Soft As A Cloud (1955)

[Music] all [Music] for have you ever stopped to think what rain means to you if you're a farmer you [Music] [Music] have [Music] and if you're a weatherman you [Music] [Music] have [Music] but chances are when you're thinking about rain you're not thinking how important it is to [Music] you [Music] yeah it's easy for all of us to forget that rain is so important that rain is water and without water nothing could [Music] live [Music] our entire lives revolve around water the water we drink oh Joey mother said to wash your hands and face [Music] yes the water we wash with the water we wash our clothes [Music] with the water we cook with [Music] the water we clean with the water we all just take for granted yet the time has come when we should stop taking it for granted we're not getting the most out of our water these days we're not getting the most out of it because the water we're using is old fashioned water oldfashioned what what in the world do you mean look around you look at your home modern as tomorrow all these appliances to save you time and work yet you're ignoring the most basic time waster and work maker of all you're using old-fashioned water that streaks your glasses water that spots and stains your sink and leaves a ring around your bathtub water that won't get your clothes really clean or even give you a decent bath water that makes your hands rough and clogs your pores it sticks to your hair and makes it dull and hard to manage why they what are you talking about I'm talking about old-fashioned water hard water oh hard water you had me scared for a minute our water's not hard oh but really it is but then most water is hard some's just harder than others that's all look I'll show you what I mean [Music] the only time water is really soft in nature is here in the clouds when its water vapor when it falls as rain it begins to absorb Gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen from the air yet when it first reaches the ground rain water is still soft and easy to use in fact for years folks collected it in barrels and systems to wash with instead of using the hard water from their Wells because as soon as the rain hits the ground it begins to pick up minerals both as it runs over the surface and beneath the surface among the minerals in the ground are the two principal elements that make water hard calcium and magnesium and as they dissolve in the water they become tiny particles called ions thus when the water reaches your home through your well or through your city water supply it contains these hardness ions if it contained just a few your water would be almost almost as soft and as easy to use as rainwater but when it contains more hardness ions as yours does it's hard difficult to use inconvenient oldfashioned now you can't tell that water's hard by looking at it but the chemist can tell by analyzing it if his measurements indicate that in 7,000 gallons of water only one pound of hardness minerals is present he says the water has a hardness of 1 grain per gallon or it's one grain hard completely soft water has no grains of hardness but since water up to 3 and 1/2 grains is relatively easy to used in the home most chemists agree that it can be called soft and they call water containing more than 3 and2 grains hard but to you the important thing is does the hardness in your water affect you and since soap and water are just natural go togethers around the house here's a test to show you just how hardness minerals and water react with [Music] soap first put a small amount of pure soap in the bottle of soft water and Shake It SS right Suds because there are no hardness minerals in the water to prevent the soap from forming ing Suds and see how clear and clean the water beneath the suds is too that's important now the other bottle use the same amount of soap that's right now shake it well what do you know is that the way hard water acts with soap yep that's it see how milky the water is that's because the soap is combined with the hardness minerals to form a soap curd and since the curd makes dirt stick to everything you can imagine how much harder it is to get clothes or yourself really clean I guess it would be hard to get almost anything clean with that do your clothes get clean when you wash them well of course they do I have a brand new automatic washing machine and it just works I'm afraid you're not giving your new washer a chance to do it its best job for you what do you mean the bottle labeled hard water was filled from your faucet the very same water you thought was soft you're kidding no I'm not kidding but don't be so upset most people use water that acts the same way in fact the water in 85% of this country is hard in many places it's harder than yours and those people are battling kurd all the time they can't help but know they have a problem especially today when people are using more water than ever [Music] before why in many places entire cities have installed Municipal hardness reduction plants yet this is only a start in the right direction you see hardness reduction plants just can't completely soften all the water a city uses economically so usually they merely reduce the hardness of the water to about 5 to 8 grains and that's a big help in areas where the water is naturally 20 30 or even more grains hard but 5 to8 Grain water in your home is still hard enough to rob you of the benefits of truly soft water even though an entire industry has been developed to provide you with modern washing compounds that make suds in hard water yet in spite of these modern compounds you're cheating yourself by using old-fashioned water cheating myself exactly let's take a look at your washing machine as long as you're about to wash these clothes anyway I can show you what I mean I think that's enough for our demonstration now put in the soap well you mean detergent don't you I can't use soap in this machine the men plainly said that I that's one way you're cheating yourself it's not your machine it's your w water that soap won't work in yet many home economists agree that soap is one of the best and least expensive cleaning agents there is and it's easy on clothes and on your hands too you have to use synthetic detergents synet usually just called detergents yet if you had soft water you could use soap or detergents well let's suppose you have soft water in your washer when you put soap in the tiny particles