Tuesday, October 5, 2010

What About Bleach.

The raw materials for making household bleach are chlorine, caustic soda, and water. The chlorine and caustic soda are produced by putting direct current electricity through a sodium chloride salt solution in a process called electrolysis.
"Bleach is a chemical compound derived from natural sources used to whiten fabrics. Bleach works by the process of oxidation, or the alteration of a compound by the introduction of oxygen molecules.

A stain is essentially a chemical compound, and the addition of bleach breaks down the molecules into smaller elements so that it separates from the fabric. Detergent and the agitation of the washing machine speed up the cleaning process.

The disinfecting properties of bleach work in the same manner—germs are broken down and rendered harmless by the introduction of oxygen. In industry, different forms of bleach are used to whiten materials such as paper and wood, though most bleach is used to launder textiles.

History

Humans have been whitening fabrics for centuries; ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans bleached materials. As early as 300 B.C. , soda ash, prepared from burned seaweed, was used to clean and whiten cloth.

During the Middle Ages, the Dutch perfected the bleaching of fabrics in a process called crofting, whereby fabrics were spread out in large fields for maximum sunlight exposure. Textile mills as far away as Scotland shipped their material to the Netherlands for this bleaching. The practice quickly spread throughout Europe, and bleaching fields were documented in Great Britain as early as 1322.

In 1728 a bleaching company using Dutch methods went into business in Galloway, Scotland. In this process, the fabrics were soaked in a lye solution for several days, then "bucked," or washed clean.

The fabrics were then spread out on the grass for weeks at a time. This process was repeated five or six times until the desired whiteness was achieved. Next, the fabric was treated with sour milk or buttermilk, and again bucked and crofted. This method was lengthy and tedious, and it monopolized large tracts of land that could have been used for farming."

Read more: How bleach is made - material, manufacture, making, history, used, components, steps, product, industry, machine, History, Types of Bleach, Raw Materials http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Bleach.html#ixzz11YAWQP1q
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Be aware that if you are using bleach to sanitize, that all bleaches are not created equal.  Some do not say 'disinfecting' on the bottle.
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Today:

Muffie and Maddie, the two little doggie boarders, were picked up last night.  Everyone seemed to have had a good time at the casino.  I didn't ask how much they lost/won!

Deluxe Skirting
On and off for the last few mornings Ray and I have been washing some mobile home skirting which I have had for a while.  It is going to go to Somerville, TX to my son-in-law and daughter's weekend place.
Still more to do, but we got all the 10' long mounting parts washed and stacked up.  It takes three horizontal parts to install it, then the vertical skirting slides into the slots.

While we were doing that, Pamala and Nigel were occupied with their own little jobs, and catching up on emails, phone calls etc.

After lunch they drove their Dodge 3500 into Conroe to have the truck windshield replaced.  It had caught a few dings on the trip to Alaska, so now it would not pass British MOT (safety) inspection.   It is cheaper to get it replaced here.  I lead the way in my van, so that we could do some grocery shopping while we waited for the truck.

This evening, Pamala, Nigel, the cats, the dogs and I were just lazin' around after the disruption of having two spoiled bratkin dogs here in the house for two days.

1 comment:

Gypsy said...

Ah, I remember the dreaded MOT in Ireland.