a pint of bleaching liquor to every gallon of water. Soak for half an hour. In another vessel put a wineglassful of sulphuric acid to every two gallons of water, and transfer the things from one to the other, there to soak for ten minutes, after which rinse profusely.

1891. Objectionable Bleaching. - More extreme modes of bleaching are resorted to in some cases, but they are unjustifiable. Even with the mild means we have suggested, bleaching should not be resorted to except in cases of extreme and hopeless discolouration from previous neglect. The tendency in all cases is to induce rot.

1892. Clothes Cleaning.-Cloth clothes should be sponged with a solution of ammonia. ́ It is very cleansing, generally restores the colour, and will not cause shrinking.

1893. Hints on Dyeing.-Careful consideration of the following particulars with reference to dyeing, will be found useful on many occasions:

Amber will dye black, brown, claret, dark crimson, dark green, light green,

scarlet.

Black wool and half-wool materials will dye brown, claret, dark crimson, dark green, navy blue, dark purple.

Black silk, satin, velvet, and broadcloth, being generally fast, cannot usually be died any other colour.

Black silk rep will dye claret and brown.

Light blue will dye azuline blue, black, claret, dark crimson, dark green, pale green, prune, purple, navy blue.

Brown will dye black, brown, claret, dark green..

Claret will dye black, brown, crimson, dark green.

Dark crimson will dye black, brown, claret, dark green.

Light crimson will dye black, brown, claret, dark crimson, navy blue, dark blue, dark green.

Drab will dye black, brown, claret, dark crimson, light crimson, dark green, light green, purple, navy blue, scarlet.

Dark green will dye black, brown, claret, dark crimson.

331

Mauve will dye azuline blue, dark blue, navy blue, black, claret, dark crimson, dark green, purple.

Navy blue will dye black, dark brown, claret, dark green.

Pink will generally dye any colour. Purple will dye black, dark blue, navy blue, brown, claret, dark crimson, dark green, prune.

Purple silk will dye black, claret, dark crimson, dark green, navy blue..

Pale colours of all kinds, on wool or half-wool materials, if faded, do not re-dye well, and should be darker.

Rich colours, such as claret, crimson, scarlet, etc., can generally be re-dyed shades similar to what they have been.

Rose will dye azuline blue, navy blue, black, brown, claret, dark crimson, light crimson, dark green, magenta, mauve, purple, scarlet.

Scarlet will dye dark blue, black, brown, claret, dark crimson, light crimson, dark green.

Straw silk will generally dye any colour.

Straw wool will dye most colours, except lavender, light blue, and pink. Slate colour will dye black, brown, claret, green, purple, navy blue.

White silk will dye any colour.

White all-wool materials, embroidered white cloaks, opera cloaks, etc., can be dyed pale blue, lavender, pink, scarlet, light crimson, and green, as well as darker colours.

It is often imagined that because the colour of the articles is white, they can be dyed any colour; but this is not the case, as it is only certain colours that white all-wool materials can be dyed. This is in consequence of the sulphur used in whitening them when new

332

adhering to the cloth unequally, and giving the colour a streaky appearance. In the colours mentioned above, this can be generally overcome.

White alpaca will dye blue, buff, drab, green, grey, lavender, light brown, mauve, olive, pink, rose, sage, slate, straw, violet, dove, peacock, night green, fawn,

It is a mistake to have moiré antique llyed without also having it re-watered. Gores and body pieces do not water early so well as whole widths; and in some cases (when there is a brocaded pattern on the silk), owing to the way the material is cut, the moiré cannot be re-watered without producing a number of extra impressions of pattern.

I ish poplin will dye almost any colour. It can be watered when required. Japanese silk and chêne silk do not dye very satisfactorily.

Silks, satins, and poplins require the skirt pieces to be separated for dyeing; but many of the bodices can now be dyed made up. However soiled they are, they should not be washed before being sent to dye. Silk goods stained with mildew should always be dyed black; and, as the stains are apt to fall into holes, are always done at owner's risk.

Quilted silk and satin skirts can be dyed made up with wadding and lining. Silk rep skirts and bodies may be dyed made up; also Japanese and fancy silk and wool striped skirts.

Velvet jackets, cloaks, dresses and bonnets can be dyed, dressed, and the pile raised. Sometimes velvet dresses and trains are crushed, and the pile flattened in wearing, while the colour is perfectly good. The pile can be raised without dyeing.

Velveteen, being all cotton, does not dye so satisfactorily as silk velvet.

