Dusting

“ Mother is terribly down on dust too. She has a book about germ culture, and sees germs in everything. It doesn’t make her any happier. But as for dusting, so far as I can see, what they call dusting is only a plan for raising the dirt and taking it to some other place. It gets into our mouths in the end. ”

“ Dusting and sweeping must be done at home, we cannot send the house out, but we can pipe the house for suction sweeping and discard forever the broom, clothes brush and that arch nuisance, the feather duster, which is used to chase the dust from room to room without getting rid of it. ”

“ Dusting is removing dust, and the only way that can be done effectually is by the use of a damp cloth, to which the particles will adhere. Furniture that will be injured by that kind of dusting is out of place in a hospital. ”

“ The broom and the feather duster and the dry cloth do almost as much harm as they do good; for while they may remove two-thirds of the dust from a room, they drive the other third right into your nose and throat, where the germs it contains can do the most possible harm. Dusting should always be done with a damp cloth ”

“ If the sides of the hood be shallow, not only will the dust fail to be removed, but the hood itself may become so hot as noticeably to increase the discomfort from heat to which the men are exposed during the three or four minutes, five or six times an hour, that the dusting operation lasts. ”

“ Furthermore there is greater and greater difficulty in getting servants, which merely means that even the so-called servant class dislikes the work. No amount of argument therefore leads away from the conclusion that housework must be essentially disagreeable, in its completeness. There may be phases of it that are agreeable; some may like the cooking or the sewing, but no one likes these things plus the everlasting picking up; no one likes the dusting, the dishwashing, the clothes washing and ironing, the work that is no sooner finished than it beckons with tyrannical finger to be begun. ”

“ When the March wind comes blustering down the street, rudely dashing a cloud of dust in our faces, we are uncomfortable and out of patience. We duck our heads and cover our faces, but even then we are likely to get a cinder in one eye, to swallow germs by the dozens, and to get a gray coating of plain, harmless dust. We welcome the rain that lays the dust, or its feeble imitation, the water sprinkler, that brings us temporary relief. ”

“ The wind-blown dust from these consists chiefly of loose dirt, paving material, garbage, finely pulverized horse dung, and foliage dust. The dust carried by winds blowing over areas of orchard and shrubbery usually contains the spores of fungi, pollen in season, the spores of various moulds, the eggs of insects and the dust scales of moths. Winds blowing over swampy areas are apt to have a generous content of the micro-organisms common to swamps. Dry air contains the spores of micro-organisms; moist air is often rich in the organisms themselves. ”

“ A constant procession of vehicles passes my house, and to-day each one approaches in a cloud of dust. The air is gray with suspended particles of dirt. The wind carries the successive clouds, and they roll up against the houses like breakers on the beach. Windows and doors are loose enough to let dust sift in. When a door opens, the cloud enters and lights on rugs and carpets and curtains. Any ledge collects its share of dust. The beating of carpets and rugs disturbs the accumulated dust of many months. ”

“ When the rain falls on this dust, the drops mix together, and take an oval or round form, as we may frequently observe in our houses on the dusty floor, when servants scatter water before they sweep. These globes of water form convex lenses, which produce the same effect as burning mirrors. Should the rain be heavy and last long, the sun would not produce this burning heat, because the force and duration of the rain will have destroyed the dust that formed these drops of water ”

“ Dust mingled with the manure of thousands of oxen, horses, sheep and goats. Dust which converts the glossy skin of the African into an unattractive drab, but which cannot impair his cheerfulness withal. Dust which eats its way into your boxes, and defies the brush applied to your clothes, and finds its way into your soup and all things edible and non-edible. Dust which gets between you and the sun, and spoils your view of the country, wrapping everything in a milky haze which distorts distances and lies thick upon the foliage. ”

“ Imagine the delights of an immense cloud of dust a mile square, or more, driven along by a red hot wind, and forcing its way into every hole and corner. While it is passing it is quite dark, even in mid-day, and when it is gone everything one possesses, every table, chair and book is covered with an inch of dust, and one's hair and beard turned into a whitey brown color, and stiff with dirt. ”

