Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2

Please note: This post is a shameless effort to boost our ranking for the search term: Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2, in the google search results. In this blogpost, we inserted the words Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2 anywhere window cleaning would have normally been used. As a result, not every sentence flows smoothly, and in most cases, doesn’t make sense at all! We are very much aware of this, and unfortunately there’s not much we can do about it. Google needs to see the words Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2, in that exact order. If you are a potential customer reading this article, please keep that in mind. If for some reason you are still reading this, and a sudden unhealthy level of curiosity in the history of Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2 has taken over your mind, I advise that you stop reading this blogpost immediately, and seek professional help. However, If you feel like filling your head with facts about the history of Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2 is in some way useful to you, or you feel that it’s a good use of your time, please continue. Enjoy!

Ettore Steccone

A man who has revolutionized Tulsa window cleaning companies, and the window cleaning industry as a whole.

A Squeegee god. Sort of.

At the end of World War I, Ettore Steccone (pictured above) made the journey from Italy to America, in 1922. Ettore and his brother ended up settling down in California. He started out working with his brother in the produce industry, but didn’t find much enjoyment or fulfillment in the work. He decided to return to Italy where he eventually married, then came back to the U.S. with his wife and they decided to start a Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2 business in 1932. I’ve heard rumors that he dreamed of starting a tulsa window cleaning business, but I can’t confirm the authenticity of those rumors. Ettore became known for traveling around town on his Indian motorcycle, ladder on his shoulders and a bucket dangling from the end. He reveled in the newfound freedom his window cleaning business presented, but was unhappy with the available window cleaning tools of the day.

At that time, the tool to use if you were a window cleaner was the Chicago Squeegee, which was made of steel and very heavy and bulky. Unfortunately, they didn’t name it the Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2 Squeegee. For good reason, I assume, seeing it was made in Chicago, and not Tulsa. It’s just unfortunate because had the original squeegee been named the Window Cleaning Tulsa History Part 2, this blog post would have been a little bit cooler being written by a Tulsa window cleaning business owner and all. I digress. The Chicago Squeegee used two heavy red rubber blades. Changing out the old squeegee rubber for a new squeegee rubber wasn’t very simple. It required loosening 12 separate screws. Yes….12. These days, the max number of screws you need to loosen is 1. 1 screw, if that. Most of the squeegees we use here at Gleaming Glass, a Tulsa window cleaning company, don’t even require the loosening of a screw to change out the rubber. There is either a clip or the middle of the squeegee is crimped so the rubber can’t slide out on its’ own. Here are two pictures of the actual squeegees we use here at Gleaming Glass. That’s right! If you were to… saaay…I don’t know, hire us to clean your windows tomorrow, we would literally use these exact squeegees on your windows. On a scale of 1-10, how exciting would it be to see us use these recently internet famous squeegees on your windows?!?! You can email your excitable rating to [email protected] We anxiously await your email.

Did I mention Gleaming Glass is a local Tulsa window cleaning business? That’s right! You can get an instant window cleaning quote at https://gleaminglass.com/contact-us/ ….and back to the tools! The first picture is of our Wagtail Squeegee. This squeegee has a crimp in the aluminum that prevents the rubber from sliding out.

This second picture is of our Unger Ninja squeegee. This particular squeegee has clips on the end that slide out, which releases the rubber as a result. We’ll be talking about Unger in our next post.

Ettore felt there had to be a better option than the Chicago Squeegee, and so he began coming up with ideas in the garage behind his home. Eventually he created the modern T-type squeegee that is used by tulsa window cleaning companies to this day. Thank God he did. Otherwise, the squeegees you see above would have never been invented. That may not mean that much to you the reader, but these tools make my life as a tulsa window cleaner, so much easier. The original t-type squeegee Ettore came up with was made from brass, and used a single rubber blade. In 1936, he patented his squeegee as “the New Deal.”

Ettore knew his design was great, and he knew that if other window cleaners had access to his squeegee, they would opt to use it over the Chicago Squeegee. However, convincing the window cleaning world of this was not as easy of a task as he might have thought. Ettore pitched the idea to multiple window cleaning supply stores and was turned down by them all. Isn’t that how all of these success stories start out?! Ettore didn’t give up though. He headed to New York City to see the biggest supplier, George Racenstein of the J. Racenstein Company. Racenstein had been selling window cleaning products since 1909. Crazy fact: Racenstein is still around to this day, and I buy tools from them all the time! Like the wagtail squeegee pictured above. Like the others window cleaning suppliers, George Racenstein was not convinced there was a need to change. The New Deal, Ettore’s new version of the squeegee, was too small and too light. But Ettore had a plan. He offered a proposal that Racenstein couldn’t refuse. Clearly, Ettore could see the future, and he was making cultural references that didn’t even exist yet:

Ettore bet “the finest hat in New York” that George Racenstein would call Ettore within 30 days to beg him to include the squeegee in his catalogue. George took the bet. Ettore determined that the only way to get people to try his new squeegee was to actually give them away. I know of many businesses who got their start giving their product or services away, just to get the word out. So he shared them with his window cleaning friends, but only if they called George Racenstein and ask him to put the new squeegees in his catalog. It worked, and the “finest hat in New York” still hangs at the Ettore plant to this day.