text:
Method of carpet construction
A continuous method of adhesively laminating a first textile substrate to a second textile substrate wherein a single laminating adhesive is applied in one step, the method comprising, moving a web of the first textile along a first substantially horizontal path, coating the upper surface of the moving web of first textile with a substantially uniform layer of adhesive capable of bonding a surface of the first textile to a surface of the second textile, moving a web of the second textile along a second substantially horizontal path that is vertically spaced above the coated surface of, substantially parallel to, substantially coextensive with and moving at substantially the same speed as the moving web of first textile, bringing the coated surface of the moving web of first textile into contact with the lower surface of the moving web of second textile under conditions and for a time sufficient to adhere the contacted surfaces together and form a laminate comprising the first and second textiles.
Mashburn, Larry E. (Rockyface, GA, US)
156/324, 156/325, 428/97, 156/72
B32B7/12; B32B33/00; B32B37/10; B32B37/12; D06N7/00; B32B37/20; B32B38/00; (IPC1-7): B32B33/00; B32B31/00
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TOLIN, MICHAEL A
MILES & STOCKBRIDGE PC (TYSONS CORNER, VA, US)
1. A continuous method of adhesively laminating a first textile substrate to a second textile substrate wherein a single laminating adhesive is applied in one step, said method comprising, moving a web of said first textile along a first substantially horizontal path, coating the upper surface of said moving web of first textile with a substantially uniform layer of adhesive capable of bonding a surface of said first textile to a surface of said second textile, moving a web of said second textile along a second substantially horizontal path that is vertically spaced above said coated surface of, substantially parallel to, substantially coextensive with and moving at substantially the same speed as said moving web of first textile, bringing the coated surface of said moving web of first textile into contact with the lower surface of said moving web of second textile under conditions and for a time sufficient to adhere said contacted surfaces together and form a laminate comprising said first and second textiles.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first textile is a secondary carpet backing and said second textile is a carpet greige.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein said secondary carpet backing is a non-woven textile.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said non-woven textile comprises polyester.
5. The method of claim 2 wherein said secondary carpet backing is a woven textile.
6. The method of claim 2 wherein said carpet greige is an artificial turf.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein said adhesive is frothed.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein said frothed adhesive is a styrene-butadiene-rubber latex or a polyurethane precursor.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein said adhesive is heat activatable.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein said conditions sufficient to adhere said contacted surfaces include elevated temperatures sufficient to activate said adhesive.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein said elevated temperatures are provided by at least one heat source positioned below the lower surface of said moving web of first textile.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein said conditions sufficient to adhere said contacted surfaces include increased pressure on said surfaces to enhance contact therebetween.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein said elevated pressure is applied to the upper surface of said moving web of second textile.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein said elevated pressure is applied to said upper surface of said moving web of second textile by moving a weighted third web along a third substantially horizontal path that is above said upper surface of, substantially parallel to, substantially coextensive with and moving at substantially the same speed as said moving web of second textile, and bringing the lower surface of said moving weighted third web into contact with said upper surface of said second textile.
15. The laminate produced by the method of claim 1.
16. A continuous method of adhesively laminating a secondary backing to a carpet greige wherein a single laminating adhesive is applied in one step, said method comprising, moving a web of said secondary backing along a first substantially horizontal path, coating the upper surface of said moving web of secondary backing with a substantially uniform layer of adhesive capable of bonding a surface of said secondary backing to a surface of said carpet greige, moving a web of said carpet greige along a second substantially horizontal path that is vertically spaced above said coated surface of, substantially parallel to, substantially coextensive with and moving at substantially the same speed as said moving web of secondary backing, bringing the coated surface of said moving web of secondary backing into contact with the lower surface of said moving web of carpet greige under conditions and for a time sufficient to adhere said contacted surfaces together and form a laminate comprising said secondary backing and carpet greige.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein said secondary carpet backing is a non-woven textile.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein said non-woven textile comprises polyester.
19. The method of claim 16 wherein said secondary carpet backing is a woven textile.
20. The method of claim 16 wherein said carpet greige is an artificial turf.
21. The method of claim 16 wherein said adhesive is frothed.
22. The method of claim 21 wherein said frothed adhesive is a styrene-butadiene-rubber latex or a polyurethane precursor.
