Industry related - Is this an urban legend?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve heard this story more than once and wonder whether it is true or not.

It seems that in Southern (it was this specific!) Germany during its last economic boom that cleaners in factories were given a peculiar method of vacuum cleaning. Before they vacuum cleaned the factory floor they were instructed to sprinkle the floor with a small blue material, something like little polystyrene balls so that after vacuuming they could then see clearly what parts of the floor they had cleaned or not. Anyone ever heard this story before or read it in print?

Thanks,
An Gadaí

2

I don’t know, but when I worked in a factory, we had stuff called sweeping compound. Supposedly it kept dust under control. And it made it easy to see where we had forgotten to sweep.

3

Ah, must be the same stuff. Bizarre concept in my opinion except I suppose in a factory where dust would be a hazard.

4

Yep. I’ve used sweeping compound in a few places. It usually green or blue or red or something easy enough to see. It effectively became part of the dirt and dust you were sweeping up and lent it “body” so as to keep it from pluming as you swept. Worked quite well, too. It was also good for oil spills.

5

Heh, I could use some of that. Except I’d probably just decide that the red and green floor-mess looked pretty and that hoovering (yeah I know it’s not a real word) should wait till another day. :smiley:

Nice modern variant on putting down tea leaves or coffee grounds to lay the dust.

6

I use sweeping compound all of the time in my garage. In the US its available in just about every major hardware outlet.

Usually a 50 lb bag costs around $20.00 US and will last me about a year.
The compound contains some dried clay, small wood chips/shavings and some other stuff that could be dried peat moss or bits of Styrofoam. It also has coloring, either green or red, and something that gives it a scent that reminds me of cleaning fluid and mildew.

Why do I use it? The clay content will bind to the oil and grease and then pick it up off of the floor. The other ingredients must have some sort of electrostatic properties which cause fine dust to bind to them. I can sweep the garage without pushing up a dust storm around me.