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Removal of Spots and Stains: Mildew

Mildew. Mildew is a fungous growth of certain parasitic plants.

It forms on cloth that is exposed to dampness in patches of various colors, red, black, yellow, or even green. Various substances may be used to prevent its forming. Mildew produces a stain which is very refractory. The treatment depends upon the nature of the fabric and the extent and depth of the stain, and varies from simple remedies, such as soap, lemon juice and salt, and the like, to chloride of lime and the more powerful acids. Other substances recommended are French chalk, starch, and buttermilk. These must, of course, be used with proper caution and a due regard to the liability of injury to the fabric. They should be afterwards assisted by the bleaching agencies of air and sunshine. To Prevent Mildew. - Canvas, duck, and similar fabrics used for awnings, tents, and the like may be preserved against mildew by first soaking them in strong suds made by dissolving pound of hard white or yellow soap in 2 gallons of water, and afterwards immersing the fabric, for a period of 24 hours, in a solution of 1 pound of alum dissolved in 1 gallon of water.

To Remove Mildew. - Dissolve 1 ounce of chloride of lime in 1 pint of boiling water; then add 3 pints of cold water. Soak the article in this from 3 to 12 hours. Remove, rinse thoroughly, and send to the laundry, If the chloride of lime is not thoroughly washed out the fabric may be injured.

Or rub the spot with good yellow soap, wash, and while wet rub powdered chalk into it and cover with a layer of chalk. Lay the article on the grass in the sun and sprinkle clear water over it. Repeat this treatment until the mildew is removed.

Or mix pound of soap jelly with 2 ounces of starch, 1 ounce of salt, and the juice of 1 lemon. Pour over the stain, or apply with a brush.

Iron Rust. - Stains from iron rust (or "iron mold," as they are sometimes called) yield readily to both muriatic acid and oxalic acid, but as the latter is less injurious to fabrics, a hot solution of it gives most satisfaction. Other substances recommended to remove iron rust are salts of lemon, lemon juice, salt, cream of tartar, and various admixtures of these. In all cases wet the stained fabric, apply the cleansing substance, and hold in the steam of a teakettle, or expose to direct sunshine, spreading on the grass when convenient until the stain is removed. Repeat the treatment as often as is necessary.

To make salts of lemon, mix equal parts of cream of tartar and powdered salt of sorrel. Wet the spot, and apply dry salts to the wet surface.

Or mix lemon juice with salt and cover thickly.

Or use equal parts of cream of tartar and oxalic acid, or equal parts of cream of tartar and salt.

To Remove Whitewash. - To remove whitewash stains apply strong vinegar.

Vaseline Stains. - Wash in warm soapsuds, rinse, and apply chlorinated soda. or Wax Stains.-Apply alcohol naphtha with a camel's-hair brush, sponge, or piece of rag.

Or hold the stains within an inch or two of a red-hot iron, and rub with a soft, clean rag.

Or lay over them a piece of brown paper, and iron with a hot iron.

Paint Stains. - Saturate the stains with gasoline and rub with a small sponge or flannel rag. Continue until the paint is absorbed, and rub with a clean cloth until dry.

Or saturate the spot for some hours with turpentine, and afterwards rub the article between the hands, when the paint will crumble and can be dusted away without injury to the fabric.

Iodine Stains. As iodine is often applied externally to the skin, it frequently stains cotton and linen garments. To prevent this add a few drops of liquid carbolic acid to the iodine.

To remove the stains when fresh, dip the spots in aqua ammonia diluted with warm water. Or soak the stains in a strong solution of hyposulphite of soda and water. Or wet the fabric and cover with hyposulphite of soda until the stains are removed.

Nutgall Inks.-Formerly black ink was usually made of green vitriol dissolved in an infusion of gallnuts. Inks of this sort stain paper permanently and speedily, rapidly darken for a while, but eventually become yellow or brown with age. These oldfashioned inks were easily removed with oxalic and mineral acids, but the modern inks contain, in addition to tannate of iron (produced by the action of nutgalls upon copperas), aniline blue, indigo, and other dye stuffs that are not removable by these acids.

The first inks of this sort were placed upon the market about the middle of the nineteenth century. Many of the recipes still found in print claiming to remove all sorts of ink spots were originally published more than fifty years ago. All such recipes must be regarded with suspicion. No single recipe can be given that will remove stains made by every kind of ink.

Chrome-logwood Ink.

Another modern ink known as the chrome-logwood ink is produced by the action of a solution of logwood upon potassium chromate. This is a deep purple ink, that turns darker after being exposed to the air, and has the advantage over iron-gall inks that it will not fade. Logwood is also combined with an extract of alum or chloride of aluminum. The best French copying inks are of this class.

These inks may be removed by muriatic acid, which first turns the spot red. This acid must not, however, be used on stylographic inks containing eosin or nigrosine, as it will turn them into an indelible dye.

Stylographic Ink. - This is a modern ink made by dissolving in water the coal-tar product known as nigrosine. It is used for stylographic pens on account of its fluidity, as it contains no sediment. This ink is of a deep blue-black color that does not change on exposure to the air and has little luster. It does not fade, and after a lapse of years is soluble in water. Hence if paper containing it is wet the color will run. The effect upon a nigrosine ink of acids in certain recipes "guaranteed to remove any ink spot" is to mordant or set the ink, rendering it insoluble and practically indelible. Hence it is always advisable to moisten an ink spot with water, and if it blurs or smirches, thus indicating the presence of nigrosine, washing soda, caustic soda, potash lye, or any other alkali should be used, but not an acid.