Reckitt's Crown Blue (Blueing tablet) - Pack of 10

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or recorded but may not be considered appropriate today. These views are not necessarily the views of Victorian Collections. In the meantime I must give you some account of a startling eye-opener which our beloved Marie received in administering a decoction from the Blue Bag for a toiling moiling East End audience. Sting of Bees.—Although the poison a bee emits when it inserts its sting, is proved to be a highly concentrated acid, the application of all alkalies will not neutralize the acid. The more gentle alkalies—chalk, or the "blue bag," are much more likely to effect a cure, and cannot injure[.] Conventional washing powders and fabric conditioners contain chemicals of the stilbene group ‘optical brighteners’ – to whiten whites. These chemicals change light from the invisible ultraviolet and violet spectrum and re-emits it in the blue range of the visible spectrum by fluorescent emission. The blue light coming from the whites balances the yellowy-grey colour of the fabric and it looks white. City of Moorabbin Historical Society (Operating the Box Cottage Museum) Education kit, Department of Veterans Affairs, Schooling, service and the Great War, 2014

One of the most common issues when using eco laundry products such as soapnuts or soapwort, is getting whites looking really white. After a few natural washes white clothing and bedding can become more grey and yellow, even when they are clean. It is more pronounced with hard water. The yellowy-grey is the actual colour of the fabric and up to now soapnuts users have resigned themselves to having off-whites. However we do now have the number one eco solution to make your whites dazzling even when using natural laundry products and thought that you’d like to know. We can now get our whites looking like new with our traditional totally natural blue indigo laundry bluing! And earlier still, from Albert Chevalier, Before I Forget: The Autobiography of a Chevalier D'industrie (1901): E.N.S.A. shows are blue!” So are many of the shows given in music-halls in England. No E.N.S.A. show is blue at its final rehearsal at Drury Lane, that I can swear. Each show is vetted and vetted most carefully. Manuscripts have to be submitted, and the blue pencil is not spared when objectionable matter is found. If, after the show has gone out, either at home or overseas, the “blue bag” is used too freely that is the fault of the party manager, or going further, the fault of any E.N.S.A. officer who sees the show and hears “smut” and does not prohibit it. Dirt is not wished for, it is not permitted and if everyone concerned did their duty as they should do it it would all be eliminated. Remember there will always be “comics” who like to push in a dirty gag and get a cheap laugh . . . In this reference the term "blue bag" is apparently used to mean a small flannel bag in which you place a ball of "bluing". This is then added to a load of laundry "whites" to help neutralize yellowing.Laundry bluing is made of a colloid of ferric ferrocyanide (blue iron salt, also referred to as "Prussian blue") in water.

Some material may contain terms that reflect authors’ views, or those of the period in which the item was writtenCity of Moorabbin Historical Society (Operating the Box Cottage Museum) Book, Carroll, Brian, Early Melbourne sketchbook, 1977 Many washerwomen—charring-women, notably—have an immense fondness for blue, for they can hide for the tome being, by its aid, any carelessness they have been guilty of as regards washing thoroughly. Blue covers up the yellow hue consequent upon this. Very blue clothes, too, look bad, but a slight colouring of it adds to the beauty of well-washed garments.

And from The Economical Housewife: A Complete Practical Guide to Domestic Management for the Use of Both Mistress and Maid (1880):

How do you use True Indigo as Laundry Bluing?

I imagine this is show-biz slang, borrowing the name of the familiar domestic article and humorously parsing it in the sense of “blue” jokes. They built up a major international brand, with various lesser rivals, notably Mrs. Stewart's liquid bluing Bluing is usually sold in liquid form, but it may also be a solid. Solid bluing is sometimes used by hoodoo doctors to provide the blue color needed for " mojo hands" without having to use the toxic compound copper(II) sulfate. Bluing was also used by some Native American tribes to mark their arrows showing tribe ownership. [ citation needed] See also [ edit ] Further examination of a number of old Ngram hits ca 1840 suggests that this refers to some sort of satchel typically used by barristers. But then "green bag" appears to be used in a similar context.

In additional to laundry, I use soapnuts everyday – for natural rubber-glove-free washing up, surface cleaning, the loos, glass and shiny things. True Indigo Seeker" wants a remedy for bung eyes. I have tried different remedies, but the best is the blue bag (washing blue) as soon as the eye is stung. Wet the blue bag and apply to where the eye is stung. I don't think it hurts the eyesight. I have three children, and if a fly stings them, they come in at once for the blue bag. It stops the swelling at once, and it seems to take all the pain away. We celebrate the history and contemporary creativity of the world’s oldest living culture and pay respect to Elders — past, present and future. There came a time at last, however, when even at the "Pav.," where such "shadiness" of song and jest seemed to be encouraged in those days, Marie was "warned" by the management, but not until that management had been "warned" by others, including your humble memoriser. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

What did people use to whiten their white laundry in the past?

The little blue bag was stirred around in the final rinse water on washday. It disguised any hint of yellow and helped the household linen look whiter than white. The main ingredients were synthetic ultramarine and baking soda, and the original "squares" weighed an ounce and cost 1 penny. But their humour was really of a very quaint and infectious kind, and they were always welcome, especially when they used less of the "Blue Bag."