23. The method of claim 16 wherein said adhesive is heat activatable.
24. The method of claim 23 wherein said conditions sufficient to adhere said contacted surfaces include elevated temperatures sufficient to activate said adhesive.
26. The method of claim 16 wherein said conditions sufficient to adhere said contacted surfaces include increased pressure on said surfaces to enhance contact therebetween.
29. The laminate produced by the method of claim 16.
The invention relates to a novel one-step textile lamination, e.g., carpet construction method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the carpet manufacturing industry, one of the most common methods currently being used to coat carpet is a process by which the carpet greige (i.e., yarn tufted into a primary backing) is introduced to the adhesive material in a face down configuration. The adhesive material most commonly used is a styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR) latex, which is mechanically frothed to a specific consistency with air. The material is then applied to the backstitches thru a delivery hose that traverses the width of the carpet as it travels forward. A blade or a roller is positioned at the lay-down of the latex and forces the material back, and down into the carpet yarn fibers. Simultaneously at another coating station, the secondary, which is usually a woven polypropylene, travels over a roller which applies a second SBR coating directly to it. A blade positioned just past the roller scrapes back the excess amount and levels the application of the adhesive. Usually the formulations of the respective SBR compositions are different because of their intended end uses.
The coated carpet and the coated secondary travel separately toward a curing oven. The coated carpet is now inverted to a face-up configuration as it comes into contact with the coated secondary. Together, while traveling on tenter chains with pins in order to hold the carpet and secondary tight and under tension while pulling them forward into the curing oven, the secondary and carpet are pressed together by a press-roller. Pressed and being held together by the tension of the tenter the composite travels on into the curing oven, usually a series of gas fired penthouses. The tenter chain extends in width in order to apply a constant tension which maintains contact between the secondary and the carpet as the curing process is completed. More particularly, carpets are generally produced by tufting carpet yarns into a primary backing, the tufts being secured in the primary backing through use of a precoat, a foam, or a tuftbind adhesive. This carpet without a precoat of tuftbind adhesive is typically referred to as a greige good. The greige good is optionally coated with adhesive and secured to a secondary backing, generally of polypropylene or jute. Key properties of the carpeting produced by these processes are tuft bind, i.e. the strength required to pull tufts from the primary backing, and delamination strength, i.e., the force required to separate the secondary backing from the carpet.
The manufacture of carpet by implanting tufts in an adhesive composition spread on a backing material is known and described, for example, in British Patent 1,121,036 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,863. This requires the adhesive to be applied to a moving web of backing material in such a way as to form a uniform layer. A doctor blade, also commonly referred to as a doctor bar, is typically used to spread the adhesive or coating into a layer on the back of the greige good. In order to accommodate variations in the thickness of the greige good, backing material and/or in the desired adhesive layer, the doctor blade is mounted in an adjustable manner that allows it to be moved towards and away from a structural element (i.e., a bedplate) over which the web of material passes.
Carpets and artificial turfs are typically produced in widths about 12 to about 15 feet, but can be wide as up to about 18 feet. The manufacturing process requires that the doctor blade be about the same length as the width of the carpet, i.e., about 12 to 15 feet and possibly about 18 feet. This is necessary to enable the doctor blade to span the width of the carpet as it passes underneath the blade. The doctor blade is normally built up from one or more machined sections secured to a supporting truss or other suitable supporting means (e.g., an I beam). In order to maintain the edge of the blade accurately across the width of the web of material or greige good, the supporting truss is usually rather large, and considerable strength is required to adjust the mechanism. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,793.
Recently, an improved process for precoating a carpet greige backing and adhering it to a secondary backing employing a reactive polyurethane precursor adhesive has been perfected. According to the improved process, the carpet greige is introduced to the coating application in the face down position, backstitch up. A mechanically air-frothed polyurethane precursor precoat at approximately 30 oz./ sq. yd. of material is applied to the backstitch by a traversing hose which travels the width of the carpet as it travels forward. A doctor blade scrapes back and drives the precoat into the fiber. This ensures a more even coating while forcing the adhesive material into the carpet yarn. The precoated carpet immediately goes on to a tenter with pins, which pulls the carpet forward into the curing oven, e.g., a series of gas-fired penthouses. By extending the width of the tenter frame, tension is created on the carpet. The carpet with the cured polyurethane exits out of the oven, is depinned and then proceeds to a second coating station. The carpet with cured precoat is still inverted, backstitch up. A mechanically air-frothed polyurethane laminate coating is then applied over the precoated carpet by a traversing hose which travels the width of the carpet while the carpet is still traveling forward. The difference in the two polyurethane coatings is that the laminate coating has been formulated to froth more easily so it can be gauged on instead of being scraped-on or roller coated.
