Home Dry Cleaning

[bajaespuma]

My Mother told me that her mother, a housewife of the Great Depression, used to dry clean her husband's suits in the backyard using Napthalene and a big steel tub. Do any of you beauties know how to do this? Seems perilous. Wouldn't have been a bit surprised that my granny would have done it, probably with a lit Pall Mall dangling from her mouth.

 

[toggleswitch2]

LOL Probably, not a great time for barbecuing lunch, either.

I wonder how long one has to wait, then, before pressing/ironing the suit!

 

[favorit]

really a bad stuff to breath

once the drycleaner in my neighbourhood had a fault in her perc-washer (broken pipe ---> perc-flood). She was outside the shop and looked like she were drunk or had smoked a refer ...

 

[sudsman]

Perk & Naptha ARE NOT NEAR the same.

Naptha was a standard drycleaning fluid for many years and is in some places still used today. Drycleaners as far back as the early 1900 used it and did a wonderful job. One of the old western movies with John Wayne in it (cannot remember the name) Mentions having his suit drycleaned in naptha and the odor would go away in 2 or 3 days. but as he said it looked new again.. that was set in the late 1800s Naptha is also called stoddard solvent. there are several different types and Flash points used for drycleaning.. Napthaol Sprits is one that I used for many years and had a flash point of 140. Also available was flash points of 120 and 105. The lower the flash point the cheaper the solvent was. In the 70s I paid about 15cents a gallon for it. Naptha almost NEVER damaged anything, like perk does. and never pulled colors the way perk does. Also perk is bad about melting buttons witch Naptha never did. Still have several friends here with old stoddard plants and have very good business. One in fact just turned 80 and his plant still runs over $10.000 a week.

 

[sudsman]

Old American Zoric Naptha Drycleaner

around 1935 could be as late as 40 machine was produced By American Laundry & Drycleaning Machinery this was the "modern" drycleaning machine they made this model for about 6 or 7 years and it sold for awful high price of almost $ 1000.00. the filters were extra

 

[tcox6912]

coin op

Didn't Frigidaire have a coin-op dry cleaning machine? Did it use these same chemicals? How did it work? Did it recover and re-use the same chemicals for more loads? Todd

 

[westie2]

Yes Frigidaire did have the dry cleaning machines. Was at a cousins in the early 60's in Tulia, Texas and they took some to the dry cleaners there. The machines looked just like the washers with the jetcone. Once they machine finished the clothes were taken out and placed in the dryer to the upper left of the machine. I couldn't get close enough to the machines as it was done by attendents. I was so use to the Speed Queen's that were front load combos. I was probabally 13 or 14 at that time. First and last I ever saw of them. This cousin also had a Bendex Duomatic.

 

[twintubdexter]

it was a flimsy excuse way back then too

Remember when Lucy told Ricky that all his old clothes burned up because she washed them in gasoline and got too close to the stove? Just about every one of the hundreds of old dryers I saw as a "kid" said "intended for clothes washed in water only" somewhere on or near the door. I always thought housewives really used gasoline for home "dry cleaning" but never understood how they got the smell out.

 

[cornutt]

Norge definitely had coin-op dry cleaning machines; there was a Norge Village here that had them. They were front loaders, and combos: washing and drying all took place in the same machine. And yes, there was a significant amount of back-room support equipment doing the fluid handling.

 

[mysteryclock]

A bit OT -- CO2 anyone?

OK, subject drift alert -- has anyone tried one of the new CO2-based dry-cleaners? If so, how good/bad were the results vs. perc or whatever else was locally available?

 

[launderess]

Yes There Was

Using petrol and other substances such as Naptha (which was the key ingredient in Fels "Naptha" soap).

However the process was frought with danger and many a poor housewife,laundress and anyone else either went to their maker or suffered horrible burns. If one has access to the site where the Ironrite films are archived, there is a film about a woman who suffered horrible burns from home "dry cleaning".

Have many vintage housekeeping and laundry manuals from France, England and the United States that detail how the process was done. All advise extreme caution and that petrol was NOT to be used near any source of heat,flame or spark. It was even advised not to attempt the process if a thunderstorm was likely and or the air was charged.

Dry cleaning, as we know it was invented when a Frenchman discovered that an area of tablecloth where his maid has spilled the contents of an oil lamp,was cleaner than the surrounding textile. More important the cleaned area suffered no loss of colour or any of the other damage that can come from laundering with water.

Petrol is an excellent solvent, especially for oils, waxes and the like. However while "French Dry Cleaning" was making inroads in major cities, if one lived in the country or out on a farm, one had to make do with doing the thing at home. Also not everyone could afford to send their things out, and most every home at petrol (used in lamps, and later for engines).

Petrol fumes will eventually "air out", but one would be concerned about any residue and anyone breathing in those fumes on a regular and prolonged basis.

Oh there were all sorts of cleaning fluids and the like one could purchase, right up until the 1970's or so. Original formulas for such cleaners as "Energine", contained chemicals that would give the EPA and various others fits.

