Blue Bag
Before we had modern laundry detergents with optical brighteners, there was a mysterious little blue bag that was stirred around in the final rinse water on washday. This was laundry blueing or blue.
A factory-produced block was the “modern” (mid-19th century onwards), commercial version of older recipes for whitening clothes, with names like stone blue, fig blue, or thumb blue.
It disguised any hint of yellow and helped the household linen look whiter than white.
The Enfield system was a separate group of lines based around a depot in Enfield, in Sydney’s inner south-west. The system began as a steam tramway opening in 1891 between Ashfield station and Enfield. In 1901, this line was extended north to Mortlake, and in 1909 a branch to Cabarita Park was opened. The system was electrified in 1912. Services operated…
Japanese Midget Submarines enter Sydney Harbour. The boom safety net protection across Sydney Harbour was designed in January of 1942 and its construction began that month. It was located at the narrowest point of the inner harbour entrance, between George’s Head on Middle Harbour, and Green Point on Inner South Head. This protective net was…
The story of Tom Reid, a Little Dish and Neil Armstrong’s First Step For more than 60 years, Australia has played a vital role in space tracking owing to its geographic location and its technical know-how. A high point was reached at 12.56 pm (AEST) on 21 July 1969 when the Apollo tracking station at…
Leslie Kenneth Garfield Browning, MC and Bar When war broke out in August 1914 the Australian Naval and Military Expedition Force was hurriedly assembled and dispatched to New Guinea to seize control of the German colony. After limited resistance, the German forces surrendered and the expeditionary force returned to Australia leaving a small detachment to…
When I’m an old lady, I’ll live with each kidAnd bring so much happiness – just as they did.I want to pay back all the joy they’ve provided,Returning each deed! OH, they’ll be so excited! I’ll write on the wall with reds, whites and blues,And I’ll bounce on the furniture, wearing my shoes.I’ll drink from…
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