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The Mother
of Invention |
In
the early 1900s, a breakthrough in home cookware was taking
hold in America. Aluminum pots and pans were replacing
heavy cast iron cookware in homes throughout the nation.
But, there was a problem. The coal-fired stoves of the
day quickly blackened the pots, rendering them unattractive
and next-to-impossible to clean. Even the new gas stoves
of the time did little to help.
Meanwhile, a cookware peddler and a jeweler (his brother-in-law),
were working on a solution. Using jeweler’s rouge,
soap and fine steel wool from Germany, they found a method
to scour the pots and pans when they began to blacken.
The idea worked, and the peddler soon added this new product
to his line of goods. |
| A New Company |
| Demand for the steel wool and
the cake of soap with the jeweler’s rouge rose quickly
and before long, the peddler and the jeweler realized
that the idea was worth patenting. They sought advice
from New York attorney Milton Loeb. They lacked the money
to pay for legal services, so they offered the attorney
an interest in their “scouring pad” business
instead. Loeb accepted the offer and in 1913 secured a
patent for the product under the name Brillo® (the
Latin word meaning “bright.”).
The partnership formed between the peddler, the
jeweler and the attorney became known as the Brillo
Manufacturing Company, with headquarters and production
operations in New York City.
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Growth and Innovation
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By 1917, the Brillo Manufacturing Company was making
steel wool pads and packaging them, six pads to a box,
with a cake of soap included.
The next and perhaps the most dramatic step in the
evolution of the steel wool pad came in the early 1930’s
when the company developed a method to put the soap
right into the pads themselves!
Brillo® went on to become one of America’s
most recognizable brands, featured in modern art, songs,
movies—and of course, households nationwide. Today,
the company provides a wide variety of household cleaning
products and remains dedicated to one ideal…helping
people everywhere to make enjoy clean, healthy lifestyles. |
| How
Is It Made? |
| To supply the steel wool needed
for manufacturing Brillo® brand soap pads, a coil
of thin wire is placed on one end of a machine, which
uncoils the wire and passes it over sharp cutting edges
that shave the wire into fine threads of steel. As the
now wool-like strands of steel flow out of the shaving
area they are gathered up into a four-inch wide band and
wrapped around a large spool at the end of the machine.
The spools of steel wool are then placed on a machine
that cuts the bands of steel wool into hundreds of shorter
lengths. It then rolls and compresses each length into
a square pad and drops it into a vat of hot soap. Next,
the machine squeezes out the excess soap and flips the
pads onto a conveyor belt that takes them into an oven
where they are dried for 30 minutes before being carried
to the packaging area on another conveyor.
Although the size and shape of the Brillo Soap Pad
has not changed much over the years, the product has
undergone continuous study and improvement. Today’s
Brillo Pads are softer, have a pleasant fragrance, and
the soap is a milder, more effective cleaning agent
than ever. There is 20% more soap than the other
leading brand and
the pads also contains a rust inhibitor—as long
as they contain soap, they will not rust.
Before being packaged, all of the Brillo Soap Pads
undergo careful visual inspection for any defects in
size, shape or appearance. Then, it’s off to the
store shelves—and into your home. |
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