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Cleanliness & Inventiveness
Before the time of vandalism, personal injury lawsuits, and cheap plastics, clean public washrooms supplied soap in many novel ways.
Soap dispensers in schools, trains, ships, or gasoline stations often consisted of glass, steel or aluminum. These were not hidden beneath the counter under lock and key; they were often fanciful yet functional glass globes, or enameled metal cylinders that spun or cranked soap out to your waiting palm.
Many advertised their popular soap brand: Boraxo or Ivory or White King. Simple instructions might be emblazoned on the dispenser, "wet hands first," or "rub thoroughly and rinse."
Glass globe dispensers were tipped toward the palm until the soap dripped out, when released, the weighted glass would then return to an upright position.
The Soapitor Company of New York found a novel way to dispense the shavings from a solid bar of soap, by turning a crank an internal blade would shave off bits of a soap bar.
These once commonplace inventions are seldom seen today in our "sanitized" and protected environments, but the patent records are full of wonderful styles, shapes, and varieties of these clean ideas.
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