Thank's Shanks! I learned a thing or two from Isaac Asimov's World of Cabon, and World of Nitrogen, but i never took a class in chemisty beyond HS Chemistry (more than 30 years ago!)--which while i liked it, i remember more as a math class than anything else-- I never knew a use for Borax--(well aside from washing) 20 Mule Team is still a brand of Borax available to US consumers, and they used to sponser a Western-- I never could understand why someone would brave the Death Valley desert for a bit of laundry soap.