200. Use of Potatoes in Bleaching.—This method of bleaching consists in substituting for soap, an equal quantity of potatoes three-parts boiled. The linen is first boiled for nearly an hour; it is next put into a tub of boiling water, from which each piece is taken separately, and rubbed with the potatoes, as with soap. The linen is then boiled with the potatoes for half an hour, next taken out, rubbed, and rinsed two or three times in cold soft water, wrung, and hung up to dry. Kitchen linen, which has mostly the smell of tallow, loses it after having been bleached by this process.
201. To Remove fresh Ink Stains.—Let one person hold the part that is spotted between his two hands over a basin and rub it, while another pours water gradually from a decanter upon it, and let a whole pitcher-full be used if necessary; or if the ruffle, apron, &c. be at liberty, let it be dipped into a basin filled with water, and there squeezed and dipped in again, taking care to change the water every two or three squeezes. If the ink be spilled on a green table carpet, it may immediately be taken out with a tea-spoon so entirely, that scarcely any water at all shall be wanted afterwards, provided it was only that instant spilled, as the down of the cloth prevents the immediate soaking in of the ink, or of any other liquor (except oil); but if it have lain some time, be the time ever so long, provided the place be still wet, by pouring on it fresh clean water, by little and little at a time, and gathering it up again each time with a spoon, pressing hard to squeeze it out of the cloth into the spoon, you will at last bring it to its natural color, as if no such accident had happened.
202. To take out Spots of Ink.—As soon as the accident happens, wet the place with juice of sorrel or lemon, or with vinegar, and the best hard white soap.
203. To remove Ink Stains.—Get a pint cup, or narrow-topped jug, full of boiling water; place the stained part (of the linen, &c.) on the top of the cup; dip it in, draw it tight over the top of the cup, and, while wet and hot, with your finger rub in a little salt of sorrel. The acid should remain on the linen for half-an-hour before it is washed. As salt of sorrel is a powerful poison, the paper should be marked POISON, and kept carefully locked up, when not in use.
204. The fumes of brimstone useful in removing Spots or Stains in Linen, &c.—If a red rose be held in the fumes of a brimstone match, the color will soon begin to change, and, at length, the flower will become white. By the same process, fruit-stains or iron-moulds may be removed from linen or cotton cloths, if the spots be previously moistened with water. With iron-moulds, weak muriatic acid is preferable, assisted by heat; as by laying the cloth on a tea-pot or kettle, filled with boiling water.