1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Soldering Liquid. 
In soldering tin-ware, especially in mending old 
ware, the use of Soldering Liquids will greatly 
help. There are several of these, the best is made 
as follows : Get any convenient vial about half 
full of muriatic acid; procure at the tin shop some 
scraps of sheet zinc; if you have no strong shears, 
let the tinsmith cut the zinc into strips narrow 
enough to enter the vial. Place the vial out-doors, 
or under a shed, and add a strip or two of zinc. A 
great bubbling or boiling will take place as the ziuc 
dissolves; as one piece of zinc dissolves, add an¬ 
other, and when a piece remains without any action, 
or bubbling of the liquid, it is done. Fit to the 
lower end of the cork a piece of stick to reach into 
the liquid ; after the liquid is perfectly quiet, cork 
it. In soldering, wet the place where the solder is 
to go, with this liquid; the drop or two that the 
stick will take up is enough. Do not get this 
liquid on the clothing, or on the skin, as it may 
irritate it aud make it feel very rough. 
A Hanging Housewife, 
To find a pin, fust when it is wanted —and who 
cares for one at any other time ?—is a small, but 
often a very valuable 
bit of information— 
and 60 with a long 
list of such other use¬ 
ful things, which are 
too frequently out of 
reach when wanted. 
A hanging “ house¬ 
wife,” has some ad¬ 
vantage over the or¬ 
dinary work basket. 
It has a place ; it can 
not be readily upset 
by a playful pussy, or 
dog, or roguish chil¬ 
dren, and it is more 
capable of being made an ornament to the room. 
It should supplement rather than replace the basket. 
The accompanying engravings, suggest a “house¬ 
wife,” that may be made at no considerable outlay 
for the materials, and is neat and handy. Its con¬ 
struction is simple, 
but in this matter, 
individual taste may 
be exercised, and as 
many pockets, etc., 
can be put in as de¬ 
sired. Some heavy 
cloth is selected as the 
back or framework, 
and this is bordered 
with fringes, and or¬ 
namented with ini¬ 
tials, and other 
needle-work, tassels, 
ribbons, etc. Figure 
1 shows the affair as 
complete, and hang¬ 
ing npon its hook, 
and an interior view 
is given in the sec¬ 
ond engraving. The 
fact that it folds up— 
or down rather—is 
important, both as regards beauty and cleanliness. 
The upper half, as it falls down, gives a neat and 
finished appearance, and at the same time shuts out 
the dust, which would otherwise collect in the folds. 
Hard and Soft Water. 
Several correspondents write that their well wa¬ 
ter is “too hard for drinking,” and inquire how 
it can be made soft. In a general way, waters are 
of three kinds ; soft, hard, and mineral. If the 
water will mix readily with soap, without curdling, 
it is called soft. If, when mixed with soap, there 
are small white curdv particles floating in it, and 
when used for washing this curdy matter sticks to 
the hands, it is said to be hard. When matters dis¬ 
solved from the soil are in such quantity as to give 
a marked taste to the water, it is then a mineral 
water. The “ hardness ” of water is due to the 
presence of a very small quantity of mineral matter, 
most generally lime in some form. Soap is a Stear¬ 
ate of Soda, the Stearic Acid (an acid of fats) jn 
combination with Soda. When this comes in con¬ 
tact with some Salt of Lime, the Stearic Acid, having 
a stronger attraction for Lime than it has for Soda, 
leaves that and unites with it, forming a Stearate of 
Lime, or Lime Soap. This, unlike Soda Soap, is 
not soluble in water, but when formed, it sticks to 
the hands, or to the fabrics washed, giving both a 
harsh hard feeling that is most disagreeable. This 
is in brief the science of the matter. All soaps are 
not Stearates, but some contain Oleic Acid in place 
of Stearic, hence are Oleates, and soft soaps have 
Potash instead of Soda, but in these cases, the ac¬ 
tion is the same as stated. The Lime in hard water 
is present in the form of the Sulphate (Gypsum), 
or the Carbonate of Lime (Limestone). But in the 
case of Carbonate of Lime, that is soluble only by 
the presence of Carbonic Acid in the water. When 
a very hard water is boiled and allowed to cool, a 
large share of the Lime leaves the water, 
and will in time settle to the bottom of the 
vessel. This happens to some extent if the Lime 
is in the form of Sulphate, because that is less sol¬ 
uble in boiling than in cold water; in the case of 
the Carbonate of Lime, the heat drives off the Car¬ 
bonic Acid which held it in solution, and nearly 
all of that is deposited. If the excessive hardness 
of the water from our correspondents’ wells is due 
to the Carbonate of Lime, boiling, before using, 
would remedy the difficulty, but this would not an¬ 
swer in case the trouble is due to the Sulphate, as 
only a portion of that would be deposited, and 
there is not, so far as we are aware, a practical 
remedy that will leave the water fit for use. The 
better way will be to make use of filtered rain¬ 
water ; our back volumes give a number of filters, 
either separate, or attached to cisterns. At first, 
those who have been accustomed to hard water, 
do not like filtered rain-water, finding it flat aud 
tasteless, but in some cases under our observation, 
the persons after a while preferred it to any other 
water. Those who live in the country, especially, 
can by a little painstaking, have rain-water in a 
state of great purity. The roof water-pipes and 
cistern should be kept clean, and by the use of a 
filter, as an extra protection, the best of drinking 
water may be thus enjoyed. Even if the taste is 
less agreeable, it is better to make use of it than 
to risk the diseases that are apt to result from the 
continuous use of water highly charged with Lime. 
