How to Choose Soaps
The evening of the day when clothing talked in school, Father and Mother Martin listened to the whole story from Jimmy.
Then father said:
“Jim, you’ve learned more about clothing than I ever thought of knowing. I’m glad Miss Dean is taking most of these talks off my hands. Clothing would never have talked for me in the way it did for her.”
And mother said: “I’m glad to understand why I must wash baby’s little woolen things so carefully. When you know the reason for the right way it’s so much easier to do a thing the right way. Now please find out soon the very best soaps to use.”
“I think we shall, mother, the next time we have industrial science.”
This was two days later.
That big table of Miss Dean’s told the news - soaps of all kinds, bowls, chemical sets - anyone could see it was ready for business and didn’t mean to have any nonsense about it!
So were the boys and girls ready for business when the time came.
Miss Dean asked: “What is it that we should try to find out about soaps today?”
“How to choose the best soaps to use for our clothing,” was the answer.
“What do we already know about these soaps that will help us to choose?” asked Miss Dean.
“We know which are mild soaps and which are stronger with alkali,” said George. “We’ve kept the lists we made when we test soaps.”
“We know which contain washing soda,” said Peter.
“And which have a bleach.”
“And rosin.”
“And tri-so-dium phos-phate,” said Robert, looking very fierce in his effort to say those big words correctly.
“Well,” said Miss Dean, “for a start, that seems to me quite a lot of knowledge.
“And now,” she went on, “what do we know about clothing that will guide us in choosing soaps? Perhaps we can fit together our knowledges of soaps and of clothing.”
“Wool said it must have a mild soap, because strong soaps softened it and took its strength away,” said Grace.
“Did any other kinds of clothing prefer mild soaps?”
“They all did, really,” answered Mary, “except that cotton said that when it was strong and firm it could stand being washed with strong soaps.”
“That is right,” said Miss Dean. “Wool is hurt the most by alkalies, and cotton the least. We can put the clothing families in this order in the care that we must take to wash them with mild soap: First, wool, next silk, then rayon, line, and cotton.
“Suppose we try the alkali which is in soaps on these clothing families, in order to see for ourselves just how they behave with alkali," said Miss Dean. "I'd like the boys who have chemical sets to use their solutions of caustic soda, and the rest may use this solution which I am making." And she dissolved two tablespoonfuls of soda lye in a quart of water.
“We could make that solution at home,” said Jimmy.
“Each of you may take one of these dishes. Place in it a strip of wool, of silk, of cotton, linen, and rayon. The strips are cut for you in these boxes, each with a label. Place the strips so that one end is down in the dish, the other up near the edge for a handle. Pour soda lye in the dish to cover the lower ends. Watch for any change.”
“The wool is beginning to curl up,” said several presently.
“Let most of the dishes stand as they are,” said Miss Dean, “and we will warm one or two over this heat. Watch carefully.”
Everybody did. And in a few seconds, as the lye became hot, the wool dissolved before their eyes. Pretty soon the silk strip became smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared also. Then Miss Dean picked out the rayon strip by its handle. It seemed quite soft, but it had not dissolved. The linen and cotton strips did not seem to be changed.
Jimmy was looking at the dishes holding the strips still in the cold lye, and was doing some thinking.
“It seems to me,” he said, “that heat helped a lot in making that wool and silk dissolve in the lye.”
“It did, indeed,” said Miss Dean. “Heat is a great speeder. It hurried up the lye so that it did in a few seconds what cold lye takes several minutes to do. So, a strong soap will do far more harm in very hot water than in tepid water.
“But look again at your cold lye,” went on Miss Dean.
“Why,” said John, “the wool is partly dissolved, and the silk looks thinner. Yes, and now the wool is going quite fast.”
“Let us now try whether washing soda has the same effect on clothing as caustic soda,” said Miss Dean. “Empty your dishes, rinse them, put in fresh strips, and add this washing soda solution.”
Miss Dean made the solution from a package of household washing soda as she spoke.
Nothing seemed to happen, as the class watched the strips in the washing soda.
