STANDARD RBCBIPTS. 497 



and lye are mixed together; the stirring to be kept up till the mixture 

 boils, some ten or fifteen minutes, according to the strength of the lye 

 employed. 



Then transfer from the boiler into a form, a tight box, in which 

 muslin has been placed overhanging the box, so that the soap may be 

 afterward more easily drawn out of it for the purpose of drying, or it 

 may be poured in a common wash-tub, previously soaked in water to 

 prevent adhesion to the tub, and there allowed to harden for a few 

 days, from which it is put upon a table, to dry and be cut in bars for 

 use, by means of a wire. 



To Preserve Soap Grease. Boil all the scraps, rinds, and bones 

 in a weak lye, and the purer grease in clear water. L,et the mixture 

 cool, take off the cake of grease, and strain it. It is well to do this oc- 

 casionally, as you save it; for when kept a long time, impure grease 

 becomes offensive. You must be careful to dry off all the water before 

 laying it away in your grease tub, if you wish it to keep sweet. 



To Purify Soap Grease. If the grease is very foul in smell, it 

 should be put in a boiler with water, on the fire (about three times as 

 much water as of the grease), and add a tea-spoonfuj of permanganate 

 of potash to each ten pounds of grease, stirring well, and after the mix- 

 ture has cooled a little it is strained through a cloth, and allowed to rest, 

 when the cake of fat is taken out and put in a cool place, or in the pot 

 in which it is to be remelted for transformation into soap. The purpose 

 of the permanganate of potash is to remove the rank odor of the grease, 

 which otherwise would be found in the soap. 



Soft Soap. I. Take one gallon of soft soap, to which add one gill 

 of common salt, and boil an hour. When cold, separate the lye from 

 the crude. Add to the crude two pounds of sal-soda, and boil in two 

 gallons soft water till dissolved. If you wish it better, slice two pounds 

 of common bar soap, and dissolve in the above. If the soft soap makes 

 more than three pounds of crude, add in proportion to the sal-soda and 

 water. 



2. For one barrel take potash, eight pounds; melted and clarified fat, 

 eight pounds. Crack the potash in small lumps, and put it into a large 

 iron pot of three or four gallons capacity, with hot boiling water to 

 nearly fill it. Heat the fat in another iron pot quite hot. Put three or 

 four gallons of hot water in the barrel, previously cleaned and ready for 

 use, and ladle in it alternately the hot fat and hot lye; stir the whole 

 briskly for a while before more lye and fat are ladled in, and gradually 