A specific amount of laminate adhesive is added to the already precoated carpet, approximately 25 oz. sq. yd., in order to fill the precoat voids and to have enough mass to laminate the secondary fabric. The tenter is expanded in the width direction in order to apply tension to the carpet, thereby making it flat and receptive to laying thereon a secondary fabric. The precoated carpet with the coated laminate is now introduced back onto a tenter chain, which pulls it forward toward the curing ovens. Before entering the penthouse for curing, while the carpet is flat from the tension and the polyurethane laminate coat is still uncured, a secondary fabric, woven or non-woven, is introduced onto the precoat/laminate coated carpet. The tenter tension is increased again and pulls the secondary onto the uncured polyurethane laminate coat. The carpet composite, face down, cured precoat, curing laminate and attached secondary proceeds into the curing ovens. At a predetermined point, based on time and temperatures, the carpet composite passes thru a press roller. This serves two purposes; (1) forces excellent contact between the secondary and the laminate and (2) collapses the laminate foam structure which increases the strength of the laminate.
The carpet construction proceeds for approximately two more minutes for final cure and exits the oven and depins from the tenter. The carpet with the polyurethane precoat, laminate and secondary is cured and proceeds to final processing, e.g., shearing, topical application such as anti stains and wrapping of the rolls for shipping.
Numerous variations on the above themes have been suggested for optimizing the lamination of secondary textile materials to carpet greiges. All, however, require multiple applications of precoat, adhesive, adhesive promoters, enhancers or other coatings on either or both of the greige or secondary in order to achieve acceptable tuft and delamination strengths and acceptable performance characteristics for the finished product. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,299,715; 5,646,195; 5,612,113; 5,604,267; 5,482,908; 5,462,766; 5,158,922; 4,853,280; 4,853,054; 4,696,849; 4,595,445; 4,743,330; 4,632,850; 4,379,730; 4,267,215; 4,156,524; 3,539,384; 3,533,833; 3,511,696; 3,302,610; 2,534,321; 3,940,525; 3,676,280; 3,679,469; 3,745,054.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved one-step method for laminating a carpet or other type of textile greige to a secondary fabric or other substrate.
It is a further object of the invention to provide laminates of carpet or other types of textile greiges and secondary fabrics or other substrates.
The foregoing and other objects are realized by the present invention, one embodiment of which relates to forming the carpet (or other type) greige/secondary (or other substrate) laminate by applying an adhesive, e.g., a frothed or foamed polyurethane precursor to a surface of the secondary (or other type of substrate), contacting the thus coated surface with a backstitch surface of a carpet (or other type) greige and subjecting the thus formed laminate to curing conditions, e.g., heat and pressure such that the polyurethane precursor is, 1) forced into the yarns of the backstitch surface of the greige and, 2) is cured to a polyurethane that adhesively secures the backstitch surface of the greige to the secondary (or other substrate).
More particularly, an embodiment of the invention concerns a continuous method of adhesively laminating a first textile substrate to a second textile substrate wherein a single laminating adhesive is applied in one step, the method comprising, moving a web of the first textile along a first substantially horizontal path, coating the upper surface of the moving web of first textile with a substantially uniform layer of adhesive capable of bonding a surface of the first textile to a surface of the second textile, moving a web of the second textile along a second substantially horizontal path that is vertically spaced above the coated surface of, substantially parallel to, substantially coextensive with and moving at substantially the same speed as the moving web of first textile, bringing the coated surface of the moving web of first textile into contact with the lower surface of the moving web of second textile under conditions and for a time sufficient to adhere the contacted surfaces together and form a laminate comprising the first and second textiles.
The method of the invention thus enables the lamination of, for example, a carpet greige to a secondary fabric by a one step process wherein a single adhesive material is applied in one operation, the single adhesive material functioning both as the precoat, which locks in the carpet back stitches and encapsulates the yarn fibers, while also laminating the secondary to the carpet construction.
The FIGURE schematically depicts an arrangement of apparatus suitable for carrying out the method of the invention.
