It’s a captivating story. Back in 1825, a careless maid in the employ of one Jean-Baptiste Jolly knocked over a turpentine lamp, spilling the liquid onto a stained tablecloth. Apparently, Jolly was a frugal man: turpentine, a liquid obtained by the distillation of pine tree resin, was a cheap alternative to whale oil, the common fuel for lamps. While Jolly may have been thrifty, he was astute. He noted that the stains vanished where the kerosene had soaked through the fabric. And at that moment the dry cleaning industry was born! At least so goes the possibly apocryphal tale.
What is known is that Jolly was the first to provide “dry cleaning” at his “Teinturerie Jolly” in Paris, bathing fabrics that would normally not stand up well to water in turpentine. “Dry cleaning” is only “dry” in the sense that no water is used.
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