For those who have the most delicate material to deal with, you’re more than likely aware of the fact that going to a dry cleaning shop in Orange County is a must to make sure that everything is properly cleaned. But, how exactly did it start, and how did it become as popular and well known as it is today? To answer that question, we’re going to take a deep dive into the origins of dry cleaning and how it started in Europe.
Jean Baptiste Jolly
To understand how dry cleaning became what it is today, we’re going to need to look at the man who helped start this revolution: Jean Baptiste Jolly. He was a man during the 1800s who, seemingly by accident, witnessed a maid knock over some turpentine-stained tablecloth only to witness the stain disappear not long afterward. After seeing this, Jean conducted some experiments that yielded similar results and naturally led him to decide to perfect this discovery.
The Rise of Dry Cleaning
With Jean’s discovery and the opening of his dry cleaning shop Teinturerie Jolly Belin within Paris, it didn’t take particularly long for other people in his line of work to follow in his footsteps and to use similar methods of cleaning stained clothes. A former slave named Thomas Jennings actually managed to create his own method called dry scouring, which has been lost to time. It was an alternative to Jean’s method. Many other individuals followed suit, using items such as benzene to even the most unlikely of solutions like kerosene and petrol. As you could gather from the last two entries, certain problems could arise from these so-called cleaning solutions.
Flammable Issues
When you use solutions such as turpentine or benzene, a few of the problems and drawbacks that early day dry cleaners would run into was the pungent smell that lingered on the clothes. Benzene was especially dangerous since it is toxic to those who used it without care. The biggest hazard to the practice of dry cleaning was that all of the methods mentioned before were quite flammable. If even the slightest thing went wrong in these dry cleaning stores, and if they were in city districts, you could have a massive fire break out. Alternatives for these solutions were needed, and so they would be discovered in order to save time, resources, and money for all involved and future dry cleaners in Orange County.
Eventually, these previous solutions were phased out by the chlorine-based ‘Perc,’ which has been adopted today.
Conclusion
However, eventhough most dry cleaners in Orange County are still using it, Crystal Clear Cleaners knows the impact of Perc on the environment. That is why we only use environment-friendly additives to clean your clothes. Our dry cleaning services are above and over the rest because we have various staff trained in the different methodologies of cleaning all types of garments.
Indeed, one cannot deny how far dry cleaning has evolved since its humble origins many years ago. The progress for such dry cleaning practices will continue to soar as time goes on.