Friday Fax
A Weekly Summary of Polywater® News of Incredible Importance
Issue #753


          Most Polywater agents are by now aware that our S-1 Hot Stick Cleaner & Water Repellent Wipes meet the OSHA live-line tool standard for hot stick maintenance, which requires daily cleaning and inspection to ensure electrical safety. What they may not know is two ways the S-1 differs from one competitor in accomplishing that goal.

Consider Chance® Moisture Eater II from Hubbell Power Systems Inc., described as "... two solvents: one for oils, waxes and silicone-type contamination; one for moisture contamination." A key selling feature highlighted in the Moisture Eater II literature is that: "It has a much lower evaporation rate than other hot-line tool cleaners. You can expect drying times from 10 to 20 minutes ..."

That slow evaporation rate would be very helpful if you wanted to spend 20 minutes scrubbing a dirty hot stick--but nobody wants to scrub that long ... and shouldn't have to. The special solvent blend in the S-1 Wipe rapidly dissolves and removes hot stick contamination, and then evaporates quickly. The S-1 Wipe allows for a clean and solvent-free stick in less time.

But the big difference comes after cleaning a hot stick with Moisture Eater II, when Hubbell recommends a second treatment with the Chance® Silicone Wipes, stating, "As the last part in the everyday clean-and-wipe routine, a Silicone Wipe replaces the film of protection that cleaners such as Moisture Eater II remove along with contaminants. This final silicone 'step' helps preserve the benefits not only of daily cleaning but also when refinishing tool surfaces."

That's all well and good, but that step is completely unnecessary when cleaning with the S-1 Wipe. This is because the S-1 is dual action. It cleans and applies a water-repellent coating all in one step. No follow-up wiping with a separate product is required. Not only does this save time in the shop during maintenance, it saves money in the purchasing department and the stockroom by eliminating the hassle and cost of ordering and stocking an additional product.

The S-1 Wipe is faster, better, and cheaper. Wait ... that's three ways!


The Joke
                              Railroad Tracks.   The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between rails) is 4', 8.5" because that's the way the English built them, and English expatriates designed the U.S. railroads. The English built them that way because their first lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, using the same gauge. People built the tramways with the same jigs and tools as used for building wagons. Wagons used that particular wheel spacing to fit the well-established wheel ruts in the old, long-distance roads in England. Romans built those first long-distance roads for their legions. Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or ruin their wagon wheels. Thus, the U.S. standard railroad gauge is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. In other words, bureaucracies live forever. The next time you're handed a specification or procedure and wonder, "What horse's ass came up with this?" ... you may be right. Roman chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear end of two war horses. When you see a Space Shuttle on its launch pad, you'll notice two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) attached to the main fuel tank. SRBs are made at the Thiokol factory in Utah. Thiokol engineers wanted to design them larger, but the SRBs had to ship by train through a mountain tunnel to the launch site. The tunnel they had to fit is slightly wider than the tracks, which, as you now know, are as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a key design feature of the Space Shuttle, arguably the world's most advanced transport system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's butt.

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Copyright Š 2013 American Polywater Corporation -- Issue Date: 3/22/13

American Polywater Corporation -- The world's leading manufacturer of cable pulling lubricants, cable cleaners, sealants, and MRO & construction chemicals.
P.O. Box 53 | Stillwater, MN 55082 USA
1-(651) 430-2270 (Voice) | 1-(651) 430-3634 (Fax)
1-(800) 328-9384 (Toll-Free US/Canada Only)