Jimmy learns about Hard and Soft Water
The next night, as Jimmy was about to wash his hands for supper, father said:
”Hold on a minute, Son Jim. I want to fix the water in that bowl for you.”
And he poured some limewater into it.
”Now go ahead,” said he.
Jimmy “went ahead,” but in a second he burst out:
”Aw, say, dad! What sort of joke is this? The soap won’t work in this old water.”
”Won’t work?” asked father, innocently.
”No, look at it! All ‘cheesy’! Not a bit of suds!”
”If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again,” sang father. “Use more soap.”
So Jimmy used more soap, just “heaps” of it, and finally got some suds. But he said:
”Well, I don’t see the sense in this performance. I believe I’ve wasted enough soap on your old limewater to have lasted me for days.”
At the supper table, father remarked thoughtfully,
”They say that to make the gorge which is Niagara Falls the Niagara River has been wearing away the limestone rocks for years and years.”
”Yes?” said Jimmy, politely, but still thinking of the trick father had played upon him.
”I wonder,” father mused, “where all that lime has gone?”
”Why---,” said Jimmy, “into the water, I suppose.”
”Yes?” said father, politely.
”Oh--h,” said Jimmy, “I see. So that was the Niagara River you fixed up for me in the wash bowl. Well, if that is what lime does to water, I don’t think I’d like to wash in the Niagara!”
”Just so,” said father. “There are lots of places in this country where the water is worse than the Niagara River, because in those other places it seeps slowly through the ground and has time to dissolve more lime than a quick-flowing river. And when it comes to using such water for washing, the people don’t think much of it, either.
”They call such water hard,” went on father. “Why hard, do you suppose?”
”Hard on soap,” said Sue.
”Hard on the temper, too,” laughed father, with a glance at Jimmy.
”As to buying soap, hard on the pocketbook,” said mother. “I’m glad we have soft water here.”
”Hard to understand why it is hard on soap,” said Jimmy.
”Not bad for you, son,” said father. “You deserve to know, after that remark.”
”Water can dissolve a great many things,” father said, “and water which runs long underground until it forms springs and rills and rivers, or is tapped for wells, has a chance to dissolve substances that are found in rocks or soil. Lime in some form is one of these substances that dissolve in water and make it hard.
”Do you remember,” went on father, “what salt did to the soap in the factory?”
”Why, yes,” said Jimmy. “It made the soap break up into little grains. That is just the way the soap looked in that limewater you fixed up, all grainy, or cheesy.”
”Exactly,” said father. “And not only does lime make the soap ‘cheesy,’ but it slips in and takes the place of the soda in the soap, and then we have a lime soap. And lime soaps won’t dissolve, they won’t make suds, and they do make a great deal of trouble in washing.”
”I should say they do,” said mother. “When I was a girl I lived in a town which had very hard water. We tried every way to make the water soft, but it was almost impossible, and that dreadful lime soap stuck to our clothes and made them look dirty and greasy.”
”You said you tried to make the water soft,” said Jimmy. “Just what do you mean by soft water?”
”Water is soft when it does not have lime or similar substances in solution. These would make the soap separate from the water and form little grains. (This is called “curdling.”) Our water here is soft. The soap makes a good suds in it at once.”
”Guess what would be the softest water we could have,” said father.
”Rain water,” said little Sue, who was a quick thinker.
(Why was Sue right?)
”But how could you make the water soft, mother,” asked Jimmy, coming back to mother’s story.
”Well, Jimmy, there are one or two things which will help do that, and they are things quite often used in our homes. Now that we are through supper, let’s go out in the kitchen, and I will show you.”
Out in the kitchen, mother took a paper box or carton from a closet, and on it Jimmy read, WASHING SODA.
”What is washing soda?” asked Jimmy.
”It is another name for carbonate of soda or sodium carbonate, Jimmy.”
”Of course,” said Jimmy. “I know sodium carbonate from my chemical set. I know too that it is not as strong as caustic soda.”
”It is called washing soda when used in the household, because it is sometimes needed as a help in washing. It is a cheap and good water softener. Let us see how it works.”
Father, who had been listening, now produced some of his famous limewater, and this is what he did:
He took two basins, and put the same amount of water in each. Then he added the same amount of limewater to each. And he told Jimmy to make a good soap solution in another dish.
After that mother dissolved a little washing soda in only one of the basins.
”Now, Jimmy,” said father, “beat in a tablespoonful of your soap solution in each basin. Keep on adding and stirring until you get a suds in each basin. Count the tablespoonfuls you use for each.”