 

[sudsmaster]

Gasoline is a rather toxic mix of petrochemicals. It's usually loaded with benzene, which I learned way back in the 70's in my biochem classes is a potent carcinogen. And there are various other evil additives. Lead was once one of the worst, but now there are other additives in gasoline that one shouldn't come into contact with.

There is a statistical linked between long term heavy exposure to gasoline and one of the deadliest cancers, pancreatic cancer.

So in addition to the fact that gasoline is primarily made to burn easily, much more so than Naptha, so it's a fire safety hazard, it's also a toxic chemical hazard.

 

[bajaespuma]

Laundress?

"Have many vintage housekeeping and laundry manuals from France, England and the United States that detail how the process was done."

Can you scan the basics for me? I'm thinking of trying it since I do live in the country but would like to know a little bit about it before I try. I have a lot of work T-shirts that are in good condition but with grease stains that will not go away with water washing of any temperature. Would cost a fortune if I took them to a professional but if I could do them myself in the backyard with a gallon of Napthalene I'd be willing to try. Is it as simple as dunking clean water washed and dried shirts in the chemical and then hanging them to drip dry? I'd even try gasoline if one can, but I don't want to be left with the smell. Have no intention of self-immolation; the sixties were over decades ago.

 

[davek]

Dryel

Is that still available? How did it work? Did it work? I wouldn't have figured it equal to a real dry-cleaning, but I figured it to be a sort of Febreezy-type thing meant to freshen garments. It should've been perc scented.

 

[launderess]

Bajaespuma

Sorry luv, but most of these books are so vintage they wouldn't withstand all that laying open and shoving to copy at say a "Kinko's", and certianly am not going to tear the pages for use in my home scanner! *LOL*

Will check my bookmarked file and see what there is on line.

L.

 

[launderess]

Here You Go!

Knock yourself out!

But not literally, please. *LOL*

http://vintagesewing.info/1930s/31-ldc/ldc-08.html

 

[launderess]

Faster Link

Pipe:

Still, would strongly advise one try other methods.

http://vintagesewing.info/1930s/31-ldc/ldc-10.html

 

[bajaespuma]

Holy Moly!!!

Laundress, you ain't kidding! But thanks very much for the information--not only very helpful,but fascinating. I was always curious about dry cleaning was done, but I have even more respect for my Grandmother for doing this for so many years and not setting herself or her home on fire. And I'm surprised that she lived to her late eighties. Yikes! Can you say carcinogenic?

 

[maytagbear]

Thank you, baja!

In my opinion, drycleaning is like surgery, something better left strictly to professionals in the field.

Thank you.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[launderess]

Bajaespuma

Have you tried Fels Naptha soap on your "grease" stains.

Have a stash of the oldler stuff, when it was made by Purex and even some older than that. All contain "naptha" and have never failed to remove any sort of stain that required solvent, including lipstick (some fool left one in a laundromat dryer, and one didn't bother to check, so......, ink pen, salad dressing stains, and others.

Have more than one will ever need, if you wish some shoot me a email.

L.

 

[launderess]

With All Due Respect

Instructions given above, and indeed the whole advice on home "dry cleaning" with petrol and it's knock-off substances was put about long before science and common sense took hold.

Smearing one's hands with lotion is not going to stop petrol, naptha or any of the lot from being absorbed into one's skin. Add on to the fumes from working with the stuff, then breathing in the same while brushing and ironing/pressing garments cleaned in this manner, and it is any wonder women weren't carried off in larger numbers and or injured.

Vintagee Fels Naptha soap is about as close as "dry cleaning" solvent as one wishes to get,and even then one treats the thing with the respect it deserves.

Of course to many women/housekeepers this method of "dry cleaning" was a god-send as otherwise items made of wool, and silk never could be cleaned, or required costly commercial dry cleaning, if it could be had in their area.

Remember watching an episode of the carton "Popeye" where Olive Oyl (what a name), was wailing because she only used "a gallon" of gasoline to clean her dress, and subsequently burnt her house down. If it got into the cartoons of the day, then the occurance must have been general enough in the population.

L.

 

[bajaespuma]

Thank you again, I have some Fels Naptha and I'll try it

I think Americans in general have become so risk-averse that we're afraid of activities that our ancestors and people in other countries engage(d)in ordinarily. Dry Cleaning one's own stuff isn't in that category, but we're so terrified of what "might happen" that we've become a nation of pussies. Can you imagine where the telephone would be today if Mr. Bell was fretting about the beaker of acid? Or any Buster Keaton film? I think we've succumbed to all the scare stories that are being foisted upon us on slow news days. Some risks, certainly, like home dry cleaning, aren't worth it, but to go out on a beautiful sunny summer day worrying about your SPF number seems idiotic.

 

[frigilux]

Beware Chemicals: My mom washed the altar linens for the local Catholic church for years. She removed wax stains using carbon tetrachloride, as did her predecessor. Years later, both women---both non-smokers---died of lung cancer. It was traced to the use of carbon tetrachloride.