Who discovered the dry-cleaning process?
The first DRY-CLEANING process was discovered in 1849 by M. Jolly-Bellin of Paris, when he upset a lamp on a table-cloth newly laundered by his wife. Attempting to cover up the stain before his wife’s return from shopping, he found that those parts which had been spattered with spirit had become cleaner than the rest. After careful experiment he proceeded to add to his tailoring business a new service—Nettovage a sec. The garments brought for cleaning were unstitched and laid in sections in a pan of turpentine-oil mixture, which Bellin named `camphene’. They were then brushed, redipped, dried and sewn up again.
In Britain the first dry-cleaner was Pullar’s of Perth, whose service was introduced in 1866. An improved spirit, prepared from benzine, petroleum and benzol, was used in preference to cam- phene, and garments were dipped without being taken to pieces as in France. Pullar’s ran a postal service that covered the whole of Britain.