Much interested, Jimmy started in. The first thing he knew, he was getting a good suds in the basin to which the washing soda had been added, but not a scrap of suds in the other. So he kept on with the second basin while the family counted the tablespoons, six, seven, eight, and so on.
”The limewater is just eating up that soap, isn’t it?” said Sue.
”Soap-destroying power of hard water, Miss Sue,” teased her father. “You had the exact idea, but you did not use big words to say it.”
At last the suds came. “Jiminy,” said Jimmy, “I thought it never would. I used six times as much soap in this basin as in the other with the washing soda.”
”Now, son and daughter,” said father, “what did that washing soda really do?”
”Softened the water,” said Sue.
”Go to the foot of the class,” said Jimmy. “Dad means more than that.”
”Let’s see, dad. When the washing soda isn’t there, the lime goes to the soap. When the washing soda is there, the lime doesn’t, because the soap can make a suds. So I think the washing soda makes the lime stay away from the soap.”
”You are a good chemist,” said father. “That is just what happens. The carbonate of soda picks up the lime and makes carbonate of lime. This carbonate of lime does not dissolve in water, and as it is heavy, it drops down to the bottom of the water, out of the way.”
”Now let’s stop being chemists,” said mother, “and be business people. Washing soda does not cost much, and it takes very much less of it to soften water than it takes of soap. Besides, soap costs more than washing soda, and a great deal of soap can be wasted in trying to soften water and make a suds. So it pays to use just enough washing soda in the water to get the lime out of the way, before putting in the soap.”
”I see,” said Jimmy. “Could we use too much washing soda?”
”Yes,” said father. “Too much will salt out the soap and make it grainy, just as common salt does. So when water is very hard, so hard that we cannot put in enough washing soda to soften it and get a suds with soap, such water is very troublesome and costly.”
”Are there many places in this country where the water is very hard?” asked Jimmy.
”Come back in the living room for the answer to that question,” said father.
”Here,” said father, “is a map of the United States. But instead of showing towns and cities, it shows what kind of water the people have in different parts of the country. These dark lines mean that the water is very hard here; these lighter lines show where it is not so hard, and here where the white parts are, the water is soft.”
”Look here, dad,” exclaimed Jimmy. “We are in the white part. It runs along most of the states near the Atlantic Ocean.”
”Why is that so, dad?” went on Jimmy. “And why is the map shaded in the states along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers?”
”The answer takes back many, many years,” said father.
”First, son, do you remember that you found out how, when we were back in Colonial times, we could get lime from the sea beach?”
”Yes,” said Jimmy, “from shells. Oyster shells, clam shells, and all the other shells on the beach. They are mostly lime. But how--?”
”Once upon a time, North America was mostly under water, except where our mountains here along the Atlantic, and the Rocky Mountains, were lifting their heads. They must have looked like chains of islands in those days. All between was a great inland sea. Then the land slowly rose and rose, the water drained off into rivers and great lakes and gulfs, and left dry land around them.
”Now can you think,” said father, “while those changes were going on, why there might have been a great deal of lime left in the soil through this region?”
”I can,” said Jimmy, his eyes shining.
(Can you think it out, too?)
”Jimmy,” said mother, “if you don’t stop talking about hard water, you’ll dream tonight that you are trying to soften the Atlantic Ocean.”
”All right, mother. I’ll start for bed now, and dream how I’m going to show hard water and washing soda and the map to my class tomorrow. I’ll have fun getting some of those boys to make soapsuds in limewater.”
Things for you to do:
What is hard water? Soft water?
How does the addition of soap to water show the difference between hard and soft water?
Suppose you bring some limewater and washing soda to school and show your class what hard water is, what it does to soap, and how to soften it.
Suppose you have lived in New York City, and your mother bought seventy-five bars of laundry soap each year, at seven cents per bar. Now you move to a city where the water is hard, and your mother has to buy two hundred bars of the same soap. How much more is it costing her this year for soap?
How much would she have saved if by using through the year eight pounds of washing soda at five cents per pound, she had used only eighty bars of soap?
Look at the labels on the soaps you know, and see whether they say anything about hard water.
Find out if you can whether soft water is necessary in any kinds of business or manufacture.
Take a map of the United States. Trace with your pencil the probable edges of the big basin filled by the great inland sea long ago. What large rivers drain this big basin?
Why can limestone now be found in this basin?
What effect would limestone have on the water which runs through the soil in that region?
Internet Links to Help you on your Way
Hard and Soft Water
Do you drink Hard Water?
Soft Water Naturally
Soft Water & Suds Simple Science Experiment!
Washing Soda
Make Your Own Laundry Soap
Dirty Laundry Sparkles with Washing Soda
Where would you like to go next? 
