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A squeegee or squilgee is a
tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates b ...
with a flat, smooth
rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
blade, used to remove or control the flow of liquid on a flat surface. It is used for cleaning and in printing. The earliest written references to squeegees date from the mid-19th century and concern deck-cleaning tools, some with leather rather than rubber blades. The name "squeegee" may come from the word "squeege", meaning press or squeeze, which was first recorded in 1783. The closely related "squeedging" was reportedly first used in 1782, in the
Covent Garden Theatre The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...
, during the performing of the comedy '' Which is the Man?'' by Hannah Cowley.


Window cleaning

The best-known of these tools is probably the hand-held window squeegee, used to remove the cleaning fluid or water from a
glass Glass is a non- crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenchin ...
surface. A
soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are us ...
y solution acts as a lubricant and breaks up the dirt, then the squeegee is used to draw the now water-borne dirt off the glass leaving a clean surface. Some squeegees are backed with a sponge which can soak up soapy water from a bucket for application to a dirty window. Squeegees were in use for cleaning windows by 1918 when an American book on navy jargon explained that a deck-cleaning tool called a squeegee was "used in civil life to clean windows". This is the earliest written reference to a window cleaning squeegee given by the
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
. (For earlier uses see "floor cleaning" section below.) With the development of the
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...
in the 20th century, a more efficient tool for the cleaning of window exteriors was needed. Professional
window washer A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mat ...
s began using the Chicago squeegee, a bulky tool with two heavy pink rubber blades. Changing the blades required the loosening of twelve separate screws. The modern single-blade window cleaning squeegee was patented by Ettore Steccone in 1936, who dubbed it the "New Deal". It was made of lightweight brass with a very flexible and sharp rubber blade. Steccone began a manufacturing process and sold the product in his garage. The Ettore Products Co. is still the leader in the squeegee market today. Squeegee kits can include a telescoping pole to extend the washer's reach. Simple squeegees are made in various shapes for household use, including the cleaning of shower doors, bathroom tile, and garage floors.


Techniques

The "swivel method," or "fan method" as it is referred to by professionals, uses a series of strokes combined with turns that hold the water away from the leading edge of the squeegee; when the turn is completed in the opposing direction, there is no water and no dirt left isolated. Straight strokes, either horizontally or vertically, are normally much more efficient than “fanning” when using fixed handle squeegees; however, this method leads to more streaks and missed spots. If a few spots are missed, a chamois leather cloth works better for touch up than a towel of cloth or paper. In 1992, Willie Erken invented the pivoting handle squeegee. Using a squeegee for window cleaning may sometimes produce run lines. These are caused by cleaning fluid being pushed up into the top edge of the window, or by fluid flowing from under the rubber blade into the dry area of the glass. The latter of these cases may be prevented by holding the squeegee at a slight angle relative to the direction in which it is being moved, directing fluid flow towards the wet area of the glass. Another method used by window cleaners is to tap the blade on an already wet area of the glass to remove any excess water on the rubber blade. Alternatively the rubber blade can be dried with a towel, although this method is slower and not practical when using extension poles. According to
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
, the world's fastest window cleaner is Terry Burrows of
South Ockendon South Ockendon is a town, former civil parish and Church of England parish within the Thurrock borough in Essex in the East of England, United Kingdom. It is located on the border with Greater London, just outside the M25 motorway. The area to t ...
, Essex, England, who cleaned three standard office windows set in a frame in 9.24 seconds at the National Exhibition Centre in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
in March 2005. He used a squeegee and of water.


Floor cleaning

The floor squeegee is similar to the window squeegee but has a long handle like a push broom, used to clean floors after they have been sprayed with water or soap, to push the water into drains. This is often used in places that need the floors cleaned regularly, such as army barracks or the meat departments in supermarkets.
Hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...
s sometimes use the floor squeegee to clean up any spills that occur in operating rooms or regular patient rooms as the design of the squeegee lends itself towards a more sanitary clean up.


Decks of ships

The earliest quotations mentioning squeegees in the Oxford English Dictionary refer to their use in cleaning decks on board ship: in 1844 a "squee gee" in an American book, in 1851 a "
leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hog ...
n squilgee" in ''
Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...
'', and in 1867 in a British book by Admiral William Henry Smyth. Additionally, Richard Henry Dana’s 1840 memoir ''
Two Years Before the Mast ''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the ...
'' mentions “squilgeeing” in Chapter XIV. The following are considered correct English terminologies, according to the anadianNaval Terminology Standardization Committee: * squeegee; * deck squeegee; * squilgee; and * squillagee.