“It doesn’t hurt wool as much as caustic soda does, that’s sure,” said Peter. “What would happen if you warmed it, Miss Dean?”
“We’ll try and see,” said Miss Dean.
So she warmed one of the dishes, and still nothing was dissolved. But the wool began to turn yellow, and the silk did not seem quite so white as at first. Finally Miss Dean pulled out the strip of wool, and tried its strength by pulling it. It seemed less strong.
“Washing soda isn’t so bad, but not so good either, I should say,” said George.
“No alkali by itself is really good for clothes,” said Miss Dean, “and although washing soda is a good water softener and cleanser, it might, as you see, do harm in some cases if more is used than is needed to soften the water.
“And now I want you to make a real test with the soaps themselves on clothing,” said Miss Dean. “The bottles in this row contain soap solutions. All the solutions are of the same strength. Here is one from your list of mild soaps, this one contains some free caustic alkali, here is one containing washing soda, this has trisodium phosphate, this sodium silicate, this is a rosin soap. If we use these solutions in exactly the same way on these pieces of white wool flannel, we shall see which ones we would choose for washing wool and silk.”
“Soaps that are good for wool and silk will be safe for other fine clothing, too, won’t they, Miss Dean?” asked Grace.
“Perfectly safe,” said Miss Dean.
“On this gas stove,” Miss Dean then said, “we can put these deep dishes side by side, and boil pieces of wool in the soap solutions for the same length of time.”
“But we don’t boil wool when we wash it, do we?” asked Mary.
“Never!“ said Miss Dean. “We are not washing wool, but showing the difference in soaps. Wool lets us see the difference so plainly that it may be used in this way to point out the good soaps to choose for washing it.”
The children helped Miss Dean with the test, and watched closely while the boiling went on. After a while the pieces of flannel were taken out of the soap solutions, rinsed, and placed side by side on a cloth.
What a difference could be seen!
One piece, which had been boiled in the mild soap, was white and strong.
One or two were yellow and a little stiff.
One or two were quite brown and were beginning to show holes.
“I know what soaps I shall choose for wool,” said Jane. “These in our list of mild soaps.”
“I shall choose those soaps for my silk stockings,” said Gertrude, “and my scarfs.”
“I think they will be best for all our nice things,” said Mary.
“But remember,” said Miss Dean, “that we have been making our choice of soaps for fine clothing. We must be fair. Do you not think there might be uses for these other soaps in the home?”
“You can’t call my hiking clothes ‘fine clothing,’” said Jimmy, with a laugh. “I guess it takes a pretty strong soap to get the dirt out of them, sometimes.”
“That certainly might be one use for a strong soap,” said Miss Dean, with an answering smile, “but I think that if we look around in our homes we will see uses for soaps other than for washing clothing. Suppose you all see how long a list you can bring in of uses for soaps in your own homes, and I am sure we will find our choice of soaps will be made wider.”
You may be able to collect the soaps that are used in your locality, and try their effect on wool in the way Miss Dean's class did. But...
If you should happen to try boiling wool flannel in soap solutions at home, don't take your mother's aluminum pans. They won't look so pretty afterward! And don't ever try to put caustic soda in those pans, because there wouldn't be any pan after a few minutes. It would disappear just as wool did in the caustic soda! But if your mother has a tin pan, or an agate one which she says you may have, go ahead!
Where will a bit of caustic alkali do more harm, on wool or silk clothing, or on cotton? Why?
How would washing soda compare with free caustic soda in a soap, in its effect on clothing?
Why is the use of washing soda first, before soap, a good rule to follow in preparing hard water for washing clothing?
How many uses for soaps can you find in your home?
Internet Links to Help you on your Way
Home Dry Cleaning: The Right way to Clean Wool, Silk and Rayon
WashCare Tips: From Laundry Symbols to that Pair of Leather Shoes
Troubled with Hard Water? Make your Own Softener!
Lots of Tips Plus! Guides for Stain Removal at Bottom of Page
Information on Man-Made Fabrics, incl. Rayon
Where would you like to go next? 
