I though the purpose of the compound was to avoid the swish-swish. With the compound we were taught to push the mop straight ahead. The repeat stroke is to pick up dust left behind. Compound left nothing.
School always smelled like linoleum - the real stuff - waxed with water-emulsion wax, and construction paper.
In the school district I work in they now use "oiled" dust mops. These are about 3 ft wide or so with replaceable head covers. The covers are impregnated with a substance that appears to accomplish the same as the old compound - all the fine dust is picked up & easily shaken out without leaving any oil or anything else on the floor surface. When the effectiveness wears off simply replace the head cover and put the used one in a bin for the company that supplies them to launder and retreat.
the mother of all Swifters? *g*
Another tradition going! Maybe we need to get started on an oral history of sweeping compound before the last users die out. :o)
Pretty much, except that they are reusable after laundering and retreatment.
Lobby Dosser wrote in news:%hPjd.8$iY3.3@trnddc01:
Are you willing to host and maintain the web site? ;-)
It's there already. wikipedia.org - online collaborative encyclopedia project. If there's not an article there, branch out from a logical place.
Dave Hinz
I spent a summer working in a warehouse right after graduating from high school. The warehouse had been built around the first world war (OWW Lots of beautiful beams!). I don't think it had been swept ever! We used almost four drums of sweeping compound in two days. The foreman wasn't thrilled. He told us that they used one every couple of month in the larger warehouse.
Grant
"patriarch
Menard's has the compound on sale this week in their flyer.
I make a substitute by putting jointer or planer shavings in a garbage bag, adding a gallon or two of water and then turning it every which way to distribute the water.Let it sit overnight or so, until the water is all absorbed more or less evenly. It picks more dust off the floor to begin with, stops it from becoming airborn, makes sweeping faster and helps to show where you have allready swept.
IIRC a lot of them got pulled for environmental concerns (used oil don'ch know) a quick search of the one I get at my local CTC turns up this...
Dustban
Nalco Chemical Co.
1 Nalco Center Naperville, Illinois 60566 312/961-9500Menard's has it.
Was not aware it could be bought.
We made it. Saved sawdust and added some kerosene, and mixed it well. That was all I knew.
Bill Houdek
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