The complete servant / Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

by servant Samuel Adams; Sarah Adams

TO CLEAN COLOURED SILKS OF ALL KINDS.

Put some soft soap into boiling water, and beat it till dissolved in a strong lather. At a hand heat put in the article. If strong, it may be rubbed as in washing; rinse it quickly in warm water, and add oil of vitriol, sufficient to give another water a sourish taste, if for bright yellows, crimsons, maroons, and scarlets; but for oranges, fawns, browns, or their shades, use no acid. For bright scarlet use a solution of tin. Gently squeeze, and then roll it in a coarse sheet, and wring it. Hang it in a warm room to dry, and finish it by calendering or mangling.

For pinks, rose colours, and thin shades, &c., instead of oil of vitriol, or solution of tin, prefer lemon juice, or white tartar, or vinegar.

For blues, purples, and their shades, add a small quantity of American pearl-ash; it will restore the colours. Wash the articles like a linen garment, but instead of wringing, gently squeeze and sheet them, and when dry, finish them with fine gum water, or dissolved isinglass, to which add some pearl-ash, rubbed on the wrong side, then pin them out.

Blues of all shades are dyed with archil, and afterwards dipped in a vat; twice cleaning with pearl-ash, restores the colour. For olive greens, a small quantity of verdigris dissolved in water, or a solution of copper, mixed with the water, will revive the colour again.

TO CLEAN BLACK SILKS.

To bullock’s gall, add boiling water sufficient to make it warm, and with a clean sponge, rub the silk well on both sides, squeeze it well out, and proceed again in like manner. Rinse it in spring water, and change the water till perfectly clean, dry it in the air, and pin it out on a table; but first dip the sponge in glue water, and rub it on the wrong side; then dry it before a fire.

TO DIP RUSTY BLACK SILKS.

If it requires to be red dyed, boil logwood; and in half an hour, put in the silk, and let it simmer half an hour. Take it out, and dissolve a little blue vitriol and green copperas, cool the copper, let it simmer half an hour, then dry it over a stick in the air. If not red dyed, pin it out, and rinse it in spring water, in which half a tea-spoonful of oil of vitriol has been put. Work it about five minutes, rinse it in cold for ten minutes, rinsing in cold water. For a blue cast, put water, and finish it by pinning and rubbing it with gum water.

TO CLEAN SILK STOCKINGS.