††††The modern dry cleaning industry, which uses chemicals to clean clothes rather than water, began in the middle of the nineteenth century. The story goes that a French sailor who fell into a vat of turpentine found that the chemicals had cleaned his clothes.
Nowadays non-flammable solvents are used for dry cleaning. The most widely used solvent is known as Perk, short for perchloroethylene. It will dissolve away stains and dirt without damaging the clothing being cleaned.
