Car Wash
I'm glad modern car washes use synthetic baleen, instead of harvesting it from whales like 1800s car washes did.
I'm glad modern car washes use synthetic baleen, instead of harvesting it from whales like 1800s car washes did.
Ponytail and Cueball are having a discussion about car washes. In Randall's area of the world, this usually means an automatic facility that washes cars by passing them through a large machine (or moving the machine over the stationary car) with the passengers still inside. There are also services and events such as fund-raisers where cars are hand-washed.
Ponytail is incredulous that Cueball doesn't like them, because everyone else likes them. He points out that you're trapped in your car (a "dark shaking glass box"). The car wash machine itself is a huge, loud robot, and some of the brushes are like big tongues that lick the car.
After hearing it described this way, Ponytail has come around to Cueball's side. He then mimics the sounds he's described, possibly stimulating discomfort in Ponytail.
The comments attached to this explanation article reveal some of the diversity that exists in people's car wash experiences. Some people enjoy car washes, some don’t, some stay in the vehicle, and some leave the vehicle. This could relate to different kinds of car washes present in the world, or it could simply be preference.
The title text implies that modern car washes use "synthetic baleen" for their brushes, contrasting with the entirety of the 1800s where brushes were made of baleen when whale products were commonplace. Today, plastic products are commonplace, whales are an endangered species, and use of whale products is considered morally abhorrent. However, motorized vehicle washes as we know them did not exist in the 1800s —- the first commercial automobile wash began in 1914.
Baleen, which was processed into a product called whale-bone in the 1800s, was used for large brush bristles as well as fine clothing and many other things, due to its combination of flexibility and stiffness. Evidence of this today is mostly preserved in museum displays. It is possible Randall's comment was inspired by seeing a brush in a museum. The relevant quote from the link is: “In 1808, Samuel Crackles of Hull patented a method of cutting plates of whale-bone to provide an effective substitute for brush bristles. These hard wearing bristles were in much demand, particularly for chimney-sweeps' brushes. Another Hull company, John Bateman and Robert Bowman of Silver Street, were also trading in whale-bone at that time, offering a wide range of small goods including sieves, nets, ornamental blinds, bed-bottoms and brushes.”
Despite a debatable visual similarity between baleen and some modern car wash brushes, baleen brushes are not used in modern automated car washes.[citation needed] Among car washes with brushes, chamois fabric or plastic sponge are the brush materials traditionally used.