Black velveteen can be re-dyed black or changed to brown, dark green, dark crimson, claret, or navy blue.

Velvet requires the pieces to be separated for dyeing or dressing.

Velveteen can generally be done made up; but, if much trimmed with silk or wool braid or piping, it must be removed.

It is wise to send velvets for cleaning, dressing, and re-dyeing during the

summer months, so as to have them returned in good time for making up for autumn wear.

All-wool and mixed dresses for dyeing, if made with plain gored skirts, should only have one seam of skirt opened out, as they can in this form be much better done than if all widths are separated. Very large numbers of flounced skirts are done without any seams being taken down or flounces taken off. The bodies can be done either made up or otherwise. All wool serges must be carefully over-seamed where there is no woven selvage, otherwise the cloth frays out.

Narrow flounces and trimmings cannot be guaranteed to dye well, as the cloth curls up, and resists colour.

Skirt linings should be removed. Silk and satin dresses, scarfs, and ribbons, in every colour, may be cleaned, and the colours preserved. Light silks in checked, striped, and figured patterns may be cleaned without injury to colour or fabric, further than they have received in the wearing; they should be picked down and cleaned by the ordinary process, or dyed.

White silks and satins may be cleaned to look well, and, even if much soiled or discoloured, can be restored to nearly their original purity and brightness. These require to be unpicked.

White merinos and alpacas make a purer white by ordinary cleaning. Shawls of an inferior quality do not stand cleaning well.

Canton crape shawls can be carefully cleaned and dressed.

White silk, crape, and silk gauze shawls, may be cleaned.

Heavy travelling plaids, shawls, and railway rugs, may be cleaned and waterproofed, if required.

White Shetland shawls can be cleaned.

Indian shawls, in white and natural grey, can be cleaned and dyed. The most suitable colours for these are Indian red, dark crimson, new crimson, pale blue, lavender, mauve, scarlet, and pale azuline. A good dyer will manage to preserve the natural softness and smoothness of these shawls.

1894. When to Stay at Home. -Judged of from day to day, those who have the choice will naturally avoid going out during rain or fog. In addition to the discomforts of such conditions of the weather, they are likely to injure health, and also clothing. In the latter respect, a little watchfulness

will make all the difference to the wear and appearance of one's wardrobe. While the careless individual who scorns to care about the weather will have to

glory in dowdiness, the circumspect will add economy to health, with the advantage of habitual neatness.

1895. Fogs. In addition to the immediate discomfort and injury arising from fog, there is the insidious damp which results, causing, in some constitutions, great injury, that may prove fatal, from causes quite independent of the direct effect upon the lungs.

1896. London Fogs, in suburban districts, are very much the same as country fogs, both in appearance and effect; but in the central parts of the Metropolis so-called fog is quite a different affair. For the most part it is not fog at all, but smoke, which, in certain conditions of the atmosphere, cannot rise, and is consequently forced downwards until it envelopes the surface of the earth, and fills every room, the best mitigation in-doors being to keep every window and other orifice strictly closed. In addition to the great discomfort, the consequence to persons of asthmatic tendencies and others is se

The

1899. Hot Weather.- Stop at home in extremely hot weather. There is nowhere else where you can arrange to be cool to such advantage. habit of rushing away from home at the hottest part of the year is more fashionable than wise. Railway carriages are infliction. Getting into violent heats like ovens. Moving about is a constant seriously risks fatal consequences from reaction of temperature. Depend upon it, in the hottest weather there is no place like home.

1900. When to Go from Home. As a general rule, the best times for travelling and residence away from home

are the spring and autumn, especially the latter, because, upon the whole, the weather is then less changeable.

1901. Forecasts of Weather.It is useful to be able to form some fairly reliable opinion as to the kind of weather that may be expected. The futility of attempting to do this with any degree of certainty is proved by the official forecasts, which, though averaging very nearly correct, are sometimes extremely wide of the mark, though arrived at with the aid of every known science bearing upon the subject.

1902. Barometrical Observations.-Though the barometer is not always reliable, it is the best foreteller of the weather; why it does not invariably denote correctly is easily explained by consideration of the principles upon which it acts. To understand this, it is necessary to know something about the properties of water and the atmosphere.

