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| | Lye |
 | | The thing we were all warned about not to drink as children, major component in modern drain openers and indispensable material to medieval tanners, linen finishers, and innumerable other trades. |
 | | Lye was locally made from various and sundry caustic ingredients, including fowl droppings, human urine, wood ash, and powdered limestone, mixed down with rainwater to desired strength. |
 | | Lye was used to bleach, to soften, and to scour, and to dissolve unwanted bits of adhering materials (flesh or fat from hides during tanning, for instance). |
| www.octavia.net /9thclife/Lye.htm (84 words) |
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