“ During the night plants only give off carbonic acid.
2. The Fall of Rain clears the atmosphere of any solid particles contained in it, the impurities being transferred to rain-water which generally contains an appreciable amount of ammonia as well as other impurities. Rain not only washes and purifies the air, but by washing the ground, diminishes dust, and prevents its escape into the air. It is the great natural scavenger.
3. Ventilation—that is, the interchange of pure and impure air, is constantly being effected. ”

“ The floating dust of the air, which, thus illuminated and observed, is as palpable to sense as any dust or powder placed on the palm of the hand. In the still air the dust gradually sinks to the floor, or sticks to the walls or ceiling, until, finally, by this self-cleansing process, the air is entirely freed from mechanically suspended matter. ”

“ In the story about land you saw what a big part water plays in this world of ours. Every drop of rain that falls takes up just as much dust as it can carry on its tiny round back, and hurries away with it. It washes the dust and smoke and bad smells out of the air, and leaves it pure and clean. It washes the dust from all plants and makes them bright. It would give you a merry shower bath if you stood in it. It washes the houses and the streets. You can see muddy water running down the gutters. How clean everything is, even the pebbles in the road, after a bright, hard rain. ”

“ Without atmospheric dust, we should not have the glorious cloud scenery which we at present enjoy. We should have no haze in the atmosphere, we should have no twilight. Darkness would come as soon as the sun passed below the horizon.
The relative humidity of the air has a great effect on the dust by increasing the size of the particles of water vapor and so increasing the haze. The number of dust particles rapidly decreases with the amount of moisture present. ”

“ To prevent the thick dust, which is thus left on the floor, from being noxious to the health, the women wet it several times a day, which renders it more consistent; repeating the aspersion as often as the dust is dry and rises again. ”

“ Sweeping.—Dusty air in a room is dangerous to health, for disease germs are likely to be found in it. We can get rid of dust by keeping our floors swept clean. After sweeping we should wipe the dust from the tables and furniture. A feather duster or dry cloth will only stir up the dust and make it float in the air again. ”

“ Thickly powdered with the fine white dust of its own unpaven streets, dust that sent the inhabitants chronically sneezing and weeping and red-eyed about town, or sent them north to the lakes for exemption, dust that hung impalpably suspended in the still air and turned the sunsets to things of glorious rose and red and gold though there wasn't a single cloud or streamer in the sky to catch the light, dust that lay upon lawns and walks and houses in deep gray accumulation ... ”

“ The sun beat down on the iron roof. The heat beat up from the tracks. Red dust polluted the drinking water in the little upright tank. Dust filled eyes, nostrils, hair. Dust caked and grew stiff in the sweat that streamed down us. ”

“ We know, moreover, that the formation of dust is in the main due to rain converting the surface layers of the earth into mud, which on drying requires but the frictional action of heavy winds to rise in clouds of dust. In some soils this process goes on more rapidly than in others, as every one who has travelled much afoot is aware. There are parts of England, for instance, where, even in the driest summer, the daily deposition of dust on dry and breezy days is but slight, others where in such weather a dust layer at least a quarter of an inch in thickness is deposited in the course of a day. ”

“ You want to know what that dust is? It is always to be found in dry gutters on the housetops, or in dry moss growing on an old wall; and Spallanzani, the admirable naturalist to whom we owe so much, amazed the world with announcing what old Leeuwenhoek had before announced, namely, that these grains of dust, when moistened, suddenly exhibited themselves as highly-organised little animals—the Rotifers and Tardigrades. Water is necessary to their activity. When the gutter is dried up, they roll themselves into balls, and patiently await the next shower. ”

“ In a whirlwind of dust raised by an impetuous wind, however confused it may appear to our eyes; in the most dreadful tempest excited by opposing winds, which convulse the waves, there is not a single particle of dust or of water that is placed by chance that has not its sufficient cause for occupying the situation in which it is, and which does not rigororously act in the mode it should act. ”

