You might recall entry number 116 from Grandma’s Diary that everyone found so interesting:
Dec. 16, 1923 – At home all day. Washed woolens in gasoline.
Evidently this was a fairly common practice, but was maybe not such a good idea. This video is from 1941. It will start playing at the right segment when you click on it. Or you can play it from the start if you want.
Julie Baker says
wow! I still couldn’t get past the smell! I’m glad she never blew up anything while washing. And she never got hurt doing it.
Naomi Vetter says
I wonder how sheep kept their wool clean…or just didn’t. I wonder how people in the 15th century and other “agos” kept wool clean. I wonder how those dry cleaning sheets that you can purchase to put in the dryer to clean our woolens work and not catch fire.