# Wet cloth adhering to surfaces -- does the effect have any practical uses (e.g. in industry)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wet-cloth-adhering-to-surfaces-does-the-effect-have-any-practical-uses-e-g-in-industry/692872>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 11, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wet-cloth-adhering-to-surfaces-does-the-effect-have-any-practical-uses-e-g-in-industry/692872 "2014-07-11T16:22:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wet-cloth-adhering-to-surfaces-does-the-effect-have-any-practical-uses-e-g-in-industry/692872/1 "2014-07-11T16:22:45Z")

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Everyone’s had the experience of removing wet clothes. They don’t exactly stick like glue, but they adhere tightly with surprising strength and have to be peeled off.

Is this adherence property of wet cloth (which I guess is actually a property of water itself) of any practical use? Are there any industrial processes that keep something in place based on a similar property? Or a medical procedure which keeps something adhered to the skin based on this property? Something else?

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**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wet-cloth-adhering-to-surfaces-does-the-effect-have-any-practical-uses-e-g-in-industry/692872/2 "2014-07-11T18:13:58Z")

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You might want to look up _surface tension_.

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**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wet-cloth-adhering-to-surfaces-does-the-effect-have-any-practical-uses-e-g-in-industry/692872/3 "2014-07-11T18:35:45Z")

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You used to see this on tarmac road rollers.

There would be a cloth dangling on to the wheels which would be kept wet, the idea was o stop hot ashphalt from sticking to the roller wheels, and it relied on the damp holding the cloth on to the surface.

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**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wet-cloth-adhering-to-surfaces-does-the-effect-have-any-practical-uses-e-g-in-industry/692872/4 "2014-07-11T19:31:39Z")

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Plaster casts. If you used dry cloth, you’d need tension to hold it right against the skin. Even then, any sort of protrusion (e.g. ankle bone) would create an empty space around it.