Q: How is 鈥渟teel wool鈥� made and when was it invented? Who had the inspiration to spot the market for this imaginative product?
Several correspondents told us that 鈥渟teel wool was produced by shearing hydraulic rams鈥�. Very funny, but 鈥�
A: Steel wool is actually produced by pulling steel wire through a series of metal dies which cause continuous bands of swarf to peel off the surface of the wire. The diameter of the dies decreases successively so that wastage of raw material is minimised.
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The idea of using steel turnings may be quite old:
A: When I started as an apprentice at the LMS Railway Locomotive Workshops in Derby in 1934, the fine steel from lathes were collected, mixed with soft soap and used to polish items such as locomotive connecting rods and links. My father said that it was used when he was an apprentice at the same works in 1900.
But credit for the commercial success of steel wool must goes Milton Loeb, a lawyer. He was approached by a costume jewellery maker who had come up with a mixture of soap and metal fibres to clean the then newly-fashionable aluminium pans. Loeb set up a company to manufacture the new product in the early part of this century, thought of the name 鈥淏rillo鈥� and the rest is history.