Instruction populaire sur le blanchissage domestique à la vapeur.

First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with a folding plate comprising 5 figures.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, with mustard-coloured temporary paper covers overlaid with modern marbled-paper wrappers with flaps. 

The sole edition, and very rare, of this important treatise in the history of textile cleaning.

Impressed by the results obtained before the Revolution in a laundry at Bercy, Chaptal, upon being appointed Minister of the Interior, had the question investigated by several chemists, including Bosc, Roard, Curaudeau, Bourgeron, de Layre and Cadet de Vaux, who were commissioned to test and assess this new process.

Chaptal even entrusted Cadet de Vaux with the preparation of a popular guide to steam laundering (the present pamphlet). Despite the recommendations of Chaptal and Cadet de Vaux, however, the process met with little favour.

There was widespread mistrust of the high temperatures to which the linen was subjected, and it was believed that steam burned the fabric. In the laundries established in Paris around 1805 according to Cadet de Vaux's instructions, steam generated under high pressure was used.

This steam, being excessively hot, damaged the linen, coagulated albuminous matter in the fibres and left stains that were difficult to remove. The prejudice that "la vapeur brûle le ling" thus spread among the public and led to the rejection of the method, until simpler apparatus, nevertheless built on the same principles set out in Cadet de Vaux's instructions, eventually demonstrated the advantages of steam laundering. This development did not occur until the July Monarchy.