| abstract |
A method of washing soiled textiles, wherein the soiled textiles are immersed in an aqueous liquor which contains at least one compound inhibiting alkaline earth metal ion precipitation on said soiled textiles and surface-active compounds comprising using finely-dispersed, water-insoluble silicate compounds having a calcium-binding power of at least 50 mg CaO/gm of anhydrous active substance and having the formula, combined water not shown (M2/nO)x . Me2O3 . (SiO2)y WHERE M is a cation of the valence n, exchangeable with calcium, x is a number of from 0.7 to 1.5, Me is a member selected from aluminum and boron and y is a number of from 0.8 to 6, as said compound inhibiting alkaline earth metal ion precipitation, together with surface-active compounds including non-ionic surface-active compounds being constituted by a mixture of compounds of different degrees of ethoxylation where one of the ethoxylated compounds has 8 to 20 ethylene oxide units and the other has from 2 to 6 ethylene oxide units; as well as washing compositions containing said silicate compounds and said surface-active compounds. |