COAL, STOVES, FURNACES, ETC.
TO PREVENT SOOT IN CHIMNEYS
Burn raw potato parings in the stove, or pieces of zinc to prevent having soot accumulate.
TO SEE OBSTRUCTIONS IN A CHIMNEY
Remove the soot-pan, place a hand mirror in the opening, and you can see to the top unless obstructed.
Vinegar will remove lime spots and soot from an open chimney.
TO START A FIRE
Keep ashes in an old tin can and pour over kerosene enough to soak them. Have the grate clean and wood laid on it ready to light. Place two spoonfuls of ashes on the wood, then lay a few sticks over the ashes, have dampers open, and light the ashes. Keep the can of ashes outside, away from fire and your kindling is always ready. A brick may be soaked in kerosene a short time and laid in a grate and lighted to start either coal or wood. When the kerosene is burned out and the brick cold, it may be soaked again.
To start a fire in the grate, first take a newspaper and insert in opening just above grate, then light paper; this will warm up the chimney flue and prevent smoke from coming into room after lighting fire. This also applies in starting hard and soft coal burners.
To free a grate from cinders, dump clam or oyster shells into the grate.
TO KEEP A FIRE
Soak two or three newspapers in clean cold water, squeeze out the water, and make the papers into good sized balls. Pack these tightly together on top of the red hot coal fire, and it will keep for hours.
When a quick fire is needed, tear a newspaper into quarters without unfolding, twist each one tightly, lay closely in the stove, and light one end.
Throw on a few pieces of coal and sprinkle table salt over them. At the end of several hours, there will be a good fire.
TO WATERPROOF MATCHES
Dip them in very hot melted paraffin and when cool, they are ready for use.
TO CLEAN DISCOLORED FIREPLACE BRICK
Rub into the bricks as much linseed oil as they will absorb, and repeat till they are clear.
BLACKING A STOVE
Use a paint brush to apply the blacking. Just before using stove polish, mix a tablespoonful of gasoline with a saucer of polish. Be sure the stove is cold and never use gasoline around heat.
Turpentine is also good to use with polish.
Clean the steel parts with boiled linseed oil on a woolen cloth, and clean the nickle with whiting and ammonia.
If a stove is washed, then rubbed well with a few drops of linseed oil on a woolen cloth, it will never need polishing.
IN THE OVEN
Paint the inside of the oven with aluminum paint and it is a pleasure to be able to see every article in it.
A little salt sprinkled on the bottom of the oven will prevent cakes burning.
When possible during the winter months, do the baking in the furnace.
When the hinges on the oven door are worn and the doors fail to catch, put washers of iron on the bolt.
TO CUT STOVE PIPE
Cut stove pipe easily with a can opener.
GAS STOVES
Wash them each time they are used, and wash with kerosene once each week.
Keep two pieces of sheet iron on top of a gas stove, large enough to cover it. Enough heat will be diffused from one or two burners to cook a whole meal. It will also keep dishes hot.
On top of the gas stove under the burners, is a good place to spread a paper to catch falling particles.
TO CLEAN ASBESTOS GAS LOGS
To clean the asbestos gas log when it becomes blackened, sprinkle it with salt, light the gas, and the asbestos turns white.
TO CLEAN A GAS MANTLE
When smoke has blackened a gas mantle, sprinkle salt from a salt shaker on it, slowly, light the gas and let the salt burn off a little at a time.
TO WHITEN A HEARTH
Melt a little size in a jar with a quart of boiling water. When the size is melted, mix in the same quantity of whiting with just a bit of washing-blue. Wash the hearth, then paint with the mixture. Clean it by wiping with a cloth wrung out of cold water. When the whiting needs renewing, wash the hearthstone in hot water, and apply the mixture. Add more water when the mixture requires.
PACKING THE STOVE AWAY
Rub a little oil, vaseline or kerosene over a stove before packing it away, to prevent rusting.
ABOUT PLUMBING
Slip a piece of garden hose about an inch long over the end of the faucets in the kitchen sink to prevent breaking dishes on the faucets.
TO PREVENT PIPES FREEZING
After water is shut off, always sprinkle a good handful of coarse salt over the holes in the sink with just enough water to carry it to the curve of the waste pipe. Treat all similar curves in the same manner.
TO THAW FROZEN PIPES
Use a hot water bottle.
When pipes become frozen in the yard, have an electrician connect a transformer of suitable size into circuit; one lead of the secondary is connected to the water valve or pipe near the curb and the other lead is connected to the water piping in the house. The current is then turned on, and the heat developed by the resistance of the water pipe to the flow of the electric current soon thaws the pipe.
A pipe-thawing electrical outfit is now manufactured.