Scrape the Feet! 
Every careful house-keeper, with an eye to first 
causes, is much interested in the way feet—or rather 
feet-coverings—come in from out of doors. If boys 
did not have muddy boots—the cares of the house 
would be much lessened. But boys are not the 
only ones that “bring in the dirt.” Men-folk are 
often very forgetful of the amount of work they 
may make by not attending to the simple matter of 
cleaning their boots and shoes. Every door-step 
should be provided with a foot-scraper, and a brush 
or broom, and every one, as he comes in, should 
take the time to use them before appearing on the 
carpet, or clean floor. If a regular scraper—one 
made for the purpose—is not at hand, one can 
make one from A bit of hoop-iron, which is to be 
placed on a step or edge of the porch in a conven¬ 
ient place. It is well to provide a “ mud-mat,” 
which is simply strips an inch or so square—fence 
pickets will answer—screwed to three or four cross¬ 
pieces, an inch apart; or a more elaborate one can 
be made by stringing the slats npon fence wires, as 
shown in May, 1876. One, with muddy boots, is 
very apt to stamp and rub them on the steps or 
floor of the porch; a mud-mat will clean them 
more effectively, and save the porch hard wear. A 
very excellent mat may be made by boring holes in 
a board, and drawing corn-husks through the holes. 
Careful persons change their foot-gear when they 
enter the house to remain any length of time, a 
custom conducive not only to neatness, but so 
greatly to comfort, that it is to be commended. 
67 
A Very Convenient Solder, 
to have always at hand in the house is often hawked 
at the fairs and elsewhere, and sold by itinerant 
peddlers on the street corners or from house to 
house. It is a very cheap article that should be 
kept on sale at the Family Supply Stores. It will 
pay a fair profit at 50 cents a pound. We see it fre¬ 
quently in the wholesale metal stores in the form of 
wire (about No. 15), weighing say an ounce to the 
METHOD OP SOLDEBUIff. 
yard. It might be mailed to any point in the coun¬ 
try for five cents a yard, if a few yards went to¬ 
gether in a coil, and it would be a great conveni¬ 
ence to those remote from a tin-shop; while very 
often one can quickly stop a leak in a tin vessel in 
a minute or two, and thus save time and the trouble 
and expense of sending to a tin-shop at all.- The 
mode of using is shown in the illustration. The tin 
dish, pan, platter, boiler, or other article, is heated 
over a candle or lamp, or a coal from the stove, at 
the point of leakage, and the solder-wire rubbed 
over the hole until it melts, when, by a little dex¬ 
terity soon acquired by practice, a drop of the sol¬ 
der will be left smoothly over the opening. Too 
much heat is to be avoided, and if some of the sol¬ 
der runs through it can be pared or filed off when 
cold. The only other point is to have the solder 
touch and adhere to the tinned surface all around 
the leak. If the tin is very rusty for some distance 
around the opening, the solder may be made to 
“ take ” to the rusting portion by touching it with 
a drop of the soldering fluid mentioned elsewhere. 
An Ornamental Match Holder. 
If all the different match-safes, and match-hold¬ 
ers could be brought together, they would form a 
collection as varied as the different designs for 
cooking stoves, and washing machines. To the al¬ 
ready numerous patterns, we add another, which 
may please those who like to make fancy articles, 
that shall be useful, 
as well as ornamen¬ 
tal. The design is 
that of a suspended 
boat, and admits of a 
great variety, as the 
boat may be a minia¬ 
ture plain scow, a 
fanciful “shell,” an 
Indian canoe, or 
something more ela¬ 
borate. It is to be 
suspended by cords, 
plain or beaded, by 
ribbons, or otherwise. 
The boat may be 
made of wood, card¬ 
board, or even of tin : 
if of the latter, it may 
be covered with per¬ 
forated card-board, 
upon which worsted 
patterns are worked, 
intended that the exterior shall be ornamented, by 
small, bright-colored pictures, or in whatever man- 
nerfancymay suggest. At the bottom, or elsewhere, 
should be fixed a piece of emery paper, to furnish 
a place to scratch. The boat may have a partition 
amidships, providing two compartments, one for 
the unused matches, and the other for the burnt 
and useless. In some cases, a receptacle is made 
for the burnt matches, by suspending a second boat 
below tire first, as seen in the above engraving. 
A BOAT MATCH HOLDEB. 
Whatever the material, it is 
