of common
spirits should be mixed with each gallon of water, which is an
improvement under any circumstances. Whether soaked or washed, it should
be hung up to drain, and dried without wringing.

2384. Satin and silk ribbons, both white and coloured, may be cleaned in
the same manner.

2385. Silks, when washed, should be dried in the shade, on a
linen-horse, taking care that they are kept smooth and unwrinkled. If
black or blue, they will be improved if laid again on the table, when
dry, and sponged with gin, or whiskey, or other white spirit.

2386. The operations should be concluded by rinsing the tubs, cleaning
the coppers, scrubbing the floors of the washing-house, and restoring
everything to order and cleanliness.

2387. Thursday and Friday, in a laundry in full employ, are usually
devoted to mangling, starching, and ironing.

2388. Linen, cotton, and other fabrics, after being washed and dried,
are made smooth and glossy by mangling and by ironing. The mangling
process, which is simply passing them between rollers subjected to a
very considerable pressure, produced by weight, is confined to sheets,
towels, table-linen, and similar articles, which are without folds or
plaits. Ironing is necessary to smooth body-linen, and made-up articles
of delicate texture or gathered into folds. The mangle is too well known
to need description.

2389. _Ironing_.--The irons consist of the common flat-iron,
which is of different sizes, varying from 4 to 10 inches in
length, triangular in form, and from 2-1/2 to 4-1/2 inches in
width at the broad end; the oval iron, which is used for more
delicate articles; and the box-iron, which is hollow, and heated
by a red-hot iron inserted into the box. The Italian iron is a
hollow tube, smooth on the outside, and raised on a slender
pedestal with a footstalk. Into the hollow cylinder a red-hot
iron is pushed, which heats it; and the smooth outside of the
latter is used, on which articles such as frills, and plaited
articles, are drawn. Crimping- and gauffering-machines are used
for a kind of plaiting where much regularity is required, the
articles being passed through two iron rollers fluted so as to
represent the kind of plait or fold required.

2390. Starching is a process by which stiffness is communicated to
certain parts of linen, as the collar and front of shirts, by dipping
them in a paste made of starch boiled in water,