US1682119A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 28,- 1928.

' c. FIELD CLEANING DEVICE Filed 001;. a, 1925 I ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 28 1928.

UNITED STATES {PATENT "OFFICE.

CROSBY FIELD, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO BRILLO MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC, A CORPORATION 'OF NEW YORK.

CLEANING DEVICE.

Application filed October 8, 1925. Serial No. 61,188.

My present invention is in the nature of a package of soap in flake or fragment form and includes a metallic fabric wrapper or bag of sufliciently fine mesh or comprising a sufficient number of layers to effectively retain the soap flakes or fragments While at the same time being freely penetrable by water. Such a package affords a means for soapmg or sudsing with water, in which the material of the container cannot absorb grease or dirt and is easily freed from any coatings that stick to the metal surfaces. The device is particularly adapted for the sudsing operations such as soap flakes are commonly used for, for the further-reason that it permits free access of water to the soap and rubbing of the soap particles to facilitate solution thereof, and also because it affords a means for instant withdrawal of the soap chips for future use as soon as the water has become sufliciently soaped.

The above and other features of my invention will be more evident from the following description in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which I Fig. 1 is a face view of chips of soap with the knitted ribbon bag, illustrating one form of the invention, layers of the fabric'being broken away to show the chips of soap;

Fig. 2 is a detail section on the line 22, Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view'showing one form of metal ribbon fabric that may be.

used.

As shown in thedrawings, a desired quantity of soap chips, 1, is enclosed infabric, 2, which is preferably of fine mesh and preferably in two or more layers so that ordinary soap chips and even small fragments of chips will be retained.

The envelope or container is preferably a very flexible metal fabric to facilitate 1ts use for the above purposes and the fabric is preferably of such a type that it can be applied for uses analagous to those of a soap-containing wash cloth and preferably the fabric is such that it affords a certain amount of scraping and scrubbing action without danger of scoring or scarring the surfaces of aluminum utensils and other metal surfaces on which it may be used.

I prefer to use a relatively fine mesh fabric of flexible metal ribbons preferably of nonferrous relatively soft metals or alloys such as copper, aluminum or German silver. A

desirable metal is an alloy much like that employed in ordinary tinsel.

It is evident that metal ribbons bent in the slidable loops required for stocking-knit fabric afford natural scraping edges that are not too harsh, combined with any desired size of mesh for retaining the soap flakes and for scrubbing the surfaces to be" cleaned. The width of the ribbon may be, say, eight to twelve times its thickness and. say, 1/16 to 1/64 inch wide by, say, 1/500 to 1/100 inchthick.

The metal fabric envelope may be in the form of a container filled with the soap flakes and fastened in any desired way. A cheap way is to have the fabric made from thin flexible copper or tinsel-like ribbons madeb'y knitting on a stocking knitting machine in tubular form. When made in this form, one end may be tied, then the soap flakes inserted and the other end of the tube closed and secured by wire or other suitable fastening means. a

Such a container or bag has a large part of its chip-enclosing sides comprised of scrap ing ribbon which is freely penetrable by the water while the puckered portion where either end is tied affords so many thicknesses of ribbon fabric that it forms a soft cushion or handle to be grasped by the user, or it may be used as a deep elastic pad for application to the surface to be cleaned.

Referring to the drawings, the fabric is in two layers, 2, 2, while the fabric is in the form of a tube of diameter and length suitable for making an approximately spherical package. The soap chips are slipped into the tube and the free'ends, 2 2*, are secured by wire or other suitable bond, 3.

Where there are multiple layers, they may be formed by telescoping two or more separate pieces of the fabric or by telescoping back and forth successive portions of a single length. It will be evident, however, that while the tubular form is convenient, there are many other ways in which the fabric may be formed in bags suitable for retaining the soap chips. 1

The fabric used for the wrapper may be wire of any desired cross-section and the weave or knit of the fabric may be as indicated in Fig. 3. Here it consists of ribbons interengaged longitudinally of the fabric in slip loops. The ribbon loops may assume an infinite variety. of positions under different tensions and pressures, in the different parts of the fabric, by reason of the loop strucacteristic position more or less edgewise tothe surface. This is of advantage for severai reasons. ft tends to present the scraping edges of the ribbon edgewiseto the surface of the fabric nnd'consequently in the best possible position forscraping the surface to be cleaned, This also provides openings for flow of water through the fabric, directly to and from the soap at the sides. prop-er manipulation, the fabric may be caused to have a variabie rubbing action on the surface of the soap. For instance, when the device is used mereiy for sudsing water, the surface of the fabric by the squeezing the will promote a y soiution of the soap and water.

if the metal ribbons of the fabric of as soft metai and as thin as may be desirable for properly scouring metal surfaces without scratching them, rough usage of the device may wear out the fabric before the soap has been used up. if this happens in the case of the multiple layer wrapper, the only result is to expose successive layers of fabrlc each of which has been up to that time pro weenie tected from injury by the layer that has become worn out. The novelty and advantage of this feature of my invention will be readily appreciated. The number of layers of fabric may be designed with reference to the strength of the ribbons employed in the fabric andwith reference to the quantity of soap chips, for the purpose and with the result that the wrapper will last as long as the soap. ft is obvious that where the package is used only for sudsiiig water, it will last a long time, and may be refilled with soap chips by the user, as often as may be necessary.

If ciairn:-

i. A. cleaning device, comprising an open ended tube of abrasive Inetai fabric, a detergent therein, and means closing the openends of said tube to secure the detergent within tube, said nieans'bein spaced from said ends to provide tufts of abrasive fabric. I

in a cleaning device, an open ended tube comprising a piurality of lay of abrasive metal fabric, soap chips therein and means closing the open ends of said tune to secure the soap chips within the tube, said means being spaced fr one said ends to provide tufts of abrasive meta]. fabric.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York, and State of New York, this 7th day of @ctober,A. 111925.

CRUSBY FfELlD.

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