1. Water:
(1) Use:
(a) To soften and dissolve certain foreign substances in the clothes.
(b) To carry away all the foreign matter that has been dissolved or rubbed out of the clothes.
(2) Kinds:
(a) Hard water
(b) Soft water
For laundry purposes, the water should be soft. The quality known as hardness, which some water has, is due to the lime which it has dissolved in making its way through the earth.
Water is said to be temporarily or permanently hard according to the kind of lime it has in solution. Temporarily hard water may be softened by boiling; the lime will be deposited, as may be seen in the "furring" of tea-kettles. Boiling has no effect in softening permanently hard water, so a substance known as an alkali is used for this purpose.
(3) Methods of softening water by alkalies.—For each gallon of water use one of the following:
(a) One tablespoonful of borax or ammonia dissolved in one cup of water.
(b) Two tablespoonfuls of a solution made by dissolving one pound of washing soda in one quart of boiling water.
(c) One fourth tablespoonful of lye dissolved in one cup of water.