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OorPancake t1_j28k9aa wrote

This was quite common in the Victorian era as the dresses were normally cleaned with kerosene and there were live flames everywhere. (Ballerinas it seems were particularly at risk due to wearing Tulle in the vicinity of stage lights and it's reckoned hundreds were burnt to death, sometimes spreading the fire to other ballerinas trying to help or even taking the whole theatre with them.)

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ChocolateConrad t1_j28rsrm wrote

Yo that dance was 🔥

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OorPancake t1_j28spxf wrote

Indeed.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wife died after her dress caught light and he was so badly burned in the attempt to put it out, that he couldn't make the funeral. (His trademark beard was grown to cover the scarring.)

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Redoneter593 t1_j2a4779 wrote

Fooking KEROSENE? The hell?

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druidofnecro t1_j2a6llp wrote

Dry cleaning is basically just dunking your clothes in gasoline derivatives. Turns out petrol is a ridiculously good solvent

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Redoneter593 t1_j2aaxdb wrote

>Dry cleaning is basically just dunking your clothes in gasoline derivatives

That's new to me!

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Kiyae1 t1_j2cbnbd wrote

The lesser known chemical Industrial Revolution created numerous hazards to everyday life, just like the mechanical Industrial Revolution did. Instead of getting your hand caught off in an industrial loom you’d die because your clothes were washed in kerosene and the electric grid still doesn’t exist or still sucks so everything is lit by flame.

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Fetlocks_Glistening t1_j295t7i wrote

I mean yeah, in cases like that a discerning lady is better advised to chew and spit her baccy rather than light up

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