1903. Pressure of Water.-At any given point of a body of water, its pressure is equal to its depth, which is owing to the weight of the water above. Thus, in a cistern full of water, two yards deep, the pressure upon any object is twice as great at the bottom as it is one yard down. At any given point, such pressure is the same downwards, or sidewise, or upwards, or in any direction. This is the reason why water always finds its level when there is nothing to resist it ; so that a pipe leading from a body of water downwards and upwards, to any point lower than the surface of the water, will deliver water until the supply sinks to the level of the point of discharge. It is the same with all fluids.

1906. Weight of the Atmosphere.-The effect of the immense depth of 40 or 50 miles, in conjunction with the compression, is to render the atmosphere, which is estimated to be of no appreciable weight at the top, of very considerable weight at the bottom, being equal to about 14 lbs. to every square inch of surface presented to it, whether upwards, downwards, sidewise, or other direction.

1907. Atmospheric Pressure upon the Body.-The surface of the earth is the bottom of a vast ocean of air, in which we move. being about 14 lbs. per inch, and the The pressure average full-grown man having a surface of 2160 square inches, the average pressure upon such an individual is equal to a weight of 31,530 lbs. ; but as the pressure is uniform in all directions, upwards as well as downwards, the weight or resistance is not perceptible, there being a perpetual counterpoise.

1908. Light and Heavy Atmosphere. For reasons not thoroughly understood, the weight or pressure of the atmosphere varies at any given point, and is said to be lighter or heavier at one time than another.

1909. Heavy Atmosphere.When the pressure is greater or heavier, the elastic force or resistance of the air is correspondingly greater in all directions, is that the tendency is to prevent the including upwards. The consequence fall of rain or any other form of moisture, and then it will probably be what is called "fair"; but it sometimes hapthe clouds are so heavily charged with pens, from electric or other causes, that water that it is forced down in de

335

1

1910. Light Atmosphere. When the pressure is less or lighter,

the elastic force or resistance of the air is correspondingly less in all directions, including upwards. The consequence is that the tendency is to permit the fall of rain or any other form of moisture, and then it will probably rain; but it often happens that when the pressure is less there are no clouds,

and then, of course, there is no rain to

fall, and it remains fair in defiance of the weak resistance of the atmosphere.

1911. Delusive Sensations.-Independently of the tendency to rain or otherwise, variable pressure of the atmosphere acts upon the sensations. When oppression is felt from such a cause, the common notion is that the air is heavier than usual. The fact is

just the reverse. When the pressure is more than the average, it has the effect of bracing up and compressing the muscular system, which causes an extra solidity, strength, and energy with which we are all familiar in exceptionally bright, clear weather, when the pressure is greatest. On the contrary, when the pressure is at its lowest, the muscular system, having less support, becomes relaxed and deficient in strength and energy, and the sense of lassitude is mistaken for oppression from supposed extra weight of the atmosphere, which is then lighter than usual.

1912. Principle of the Barometer.--The working of the barometer can only be understood after consideration of the foregoing particulars.

1913. Familiar Illustration of the Canary's Caraft.-When the best kind of canary's caraft is filled with water, and placed in its proper position, the surface of the water presented to the canary for drinking is very much lower than the surface of the water in the interior. The tendency of water being to find its own level, it would seem that the water ought to run out until the two levels were thereby equal.

sure of the atmosphere upon the outer surface prevents the water from running over, and keeps back the water in the interior up to a higher level because there is there no pressure of atmosphere. The minutest hole made in the top of the atmosphere, will cause the water to the caraft, by admitting the pressure of but as long as the inner surface run out until the two levels are equal, the higher of the two. free from such pressure it will remain Such is a familiar illustration in the rough of the whole principle of the barometer.

kept

1914. Measurement of Atmospheric Pressure. The pressure of the atmosphere may be measured by any kind of fluid, contained in a tube, hermetically sealed at the top, and communicating with a surface at the bottom exposed to the air, the tube and the exposed surface being adjusted in proper proportions.

1915. Relative Weights of Fluids.-The relative weights of va barometrical instrument, from which we rious fluids can be ascertained by a learn that the barometrical pressure of the atmosphere will sustain an average weight equal to a column of :45 feet of proof spirit.

38 32

18

glycerine.

water.

sulphuric acid. 30 inches of mercury.

1916. Convenience of Mercury. -The immense weight of mercury, as compared with any other fluid, renders it possible to make a barometer in very, much less space than by means of any other medium.

1917. Inconvenience of Mercury.-The convenience of an instrument within a limited space is more than counterpoised by the very limited range over which mercury in a barometer will move, two inches being the utmost space within which ordinary. observations can be made, as it scarcely ever falls below 29 or rises above 31. For domestic purposes it is usual to be