FWIW

<snort> hahahaha. Laughing hysterically.

A few actually did wear bizarre masks when masks were first required or suggested, depending on where you live.

Yep...

FWIW

I've seen a few really bizarre masks.

Many people have...

FWIW

I bet you could invent a very useful mask out of things you have lying around too.

<snort> Hahahahaha. Now that's creative.

Showtalk said:

bet you could invent a very useful mask out of things you have lying around too.

In the very early days before PPE could get ramped up in production, I did exactly that. I made improvised masks out of microfiber cloth. I figured that microfiber has an incredibly huge surface area per size.

Also microfiber exploits such nanoscale phenomena like the VanDerWaals force, and other electrostatic effects, which grabs tiny particles out of the air and hangs onto them rather forcefully. Some later Army medical corps and CDC lab experiments to find materials already in stock in places that can filter out virus sized particles where N95 masks were not available, ultimately did zero in on microfiber cloth as one of the most effective materials for an improvised filter.

And if you use a multi-layer approach, with an outer and inner layer of ordinary cloth, and microfiber in the middle, you get filtration that is jaw-droppingly effective as far as the number of particles removed from dust sized through smoke sized to virus sized.

Note that viruses and smoke are all much, much smaller than the space between individual fibers. While people thinking only in macroscopic behavior would compare it to BBs being shot through a chain link fence, it's more like steel BBs being shot through a honeycomb array of very strong neodymium magnets. They don't have to touch the fabric to be caught by it.

And the electromagnetic force is vastly more powerful than gravity, and over short distances can have incredibly powerful effects on tiny particles.

Of course microfiber is incredibly useful to remove fine dust from surfaces. I have added microfiber layers to my air filters on various small engines for tillers, mowers, tractors, generators, as it will grab the fine stuff that gets through the normal filters. You put the microfiber on the inside of the pleated paper, by the way.

It's also effective when you have to operate a car or truck day in and day out on dirt roads, with 2 microfiber filters - one inside the air filter with a cage for mechanical internal support, and another on the outside. You lose a couple of inches of manifold pressure and have to change them every couple hundred miles on dirt road operations, but you can re-use it. You machine wash the microfiber, as the water then grabs the crud trapped in the fibers, as it overcomes the static cling.

For virus removal, you want to wash and bleach the microfiber, and if you then autoclave the stuff with superheated steam while it's in a sealed paper envelope, you have created a sterile dressing.

So yeah - I've made a few masks. As a bonus, it removes allergens from the air, preventing asthma and hay fever attacks.

Fine silk covers over a high-quality sponge would help trap quite a few particles as well.

Cut them to fit the inside of a gas mask and you're all set! (* CHUCKLE *)

It might scare a few people though!

FWIW