WEBVTT - How Dry Cleaning Works

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<v Speaker 1>Y dot com. Mosey It's always there. Welcome to brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com Where smart Happens. Hi,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, what is dry cleaning?

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<v Speaker 1>What actually happens when you take something to be dry cleaned?

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<v Speaker 1>When you wash your clothes at home in the washing machine,

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<v Speaker 1>water is the solvent used to do the cleaning. Water

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<v Speaker 1>is cheap and easy to get, but water has some problems.

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<v Speaker 1>Many types of fabric, for example, do not handle water

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<v Speaker 1>very well. Woolen water don't mix, and then there are

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<v Speaker 1>many types of stains that water isn't particularly good at removing.

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<v Speaker 1>And then there's fading water in the chlorine it contains

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<v Speaker 1>confide certain colors. In dry cleaning, a petroleum solvent is

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<v Speaker 1>used instead of water. It is dry only in the

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<v Speaker 1>sense that it's not wet with water. Instead, it is

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<v Speaker 1>wet with solvent. In the early days of dry cleaning,

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<v Speaker 1>this solvent was often kerosene or gasoline deodorized. Of course,

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<v Speaker 1>today the industry uses a solvent called perchloroethylene almost universally.

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<v Speaker 1>The clothes are washed in this solvent inside a seal

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<v Speaker 1>dry cleaning machine. Then the solvent is recovered in an

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<v Speaker 1>extractor so that it can be reused and so that

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<v Speaker 1>it doesn't evaporate into the air and cause pollution. Once

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<v Speaker 1>the clothes are cleaned, they're pressed so they look like new.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a fair amount of controversy around perchloroethylene or PERK

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<v Speaker 1>and its health effects. Some dry cleaners are now using

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<v Speaker 1>liquid c O two instead. Do you have any ideas

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<v Speaker 1>or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me

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<v Speaker 1>an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>For more on this and thousands of other topics, go

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<v Speaker 1>to how stuff works dot com. Protect your organization's critical

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