Can you give me a source for buying the old fashioned laundry bluing?  I'm almost out of my last bottle and can't find another merchant that sells it.  It really does work in making whites whiter.  Thanks for the help.

Well, sorry for the delay.  When I had a dozen or two loads of laundry a week, I too used bluing, and it does the job!   About thirteen years ago I had to fill a tubular water level in order to level a floor from one room to another when we were doing major renovations that involved a bit of jacking up the house to repair foundations and sills.   I couldn't find any then, either, and vegetable coloring for cake icing just didn't give a dark enough hue.  So I dissolved a good bit of color out of one of those glass toilet blue contraptions and used it in the level.  Worked fine!  But my hands were dyed for a couple of days.

After searching on the web, I read some comments in other forums by people who use bluing for ancient tablecloths, wedding dresses and curtains, to add to rinse water for white clothes and white hair, and even to make white cats and ponies prettier!   

All of them said that, yes, you can get it in the laundry section of grocery stores.  But not now in the stores where we shop!!   Both my husband and I have searched and can't locate any.  I guess not too many people have that many whites any more.  

But never fear!  Sing the blues no longer.  Here's a source with their own website.  Read the History of Mrs. Stewart's Bluing.     You can find a source or place an order from the home page of the manufacturers.

Have fun!

Jeannie Carl from the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill, Pa, writes:

I work at an environmental education center and I would like to know if there is a source to order laundry bluing for a science project.  Please contact me if you have a catalog or on-line ordering for this product.

Apparently most stores don't carry bluing anymore, because this is the second request I've received recently.  Please see previous letter for sources.

I can't find La France Bluing on my grocers shelves.  HELP PLEASE....

You're not the only one.  From an expired page from Mcall.com:   "Bluing: Elaine of Parryville says she's searched high and low for La France bluing. ''It makes your clothes really white without the use of bleach,'' she writes. Does anyone know where to get this old-fashioned commodity?"  

In answer, obviously, to an earlier inquiry in CityGuide's GulfCoast.com, the columnist writes:  "Beulah called to tell Perry, seeking La France bluing, that it's available in powder form at Winn Dixie stores." 

In answer to numerous inquiries to the Forum at Greenspun.com, a contributor writes:  "Just got off the phone with the Dial Corp. (1-800-457-8739).  I just emptied my last box of LaFrance!!  The company that made this product went out of business in November and Dial Corp. said it happened so quickly they had no time to even stockpile extras.  They are working on getting another factory to make it, but so far it's slow going.  They sent me coupons for Borateem but I still want my LaFrance!!" 

Patricia at Dial Corp. states that Dial has no plans to continue producing this item because of low sales.

Laundry wasn't the only use for this product; apparently dog groomers who prepare white dogs for show put some in the rinse water so the dogs look whiter.  (Hmmm... wonder what this would do for my gray hair?  Naaah!)

I used bluing in a water level (used in construction) and when I couldn't get bluing, I soaked a Toilet Blue container until I got a good quantity of blue dye and poured it into the water in the level.  But I have no idea what this would do to clothing!

Ask your grocer for other brands of bluing.  Meanwhile, see the letter at the top for other sources.

Do you have or know where I may obtain a metal sprinkler top with a cork bottom? It is the type that was used years ago to sprinkle clothes that needed to be ironed. It usually fit very nicely into a soda pop bottle.

I had my mother's Ironrite mangle shipped from Ohio to California last summer and using a spray bottle to dampen the clothes for ironing is a very tedious job and does not accomplish the results that I want. I'm now trying to locate the old type of "sprinkler" that fit into the soda bottles but no one seems to have them anymore. 

Any help you may offer would be very much appreciated.  Thank you.

I had forgotten those things existed!    I've got good news and bad news, Diane.  

Doing the laundry has certainly changed.  I still remember laundry day, summers when I stayed with my grandparents.  Grandma Hine had a little room off the kitchen especially for laundry.   Water was heated in a huge, oval copper tub and ladled out into the antique washing machine in buckets.  The washer itself consisted of a wooden tub, bound with metal like a half-barrel, with a  wringer in the center that swiveled in four positions:  the wash tub, the first rinse, second rinse, or whatever you put in the fourth position to catch the clean clothes.  The wash tub had an agitator, and the hottest water was put into this one.  A plunger, like a toilet plunger but flatter with several partitions inside, was used to agitate the clothes in the two rinse tubs.   Warm water filled the second, and cold the third.  The wringer engaged when a lever was thrown.   The first and perhaps the second load from the wash tub was usually too hot to handle, and had to be fished out with a pole and sort of slung into the wringer.   Then things started to cool down and we could fish for the clothes by hand, something that amused me greatly as a small child, for some reason.

The whole thing worked with a ratchet and belt arrangement, driven by a gasoline motor.  I've never enjoyed getting up early (the early bird gets the worm, I was told many times, but who wants worms!)  and I always knew it was laundry day when I awoke to the distinctive chucka-chucka-chucka of Grandma's  washer.   I'd get up in a hurry and put on old clothes so I could help put things through the wringer.

