—Regency Wednesday— The Bleacher

Another Wednesday, another Regency tidbit for your enjoyment. Today's post is a Regency profession, this time the bleacher. 

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"Bleaching is the art by which those manufactures, which have vegetable substances for their raw material, are freed from the colouring matter with which such substances are naturally combined, or accidentally stained; and the pure vegetable fibre, deprived of these coloured matters, is left to reflect the different rays of light in due proportion, so as to appear white."*

It goes on to list the various chemicals they used and includes a pretty detailed step-by-step process. Towards the very end, the author talks about the illustration in particular: 

​"The plate represents the bleaching of cloth, as it is now sometimes practised, by pouring water upon it, as it lies exposed in the bleaching-ground, to whiten, by the united operations of the sun, the air, and moisture, the cloths having previously passed through proper alkaline leys: this is called the old method of bleaching, the new is by the more expeditious process of oxymuriatic acid, &c."*

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Thank you for stopping by and have a lovely week! ♥ 

*Taken verbatim from The Book of English Trades (1818), p. 23-28. You can find the free Google e-book HERE.