Home › Contributions From Friends On Household Economy › Test for Kerosene

Test for Kerosene

Dr. Nichols, the well-known chemist and writer on chemical science, advises the following test for kerosene: Fill a pint bowl two-thirds full of boiling water, and into it put a common metallic thermometer. The temperature will run up to over 200 degrees. By gradually adding cold water, bring down the temperature of the water to 100 degrees, and then pour into the bowl a spoonful of the kerosene, and apply a lighted match. If it takes fire, the article should be rejected as dangerous; if not, it may be used with a confident feeling of its safety. XII. The Laundry-Some Helps in Washing.

THE Germans, and especially the Belgians and Hollanders, are noted for their fine washing. Their method, which does away with the use of soda, is as follows: Dissolve two pounds of soap in about three gallons of water as hot as the hand can bear, and add to this one tablespoonful of turpentine and three of liquid ammonia ; the mixture must then be well stirred, and the linen steeped in it for two or three hours, taking care to cover up the vessel containing them as nearly hermetically as possible. The clothes are afterwards washed out and rinsed in the usual way. The soap and water may be re-heated, and used a second time, but in that case half a tablespoonful of turpentine and a tablespoonful of ammonia must be added. The process will cause a great economy of time, labor and fuel. The linen scarcely suffers at all, as there is little necessity for rubbing, and its cleanliness and color are perfect. The ammonia and turpentine, although their detersive action is great, have no injurious effect upon the linen; and while the former evaporates immediately , the smell of the latter will disappear entirely in drying the clothes