft soap; mix, and simmer over the fire, when add a gill of turpentine. Lay it on with a sponge, and then polish.

How To Preserve Polished Irons From Bust

Polished iron-work may be preserved from rust by a mixture of copal varnish with as much olive oil as will give it a degree of greasiness, adding as much spirit of turpentine as of varnish. The cast-iron work is best preserved by rubbing it with black-lead. But where rust has begun to make its appearance on grates or fire-irons, apply tripoli with half its quantity 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.

How To Clean Kid Gloves

First see that your hands are clean, then put on the gloves and wash them, as though you were washing your hands, in a basin of spirits of turpentine, until quite clean; then hang them up in a warm place, or where there is a good current of air, which will carry off all the smell of the turpentine. This method was brought from Paris, and thousands of pounds have been made by it.

How To Clean German Silver

After using, it should be placed immediately in hot water, washed well, and wiped dry with a soft cloth. Once a week let it be washed in soap-suds, and then cleaned with fine whiting, or prepared chalk, mixed with whiskey or spirits of wine, so as to make a paste, which should afterwards be brushed off. Should this metal become discolored, or spotted by vinegar or other acids, wash it first, and then clean it with sweet oil and powdered rotten-stone.

Blacking

The best blacking for preserving the leather of boots and shoes, and which will make it perfectly watertight, is the following:- Take of yellow wax one ounce and a half, of mutton suet four ounces and a half, horse turpentine half an ounce, ivory black three ounces; melt first the wax, to which add the suet, and afterwards the horse turpentine; when the whole is melted remove it from the fire; mix in gradually the ivory black, constantly stirring till it is cold. This composition is sometimes run into moulds, and sold under the name of blacking balls; when it is used it may be laid or rubbed upon a brush which should be warmed before the fire; it is also the best blacking for every kind of harness; when it is wanted in a large quantity, it may be gently melted in a ladle or pot over a chafing-dish with live coals.

How To Preserve Picture Frames

Varnish the frames with water in which onions have been boiled.

How To Clean A Carpet

Beat the carpet free from dust, and lay it down. To two gallons of water put two ox-galls. Rub it on the carpet with a hand scrubbing-brush.

How To Clean Silk

Pare and slice thin three washed potatoes. Pour on them half a pint of boiling water, and let it stand till cold. Strain the water, and add an equal quantity of alcohol. Sponge the silk on the right side, and when half dry, iron it on the wrong side. The lightest colored silk may be cleaned and brightened by this process; also cloth, velvet, or crape. To iron velvet - lay a damp towel over the bottom of a hot smoothing iron; put on it the wrong side of the velvet, and pass a whisk brush over the pile till the surface is free from wrinkles.

How To Renew Scorched, Or Browned Linen

This is an accident attributable entirely to the ignorance of the laundress, in not knowing how to regulate the heat of her irons. To remedy this:- Add to a quart of vinegar the juice of half a dozen large onions, about an ounce of soap rasped down, a quarter of a pound of fullers' earth, one ounce of lime, and one ounce of pearlash, or any other strong alkali. Boil the whole until it is pretty thick, and lay some of it on the scorched part, suffering it to dry. Repeat this process for one or two washings.