Street cleaning

Squeegees on broom handles were used for street cleaning in the later nineteenth century. This was the case in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
by 1873. In the early twentieth century some cities in Europe and North America used horse-drawn machinery with rotating rubber squeegee blades on rollers behind a water tank connected to sprinklers. In 1911, this was described as "a German invention which has been for some years in successful operation in leading German cities". A US version of the rotating squeegee machine, known as the Kindling Squeegee or Kindling Street Washing Machine, was in use by the time of that description. It was manufactured in
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...
by Louis Kindling who had migrated from Germany to Wisconsin in 1873. By 1915, some streets in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, Washington, D.C., and
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
were being cleaned by this kind of machine, while London still depended on men with hand brooms and squeegees. In 1919, Kindling got a US
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
for a design with "new and useful Improvements in Squeegee-Rollers", following another "improvements" patent for squeegee street cleaning machines filed in 1915 by the inventor and civil engineer Samuel Whinery (1845-1925) (resident of
East Orange, New Jersey East Orange is a city in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 69,612. The city was the state's 20th most-populous municipality in 2010, after having been the state's 14th most-po ...
) and published in 1916. In 1914, William H. Connell (Chief, Bureau of Highways and Street Cleaning in Philadelphia) explained that the street cleaning was done in batteries of "two and three squeegee machines preceded by sprinklers" reportedly about ahead. The American Highway Engineers' Handbook of 1919 reveals that this method was used in order for the water: The need for supporting labour and foot was seen as a disadvantage. Furthermore, the squeegee machines were pulled by horses, which would defecate on the streets which were attempted to be cleansed. Therefore, they were gradually replaced by mechanical street cleaning devices, which were introduced as early as 1911.


Printing and photography

In
screen printing Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open me ...
, a squeegee is used to spread ink evenly across the back of a
stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...
or
silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mes ...
, making a clean image on the printed surface. Screen-printing squeegees usually have much thicker and less flexible blades than the window cleaning variety. A squeegee is also used in
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...
printing on fabric to dry the
photographic paper Photographic paper is a paper coated with a light-sensitive chemical formula, like photographic film, used for making photographic prints. When photographic paper is exposed to light, it captures a latent image that is then developed to form a ...
after it is washed, preventing wrinkles or water spots. The earliest reference to a squeegee used for drying in photography is an 1878 description by chemist and photographer William Abney of squeezing excess water away. His squeegee had no handle, and was "a flat bar of wood, into which is let a piece of india-rubber about 1/2 centimetre thick and 2 centimetres broad." The user should note that "the india-rubber of the squeegee must be brought to bear with considerable pressure on to the surface of the paper, and the strokes made with it should commence from the centre and finish towards the ends."


Sports

The ice on skating rinks is resurfaced using a squeegee and other tools. Nowadays, they are all integrated in an
ice resurfacer An ice resurfacer is a vehicle or hand-pushed device used to clean and smooth the surface of a sheet of ice, usually in an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by American inventor and engineer Frank Zamboni in 1949 in the city of P ...
.
Tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be ...
s sometimes have squeegees to help keep them dry and control the flow of water.


Other uses

Stiff-bladed squeegees are used in addition to margin trowels and grout floats to apply
grout Grout is a dense fluid which hardens to fill gaps or used as reinforcement in existing structures. Grout is generally a mixture of water, cement and sand, and is employed in pressure grouting, embedding rebar in masonry walls, connecting sect ...
or adhesive when applying ceramic
tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or ...
s to a surface. Squeegees with hard rubber or metal blades are used in stencil printing to apply solder paste to
printed circuit boards A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich struc ...
(PCBs). Small, hand-held plastic and rubber wedges with an edge formed as a blade are used in signwriting for the application of vinyl sheeting to decrease the possibility of air pockets. Signwriters' squeegees come in different models, some of which do not have handles, but are approximately the size and shape of a credit card. Automobile squeegees are used in some universities to clean
chalkboard A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of ...
s. During the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
in 2001, window washer Jan Demczur used a squeegee to free himself and five others from an elevator shaft in the World Trade Center in New York City. The squeegee is now currently on display at the Smithsonian.


In popular media

* The idea of a squeegee has been used by
Associate Professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the '' North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...
Burkard Polster of
Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has ...
, to illustrate the mathematical Kakeya needle problem. * It is claimed that comedian
Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material—encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy—wa ...
used the phrase "Squeegee Your Third Eye" frequently in his acts. * The "Squeegee Weegee Gazette" is the official periodical of the Sausalito Yacht Club. * "Weegee" is the pseudonym of the photographer Arthur (Usher) Fellig. One possible origin of his pseudonym is that it refers to his skills as a darkroom assistant (such an assistant is sometimes called "squeegee boy").


See also

* Cleret *
Squeegee man A squeegee man or squeegee woman, squeegee kid ( Canada), squeegee boy (Baltimore), squeegee punk (Montreal), squeegee merchant (London), squeegee guy or squeegee bandit is a person who, using a washcloth and squeegee, wipes windshields of cars st ...
*
Strigil The strigil ( el, στλεγγίς, translit=stlengis, probably a loanword from Pre-Greek substrate) is a tool for the cleansing of the body by scraping off dirt, perspiration, and oil that was applied before bathing in Ancient Greek and Roman ...
* Doctor blade


References


Further reading

* * * {{Cleaning tools Cleaning tools