The following receipt for whitening straw for ornamental use, like with bonnets, comes from A New System of Practical Domestic Economy (1823):
The customary mode of whitening straw for ornamental use, has been to stove it in a cask with burning brimstone; but there is a readier method, if judiciously applied: Take a solution of muriatic acid, and saturate it with pot ash until the effervescence subsides. Dip the straw in the solution. Again, the oxygenated muriate of lime, which may be had at any chemist’s shop, dissolved in water, will bleach straw without the least diminution of its flexibility.
