Where do our clothes go, and what happens to them when we hand them over the counter at the Dry Cleaners. So who originally had the bright idea to clean clothes without water.

Allegedly it was those same people who created viaducts and the roads. Yes, the ancient romans. Did you know that dry cleaning shops were discovered in the ruins of Pompeii? Dry cleaners of those days had the title of 'Fullers'. I'm not sure that you really want to know the ingredients of their cleaning solutions, but I'm going to tell you anyway. Before I do, please be reassured that these are not the ingredients used in current day dry cleaning methods. They used a type of clay known as ‘fullers earth’, lye and ammonia, ok, so that doesn’t appear too bad till I tell you that the ammonia was derived from urine. This combination really did work and it was often animal urine that was used. There were taxes placed on the collection of urine as it proved so popular.

Jean Baptiste Jolly of France was named the father of modern dry cleaning as according to records, in 1825 a maid accidently knocked over a lamp. The turpentine from the lamp spilt onto a dirty tablecloth. Jean noticed that upon the drying of the turpentine the marks on the tablecloth had vanished, or at least receded. He apparently then bathed the whole cloth in the solution and found that once it was dry it appeared clean. Stumbling upon this discovery he opened a dry cleaning shop in Paris that is claimed to be the first of the modern dry cleaning shops.

As with everything in the history of dry cleaning, nothing is certain and there was a patent for the process of 'dry scouring' filed in the US in 1821 some four years before Jean Baptiste Jolly. It is thought that even before this the African American slaves used these solvent methods. Back in time being a dry cleaner with any of the variety of solvents used was highly dangerous with the biggest risk being that the solvents were all highly flammable. Seeking safer options chlorinated solvents gained popularity in the 20th century. In the 1930’s the chlorine based chemical that became the solvent of choice was tetrachloroethylene, that also went by the name of perchloroethylene. Perc was discovered in 1821 by a man named Michael Faraday and is still the chemical choice by most for today as it has fabulous results and can be used in compact machines.

Now we know what drycleaners use, we need to know the process. The general method involves the stains being pre-treated, the garments are then put in machines similar to home machines that agitate the fibres before the solution is added. The normal temperature for dry cleaning is that of 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Garments are then dried either in the same machine or a separate one. During drying temperatures can reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. 99.9% of the chemicals used are removed from the items and most recycled.

Clothes are pressed and clothing packed into plastic bags.

Hey presto – your garment is ready.

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