Cleaning and Polishing Compounds.
By Marie Glover Holman
ONE of the great problems of a housekeeper's life is how to keep her house and its belongings clean. There must be a continual warfare against dirt, dust, and tarnish, and any weapon which promises to be effective in this warfare is welcomed with delight. This is well known to the numerous manufacturers and vendors of silver polishes, "magic cleaning fluids," etc., etc., new kinds—or, at least, new names for old kinds—of which are appearing every day. They are put up in attractive forms, in fancy boxes and bottles, and twenty-five cents seems little enough to pay for all the wonders they are said to accomplish. The silver polishes, for example, are almost infinite in number, and the housekeeper is tempted to try each new one as it comes out, to see if it will not prove more efficacious than the last. If we go to the root of this matter, and consider the number of known substances which will effect the desired end, namely, that of cleaning and polishing silver or silver plate, we shall find that they are very few. The solids used for this purpose are whiting—which is calcium carbonate, more or less pure—diatomaceous earth, finely pulverized sand, and rouge, which is fine red oxide of iron; the liquids, alcohol and ammonia, whose office is to remove grease. In thirty-eight different "kinds" of silver powders and liquid preparations for cleaning silver, examined in the "Woman's Laboratory," at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, no other substance was found. Some were mixtures of two or three of these ingredients, some were simply fine whiting, or perhaps fine precipitated calcium carbonate, or diatomaceous earth. The liquid preparations consisted of alcohol or ammonia, with calcium carbonate, the bottle requiring to be shaken before using. The only preparation which has been found differing from these mentioned is one labeled, "A complete electro-plating battery in a bottle." This contains a solution of silver cyanide, and deposits a thin film of silver on the article to which it is applied. It is not a desirable preparation to have in the house, as it is extremely poisonous, and does not bear on its label sufficient warning in regard to its use. It is useless to try these new and wonderful compounds, one after another, using money in this way without any compensating gain; it is better to decide upon what to use, what will best effect the purpose, and procure that, knowing its composition and its properties. No safe solvent for the compounds of silver which produce tarnish has been found—that is, no solvent which will not affect the silver itself. The action of whiting, rouge, sand, and diatomaceous earth, is simply to rub off the tarnish, although some silver is inevitably removed in the process. It is of great importance that these substances should be so fine as not to scratch the silver; and unless we have the time and patience to float off the fine particles from the coarse whiting to be obtained at the grocer's, as our grandmothers did, it is better to buy the fine precipitated chalk (calcium carbonate), and pay the price asked for it. Diatomaceous earth, known commonly as "electro-silicon," is a most excellent substance for removing tarnish from silver. It consists of microscopic siliceous skeletons of diatomes (minute sea animals), which are found in some localities in immense deposits in the earth. Its composition is the same as that of sand; but, being so very fine, it will not scratch, as any but the most finely powdered sand must do. Ammonia and alcohol are useful, and if a few drops of ammonia water be added to the water in which silver is washed, and the articles rubbed briskly afterward with a piece of chamois skin, it will be found often that a rubbing with powder is unnecessary.—Marie Glover Holman, in Christian Union.