go to work on the dirty Fabrics immediately they break up the dirt surround it and float it away then the fresh soft rinse water washes all the particles away leaving your clothes fresh and really clean and since detergents work well in soft water you can use soap or detergents depending on your personal preference but suppose you put soap in your hard water look what happens the soap particles immediately join the hardness minerals instead of going to work on the dirt in the clothes and so what happens is the soap must soften the water instead of washing the clothes it forms a sticky curd that milky substance you saw in the bottle test the soap and hardness particles clean to the sides of the tub or still worse stick to the cloth the curd can't remove dirt in fact it actually holds dirt in the clothes so you have to add more soap it's only after all the hardness ions have been dealt with that the extra soap can start to wash but by now the sticky curd is all over everything and furthermore your rinse water is hard too so it reacts with the soap that's left in the clothes and tub and forms more hardness curd the rinsing action flushes out the suspended particles but much of the curd stays behind on the tub or more important spread all over your clothes besides curd can keep your starch from penetrating evenly and the curd can cause annoying irritations when it comes in contact with tender skin did your little boy ever have a diaper rash when he was a baby well yes he did you don't suppose it might have been in water as hard as yours you'd never get clothes really clean oh now I remember that must be the reason this came with a washing machine yes sag softeners do a good job of softening wash waterer but remember it's pretty inconvenient to soften rinse water in automatic washers and a soft Water Rinse is just as important to a really clean wash as soft wash waterer well then let's get back to my detergent it doesn't give me any trouble that's right it doesn't because detergents were developed for hard water and they do a good job but hard water won't let them do as much as they're capable of doing here I'll show you detergents aren't bothered by water hardness at first they go right to work on the dirt breaking it up and floating it away but hardness ions in the water interfere with these tiny particles and cause some of the dirt to be redeposited on the fabric although the hard rinse water can car carry away the floating particles it can't budge the redeposited dirt detergents too would work better if you weren't using that old fashioned [Music] water it eventually causes white clothes to discolor even though most detergents contain artificial whiteners and it causes colored Fabrics to lose their Brilliance but you're cheating yourself in other ways by using oldfashioned water it makes bathing a chore for every member of your family soap won't lather when you want it to and the curd is hard to rinse off and of course there's the old bathtub ring you have to scour it off and that doesn't help the glazed finish on your [Music] tub and if all that sticky film stays on the tub think of your skin when you wash your face and think of your hair even though the curd is minimized by some lotions shampoos and soaps it just won't rinse off completely as long as you're using hard water it's the same with glasswar and dishes pots and pans silverware and baby bottles the deposits won't rinse off them easily actually kurd can be a breeding place for bacteria and eventually hard water deposits can clog up automatic dishwashers besides making hand dishwashing really unpleasant some vegetables are shriveled toughened they actually act as water softeners absorbing the hardness minerals right out of the water and you know hard water can change the good flavor of coffee and tea but hard water causes other hidden problems look what it's done to the inside of your tea kettle well for goodness sake and I thought our water was soft it's too bad more people can't see inside their tea kettles then they'd understand what's happening in their water pipes especially their hot water pipes this pipe for example had to be replaced after only a few years use in an area of moderately hard water water just about the same as yours now imagine what your water heater looks like inside well that's not good for the heater is it sure isn't hard water scales ruined lots of [Music] heaters and besides that it costs more to heat the water through all the [Music] scale why I had no idea that soft water was so important in so many ways well that's just it most people don't but then how could you you've never had the chance to enjoy really soft water if you had you'd know soft water is a dream a [Music] dream [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] h [Music] l [Music] it doesn't have to be just a dream it doesn't not anymore there's a way to take the hardness minerals right out of the water in your home with these tiny beads of high-capacity resin already at work in hundreds of City hardness reduction plants high-capacity resins are now available for home water softening equipment a home water softener is simply a resin filled container connected in your plumbing system the resin works on a phenomenon of nature called ion exchange to completely remove the hardness from your home water supply these tiny beads are the secret each fairly bristles with ions of sodium and sodium isn't a hardness element when hard water flows through the resin the beads have a stronger attraction for the hardness ions than for their own sodium ions so Presto the ion strade places with each other it's as simple as that the hardness ions calcium and magnesium become attached to the beads and in exchange the harmless sodium ions take their place so they call it ion exchange periodically the beads are rinsed with salt water to give them a fresh supply of sodium ions and to flush the accumulated hardness ions down the drain that's all it takes to keep the beads at work high-capacity resins have made home water softener so effici icient and economical that they take their place with other modern home appliances as practical Necessities you can buy a home water softener rent it or subscribe to a softwater service well this certainly has been an education I just wish my husband had been here to oh excuse me there he is now honey I've just been hearing about the you lucky man you you've just had a soft water [Music] rist