the.com/bleach
the chemistry of erasure — it doesn't clean stains, it murders the color out of them
means A chemical compound, usually chlorine- or peroxide-based, that whitens fabric or removes color and disinfects surfaces by oxidation.
from From Old English 'blæcan,' to make white or pale, drawn from a Germanic root meaning 'to shine' or 'gleam' — the same pale family that gives us 'bleak' and 'blank.' Curiously, the root sense was about whiteness and pallor, the bloodless gleam of bone, long before anyone bottled it; to bleach was simply to wash color out into brightness, the way sun and air once whitened linen on the grass.
- oxidation kill
- breaks chemical bonds so dyes stop reflecting light
- deadly mix
- combined with ammonia it makes toxic chloramine gas
- war origin
- chlorine gas weaponized in World War I trenches
- pool secret
- that clean smell is actually chloramines, not chlorine
- short life
- degrades over time, weakest about a year old
clorox — american household bleach brand founded in 1913, dominant us disinfectant product
jik — south african bleach brand by reckitt benckiser, leading in african markets since 1947
domestos — uk bleach brand by unilever, iconic british disinfectant since 1929