The Mud-Scraper Clothes Brush: Wire on the Back, Bristles on the Front

"This invention relates to brushes for cleaning clothes; and the object thereof is to provide a brush of this class with an attachment for removing mud and other dirt from clothing after it has become caked or dried thereon." "Whenever it is desired to remove dried mud or other dirt from clothing, the attachment is rubbed thereover, the corrugated surface formed by the wires 9 and 10 operating to loosen and break up the dirt or mud, after which the same may be brushed off in the usual manner."

Cut a block of hardwood the length and width of the brush's back. Sand its face into a gentle curve both ways, and cut a groove along the middle of its flat side. Wrap steel wire round it three times lengthwise and eight times crosswise, pulling each turn tight, and twist the ends together in the groove. Screw the block to the brush's back with its flat side down. Mix garden soil with water to a thick mud. Smear equal patches on two pieces of cotton fabric and let them dry for a day. Clean one with the brush alone and one with the wired block then the brush, counting the strokes until each is clean.

**Richard Tanner Hewlett** of London filed US 588,148 on 25 February 1897; it is dated 17 August 1897. He noted that "any suitable roughened surface" would serve as well as the wires. **Honest limits.** The notebook assumes each wire presses an even strip and the wood none; a curved block presses harder at its crown. Sizes and counts are examples. Your stroke counts are the measurement.