(w) Ditto.—Soak the decanters for some hours in warm soda and water; if there is much cutting on the outside, a brush will be necessary to remove the dirt and stains from the crevices. Cut a potato into small dice, put a good handful of these into the decanter with some warm water, shake the decanter briskly until the stains disappear; rinse in clean cold water, and let them drain until dry. Vinegar and sauce cruets can be cleaned in the same way.
Gloves.—Kid. (a) Make a strong lather with curd soap and warm water; lay the glove flat on a board, the bottom of a dish, or other unyielding surface; dip a piece of flannel in the lather and well rub the glove with it till all the dirt is out, turning it about so as to clean it all over. Dry in the sun or before a moderate fire. When dry they will look like old parchment, and should be gradually pulled out and stretched. (b) Have a small quantity of milk in a cup or saucer, and a piece of brown Windsor or glycerine soap in another saucer. Fold a clean towel or other cloth 3 or 4 times thick, and spread the glove smoothly on the cloth. Dip a piece of flannel in the milk, and rub it well on the soap. Hold the glove firmly with the left hand, and rub it with the flannel towards the fingers. Continue this operation until the glove, if white, appears of a dirty yellow; or, if coloured, until it looks dirty and spoiled, and then lay it to dry. Gloves cleaned by this method will be soft, glossy, and elastic. (c) French method: Put the gloves on your hands and wash them in spirits of turpentine until they are quite clean, rubbing them exactly as if washing your hands; when finished, hang them in a current of air to dry and to take off the smell of the turpentine. (d) Eau de Javelle, 135 parts; ammonia, 8; powdered soap, 200; water, 150. Make a soft paste, and use with a flannel.
Washleather. (e) Take out the grease spots by rubbing with magnesia or with cream of tartar. Then wash with soap dissolved in water as directed for kid gloves, and afterwards rinse, first in warm water and then in cold. Dry in the sun, or before the fire.
Buckskin.—(f) To ¼ lb. Paris white add the same quantity of scraped pipeclay and 3 oz. best isinglass; boil all well down, stirring the while. Put the compound on thick, and, when dry, beat it well out by clapping your hands together, &c.; then carefully iron the gloves with a hot smoothing-iron. (g) When dirty, wash 3 times in clean warm (not hot) “soap lather.” Put a little blue in, wring them well, then put them in as good a form as you can—as nearly what they should be when dry as practicable. When nearly dry, but sufficiently damp to form to the hand, put them on; if difficult to get on, damp a little; then press or push them off, and when dry (from the fire) they will be as good as new, and white and clean, and not mark anything. (h) 1 oz. gum arabic to 1 lb. white lead (powder), free from lumps, to be well dissolved and strained through muslin; afterwards mix your lead stiff and put it by until perfectly hard. Be very careful not to leave water in the box or sponge after using. (i) Take ½ lb. prepared chalk, ½ lb. prepared alum, 3 cakes pipeclay, ½ oz. oxalic acid, ½ oz. isinglass, 1 oz. powdered pumice, 1 tablespoonful starch, 6 tablespoonfuls sweet oil, 2 oz. white soap. To be mixed in boiling water; the oxalic acid and prepared alum to be added last.
All gloves are better and more shapely if dried on glove trees or wooden hands.
Hands.—The hands are apt to be stained or tainted by contact with many substances in everyday use. The following are most common.
Tar. (a) Rub with fresh orange or lemon peel.
(b) Mix together pulverised extract of liquorice and oil of aniseed to the consistency of thick cream; rub on thoroughly with the hand, then wash off with soap and warm soft water.
Disagreeable Odours. (c) Ground mustard, mixed with a little water, is an excellent agent for cleansing the hands after handling disagreeably or strongly odorous substances, such as cod-liver oil, musk, valerianic acid and its salts. Scale-pans and vessels may also be readily freed from odour by the same method. (Schneider.)
(d) All oily seeds, when powdered, answer for this purpose. Flax-seed meal, for instance, removes odours as well as mustard. The use of ground almond-cake as a detergent is well known. The explanation of this action is somewhat doubtful, but it is not improbable that the odorous bodies are dissolved by the fatty oil of the seed, and emulsionised by the contact with water. In the case of bitter almonds and mustard, the development of ethereal oil, under the influence of water, may perhaps be an additional help to destroy foreign odours. The author also mentions that the smell of carbolic acid may be removed by rubbing the hands with damp flax-seed meal, and that cod-liver-oil bottles may be cleansed with a little hot sesamé or olive oil. (Huber.)