UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Back in the "dear, dead days beyond recall", the Australian PMG's Dept (later Telecom Aust) used to stock, in its Stores Branch, prodigious quantities of what we all called "Microscrub".

It was evidently intended for cleaning contacts on relay sets in Exchanges, but it was marvellous for cleaning "gunk" off all & everything.

In my part of PMG/TA it was regularly used for switch contacts, PCB edge connectors, Jones plugs, etc, & sometimes just for cosmetic purposes to remove general crud build up on metallic surfaces.

It was, grey, made of some sort of plastic,came in strips about 1/4" wide by 8" long.
In appearance, the "business side" of the strips was a little like the "hooky" side of Velcro.

We used it happily for years, just re-ordering as required, until ultimately I left that employer & moved to the Private Sector.
The new job had one piece, which they had apparently "borrowed" from the PMG years before, & which was guarded like the Holy Grail.

They had obviously, tried to obtain more, but nobody outside PMG/TA had heard of it.
Eventually, they gave up, as did I, after trying, to no avail, to find out the source from my previous employer.

After many years, along came the Internet, so for fun, I tried Googling for "Microscrub".
The product of that name which came up was nothing like what I was looking for, which cast some doubt on whether the name we used for years was actually the correct one.
Nor could I find it under any other description.

I can only surmise that with the demise of "step by step" exchanges, the manufacturers assumed it would be unsaleable, & stopped making it.

Considering how effective it was, I'm hoping for my own sanity that someone who worked in a similar area in the UK, (or further afield) may know of this stuff.