US2735721A

US2735721A - Method of making a disposable

Info

Publication number: US2735721A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1956-02-21
Anticipated expiration: 1973-02-21

Description

6 a. s. RAFFERTY METHOD OF MAKING A DISPOSABLE SCOURING PAD Filed March 24, 1950 INVENTOR. Ear/k4 1: Fafla" y ATrQRk/EY United States Patent METHOD OF MAKING A DISPOSABLE SCOURING PAD Bertha S. Rafferty, Skagway, Territory of Alaska Application March 24, 1950, Serial No. 151,572

1 Claim. (Cl. 300-21) The present invention relates to cleaning pads commonly used to scour cooking utensils or other similar articles.

Cleaning pads of metal fibrous material, particularly steel wool, are commonly used in combination with soap. In fact, pads of steel wool having soap embedded therein have been marketed for many years past, and have proven to be an effective abradant. Nevertheless such soap pads have met with warranted criticism, especially since the users hand, unless gloved, comes into direct contact with the wool, and is thus subjected to impregnation by small particles commonly separating from the pad proper. The soap pads so far produced have been thick and intended for prolonged use, but it has been found that after one application such pads begin to rust and are, extremely messy due to the dissolving of the soap and hence become unpleasant and ditlicult to store between usages.

However, since a metal wool pad saturated with soap is an efifective cleaning and abrasive agent, it is the principal object of my invention to provide such a pad which is furnished with a protective cover for the users hand, and yet is inexpensive enough to produce that prospective users can afford to discard it after a single scouring operation.

With the foregoing and other still more particular objects and advantages in View, the invention consists in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my scouring pad.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the pad; and

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view showing the pad gripped for use.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral 4 represents a metal wool pad, preferably steel wool, impregnated with soap. The soap has not been distinguished from the wool fibres in the drawings because of the inherent difficulty of such a dual portrayal, and because such a showing is not necessary for a clear and cognizant understanding of my invention. In forming such a soap filled pad a large thin sheet of the wool is saturated with a hot liquid soap solution and is then quenched to solidify the soap between the fibres, such a procedure being old and well understood in the art, and hence not constituting a part of the present invention. I have discovered that such a soap-filled sheet of metal wool can be backed with an inexpensive covering, butcher paper for example, without necessitating the use of staples, cement, or other common binding means well known in the art. In practicing my process the desired protective covering is first placed over the soap-filled sheet and then heat and pressure are applied to the outside of the covering, the heat being just sufficient to melt the soap adjacent the covering. The pressure forces the melted soap against the covering and between some of the fibres thereof. The

2,735,721 Patented Feb. 21, 1956 sheet and covering are then cooled to resolidify the soap and during this cooling operation it is desirable to maintain the pressure to keep the covering and sheet in firm engagement. As the soap cools, it adheres to the covering and binds it to the sheet. The sheet is then cut into pads of the desired size.

The protective covering can also be bonded to the metal wool sheet when the sheet is originally saturated with soap, and namely by positioning the covering before the molten soap is applied so that when the latter is quenched it will adhere to the covering.

I prefer to form the wool sheet of a width twice that of the resultant pads and then apply a covering to the sheet, in the manner aforedescribed, of a width greater than the width of the sheet so as to form a flap on each side of the sheet so that when the sheet is bisected longitudinally and cut in pad lengths a plurality of pads will be formed each of the type shown in the drawings. Such a pad has a cover 5 for its soap filled metal Wool abradant 4 and a free flap 6 which can be bent around the adjacent edge of the pad and bent under a portion of the working surface of the abradant. When the flap is so positioned, the pad can be gripped in the manner shown in Fig. 3 with the thumb engaging the underturned portion of the flap and the fingers the top of the protective covering so that the users hand is completely screened from any harmful contact with the metal wool.

In using the pad for scouring, the surface to be cleaned is moistened and then rubbed with the pad in the conventional manner. The soap near the working surface of the pad gradually dissolves as the scouring progresses but unless an abnormal amount of water is used, that is to say unless the pad is continuously submerged, the soap binding the covering to the abradant will not be dissolved. There is sufficient soap in the relatively thin pad to supply soap for the scouring of several utensils so that a housewife need use only one pad to scour the utensils dirtied during the preparation of an average meal and she can then afford to discard the pad, and so is no longer faced with the disagreeable problem of storing a messy scouring pad. In other words, my pads can be produced cheaply enough that the average person can use a new one for each meals utensils.

The invention should, it is believed, he clearly understood from the foregoing detailed description, and it is my intention that the hereto annexed claim be read with the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What I claim is:

A method of backing a soap-filled pad of metal wool with a protective covering, said method comprising placing the covering over the pad, applying heat and pressure to the outside of the covering, such heat being regulated to melt the soap adjacent the covering and said pressure serving to force the melted soap against the protective covering, removing the heat, cooling the melted soap to resolidify it and bind the pad and covering together, and removing the pressure.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,649,894 Field Nov. 22, 1927 1,661,778 Valentine Mar. 6, 1928 1,786,513 Zuckerman Dec. 30, 1930 1,878,250 Primeau Sept. 20, 1932 2,308,405 Tully Jan. 12, 1943 2,389,736 Muise Nov. 27, 1945 2,447,241 Englund Aug. 17, 1948