K. DOMESTIC AND HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 473 



the mixture should not be made at one time, even where 

 large surfaces are to be covered. 6 (7, October 10, 1872, 286. 



OZOKEEITE CANDLES. 



At the exhibition of chemical and allied products at Dub- 

 lin, held during the j^ast summer, the various forms of can- 

 dles were prominent articles, and especially those made of 

 ozokerite. This is a fossil, first mentioned by Meyer, who 

 discovered it in Moldavia, in connection with the mines of 

 rock salt. The material used by Messrs. Field & Co., who 

 exhibited the caudles in question, is obtained by them from 

 the Carj3athian Mountains, and the candles are said to be of 

 great beauty. They have a very high melting-point, and do 

 not soften nor bend at an ordinary temperature. They also 

 exceed any other candles in their illuminating power. Thus 

 754 grains of ozokerite gave as much light as 1000 of the 

 best spermaceti, 798 to 791 of paraffine, and 1150 of wax can- 

 dles. 1 A, October 4, 1872, 160. 



IMPROVED SOAP. 



M. Miahle communicates to the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris an account of a soap which, according to his statement, 

 combines the advantages of being prepared without heat, 

 with the consequent avoidance of loss of glycerine in com- 

 bination with the fatty matters, and of being free from that 

 alkalinity generally present in soaps prepared in the cold. 

 In its manufacture the ordinary toilet soap, made without 

 heat, is cut into shavings, and exposed in a closed chamber 

 to the action of carbonic acid gas. The soap absorbs a quan- 

 tity of the gas proportional to the amount of caustic soda 

 which has escaped saponification ; and, by the transforma- 

 tion of the free alkali into bicarbonate, it loses all its caus- 

 ticity. It then constitutes a perfectly neutral soap, contain- 

 ing all the glycerine of the fatty bodies employed in its man- 

 ufacture, and a certain quantity of bicarbonate of soda. 14 

 A February 22, 1873, 665. 



EEMOVAL OF IXK STAIXS FEOil COLORED FABRICS. 



To remove ink stains from colored fabrics where either ox- 

 alic acid or chloride of lime is undesirable, it is recommend- 

 ed to use a concentrated solution of pyrophosphate of soda. 



