Gasoline Brightens Car Carpets (May, 1932)
Then dry with a kerosene heater!
Gasoline Brightens Car Carpets
AFTER removing the dust from the floor carpets of your car by beating or by use of the vacuum cleaner, you can brighten them up by rubbing their surface with a sponge that has been dampened with gasoline. Best results are obtained by not having the sponge too wet.
2009 Safety note: Please don’t smoke while in the car
Kerosene used to be commonly used as a solvent for cleaning up ink from printing presses… often while the pressman was smoking. And drunk. God, for the good old days….. (though living past 50 has it’s own benifits.)
And gasoline was used in the dry-cleaning industry in the early days. (As was kero, but man, you’d think that would be quite aromatic. )
Kaboom!
Gasoline is much more flammable than kerosene…
“Best results are obtained by not having the sponge too wet.” Now there’s an understatement!
Rick
I remember when I was growing up seeing warning signs and labels that read “Do Not Clean With Gasoline” and thinking, now why would you want to do that?
I guess before there were so many non-explosive alternatives (kerosene, paint thinner, and turpentine are flammable but not explosive) this was a common practice.
Growing up, it was standard practice to clean auto parts in a coffee [CAN] filled with gasoline.
Next suggestion-Gun powder makes primo ashtray filler.