“ Every little drop of rain has a grain of dust in the middle. The colors of the sunset, too, are due partly to dust. Not only that, but colors of the sunset vary as the particles of dust which reflect the rays of light, are enveloped by water vapor.
"A piece of dust, without an envelope of water, is smaller than one with a little wetness around it. When more water vapor gathers around the piece of dust, the drop becomes bigger. When the sunset is red, it is a sign that it is shining on very small bits of dust, or that the condensation of water vapor into rain has not advanced very far. ”

“ We ventilate to remove smoke and ordinary dust; these are easily seen; and we use ventilation to procure dryness. Moisture rises constantly from the skin, and, if an inhabited apartment is not ventilated, that moisture accumulates. By opening the windows we cause floors to dry sooner, and we remove moisture from all the apartments, and that moisture has generally organic matter with it. If we ventilate with very moist air, we shall dry nothing; if we have very dry air, we may dry too thoroughly. ”

“ It requires an optimist to say good things of April days, even in the sub-Himalayan tract. Fierce scorching west winds sweep over the earth, covering everything with dust. Sometimes the flying sand is so thick as to obscure the landscape, and often, after the wind has dropped, the particles remain suspended for days as a dust haze. The dust is a scourge. It is all-pervading. It enters eyes, ears, nose and mouth. To escape it is impossible. Closed doors and windows fail to keep it from entering the bungalow. ”

“ The common people's wind rises from narrow lanes and streets, carrying clouds of dust. Rushing to empty spaces it attacks the gateway, scatters the dust-heap, sends the cinders flying, pokes among foul and rotting things, till at last it enters the tiled windows and reaches the rooms of the cottage. Now this wind is heavy and turgid, oppressing man's heart It brings fever to his body, ulcers to his lips and dimness to his eyes. ”

“ A long period of drought succeeded to the tall of dust, and during that period the columns of the lighter parts of the dust, which were raised and driven by the wind, proved a most unpleasant annoyance to those who were exposed to them, and exhibited a very singular appearance when viewed from any distance. ”

“ Assuming this view—that dust is repelled from warmer to cooler bodies, be those bodies solid or gaseous—to be proved, then, "if the walls, floor, ceiling, and furniture of a room be warmer than the air of the room, the dust will be repelled from the walls, etc., to the air; while if the air be warmer than the walls the dust will be projected from the air to the walls." ”

“ The housewife digs the dust out of her carpets and stirs it out of the quiet corners where it has accumulated, wearing an old dress and covering her head while she leaves her lungs exposed, then shakes her rugs in the yard, and the street sweeper transfers the dust he has charge of from the pavement to the atmosphere, where we can breathe our fill of consumption from day to day. ”

“ There are masses of decaying epithelium from lavatories and baths, organic matters from soiled apparel, and various organic matters from culinary operations, all of which may cause serious nuisance unless promptly disposed of.
The Dust consists chiefly of the ashes from fires; but the dust-bin also forms a favourite refuge for kitchen refuse, composed of various animal and vegetable matters, as well as for broken pots and tins. It is dealt with apart from the house-slops and excreta, except in certain dry methods of disposal of sewage. ”

“ Some of the vapor of the air, on condensing, gathers on solid objects like grass, or glass; but some, as fog, floats about in the air. Really this, too, is often gathered around solid objects. Floating about in the air are innumerable bits of "dust" which you can see dancing about in the sunlight when a sunbeam enters a dark room. Some of these "dust" particles are actual dust from the road, but much of it is something else, as the pollen of plants, microbes, and the solid bits produced by the burning of wood or coal. ”

“ Large quantities of dust are also raised from the surface of the earth by strong winds, from dusty roads and dry soil, and there is good reason for supposing that large quantities of sand are carried from the deserts by the wind and transported great distances, the sand, for instance, from the desert of Africa being carried to Europe. It is, however, to artificial causes that most of the dust is due. ”