The History of Washing Machines  Household Wonders The Invention of the Washing Machine Evolution of the Maytag Wringer Washer

The clothes were sorted carefully into piles;  white shirts, ladies underwear and very light colored fine outerware, white doilies and so on in the first wash.   Sheets, towels and other light clothing in the next.  Colored items followed, then dark colored items in another run.   Finally, dark socks, blue jeans, overalls, anything really dirty.  Last, in water gone cold and dark gray, rugs and rags were run though.   Then the water was dipped out in buckets and thrown out the back door.   Sometimes in warm weather Grandma poured some of the soapy water on one of the porches or outside steps and scrubbed with a broom.    This process was usually done only about every two weeks, as it was a lot of work!

Next, of course, was hanging them with old-fashioned clothes pins.  Spring clip ones weren't made yet.  Grandma had an apron with a huge pocket full of clothespins, especially made for laundry day.  The laundry line was hoisted high with a pole to keep it off the lawn and catch the breeze.   In winter, the laundry froze before it could dry completely.   It was brought inside stiff as boards, and draped all over the kitchen to thaw and finish drying.  You haven't seen rustic until you've seen and smelled several sets of damp long johns and overalls drying all over the kitchen, while cooking and sometimes eating went on around them.  

Ironing was done with a flat iron, a heavy piece that was heated on the big, wood burning kitchen stove.  Most people had two, one to be heating and the other to iron with.  The ironing board was covered usually with old blankets for padding and old sheets for a cover.  As they scorched and deteriorated one was put on top another, sewn in place with heavy thread or pinned with straight pins or safety pins.  Taking off all these layers, if ever required,  was a family history lesson.  

Is it any wonder that your usual working-class citizen changed clothes less frequently than most do now?    And for those of us who have automatic washers and even dryers, keep in mind that a large part of the world still washes clothes on rocks in a river, or with a  washboard and bucket!   Give thanks!

After World War II, an electric pump was installed in Grandpa's cellar, replacing the hand pump over the sink that had been in use since the house was built.  Water was piped in and an inside bathroom built, a true luxury with tub, toilet and lavatory.  The old Maytag was removed, replaced with a modern, electric wringer washer in one corner of the bathroom.    An electric iron replaced the flatiron, which was demoted to doorstop, as it was in homes all over the USA.   Even the wood burning kitchen stove was replaced with a kerosene burning one, complete with it's own water heater. 

With all that pumping, hauling buckets, manhandling the washer and heavy wet clothes, hanging, unhanging and then ironing with a heavy iron, it's no wonder our female ancestors had muscles, and only the wealthy were inclined to be fat and change clothes once or twice a day.  Now we go to the gym instead, and still the nation gains weight.          

To get back to your clothes sprinkler problem;  I assume you've looked in your discount, junk and "five and ten cent" stores.  I somehow doubt you'll find one a K-Mart or Wal-Mart, however.

The bad news, depending on how you look at it, is that standard glass soda bottles, sprinklers and even ironing have to a great extent gone out of style.  Personally, I use the permanent press cycle on my dryer, and take the clothes out before they cook, while not damp but certainly humid.   If I get something that comes out wrinkled, I give it away.   I swore off ironing a decade and a half ago.

I had one of those Ironrite mangles when my kids were small and most clothes had to be ironed.  With plenty of time available, I even ironed the pillowcases and my husband's boxer shorts!  The mangle worked great.  I sprinkled by hand or with a soda bottle sprinkler, and rolled things up in a plastic bag for ironing a few hours later, as I too found a sprayer too tiring to use.  I have no clue what happened to that old cork and metal sprinkler top!

When I went to work full-time, one of the first things to go was the mangle.  Next went by necessity most of the clothes that had to be ironed, as I just didn't have the time.  The few really good clothes that needed ironing I did on a board (covered with a Fuller Brush ironing board cover and pad, that really speeds ironing and prevents most absent-minded  scorches).  This also allowed me to watch a movie on TV while ironing,  something I had little time for otherwise.  Just try watching TV while you use a mangle!  On second thought, don't!    Then I got a dryer, since hanging the clothes and remembering to take them in before it rained (not always easy in Florida), or hauling wet clothes to the Laundromat to dry them when it rained for days,  was just too much.   And little by little, as the chancy "wash and wear" was mostly replaced by "permanent press", I gave up ironing.  

The good news is that maybe I've found a sprinkler for you.  It's only partially good news, as it's an antique and will cost you (if they still have it).  Take a look at Memory's Antiques.

Another page that has a clothes sprinkler, no details, is Fantasy Kitchen.  Inquire for more info.

Other suggestions:  a large pepper shaker with small holes or a plant mister, the kind you squeeze.  As a last resort, find a bottle or jar with a screw top the size and shape you like.  With tiny nails, make holes in the lid.  Voila!   

Hope this helps and perhaps amuses.    

Page 2
Forum Index