The various embodiments of the invention may best be understood following a description of the drawing which has been simplified for ease of understanding. Referring to the FIGURE, a web 10 of secondary backing material, preferably supported on a transport belt 12, e.g., woven fiberglass/Teflon is transported over carrier rolls 14 beneath an adhesive dispenser 16 which lays down a layer of adhesive 18 that is smoothed out into a coating of adhesive of uniform thickness 20 by doctor blade 22. The thus coated web is then moved via carrier rollers 14 over at least one heated platen 24 to cure the adhesive to a partially gelled state most receptive to subsequent contact with the carpet greige. A web of carpet greige 26 is contacted with adhesive coating 20 on web 10 at the nip between combining roller 28 and carrier roller 14a such that the back surface of the carpet greige is adjacent to the coated surface of the web 10. The combined webs 10 and 26 may then be passed over one or more additional heated platens 24 to further cure the adhesive. To achieve optimum penetration of the adhesive into the primary backing and tufted yarns thereat of the carpet greige and optimum bonding between the secondary backing and the greige, pressure may be applied to the laminate by feeding a weighted blanket web 30 on to the upper surface of the greige 22 via combining roller 32 at the nip between it and carrier roller 14b. The weighted laminate may be further heated by additional platens 24 to completely cure the adhesive and produce the final laminate 34. Weighted blanket 30 is removed from the laminate via roller 36.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the textiles to be laminated according to the method of the invention may comprise any suitable such materials that may be laminated together in a face-to-face configuration for any purpose or application. The method of the invention is particularly applicable to the lamination of carpet greige goods to secondary backing materials, however.
It will further be understood by those skilled in the art that the method of the invention may be carried out employing any suitable adhesive material capable of being coated on the surface of a continuously moving web of textile material. Suitable such adhesives include styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR) latex, carboxylated SBR latex, natural rubber latex, ethylene/vinyl acetate latex, acrylic latex, polyvinyl chloride plastisols, reactive polyurethane systems, and hot melt compositions, e.g., ethylene/vinyl acetate. It is particularly preferred to employ polyurethane adhesives in the method of the invention, more preferably, frothed or foamed polyurethane precursor adhesives.
The preferred frothed polyurethane precursor foam may be supplied from a frothing apparatus, for example an Oakes or Firestone froth head. The thickness of the adhesives may be gauged by a doctor blade, roller, air blade, etc., all well known to the art. Preferably, the reactive polyurethane components are mixed in a high pressure mixhead prior to being introduced into the frothing head, and fillers, when used, introduced into the polyol side through an in-line mixer rather than being with polyol in a holding tank, all as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,267.
The reactive polyurethane systems comprise one or more di- or polyisocyanates (A-side), and a B-side which comprises one or more polyols, generally polyols having nominal functionalities of from 2 to 8, a low molecular weight chain extender, one or more polyurethane-promoting catalysts, and optionally suitable surfactants, crosslinkers, plasticizers, pigments, and other well known polyurethane additives. In general, a filler is also employed, particularly in froth foam.
The di- and polyisocyanates which are useful include the conventionally used isocyanates such as toluene diisocyanate, including the 2,4- and 2,6-isomers individually or in any admixture, preferably in the common 65/35 and 80/20 mixtures; methylene diphenylene diisocyanates (MDI), in the form of the individual 2,2′-, 2,4′-, and 4,4′-isomers, and mixtures thereof; crude or polymeric MDI having a functionality greater than 2 and comprising mixtures of 2-ring diisocyanates and their higher ring polyfunctional analogs; aliphatic diisocyanates such as 2,4- and 2,6-methylcyclohexane diisocyanate (hydrogenated TDI); 2,2′-, 2,4′-, and 4,4′-dicyclohexylmethane diisocyanates and mixtures of these isomers (hydrogenated MDI); 1,6-hexane diisocyanate, isophorone diisocyanate; and urethane, urea, biuret, uretonimine, uretdione, carbodiimide, isocyanurate, and allophanate modified isocyanates. TDI and MDI or their admixtures are preferred, either as individual isomers or as mixtures.
Isocyanate-terminated prepolymers and quasi-prepolymers are also useful. Isocyanate-terminated prepolymers are prepared by reacting a stoichiometric excess of one or more di- or polyisocyanates with a polyoxyalkylene polyol having a functionality of 2 or higher and an equivalent weight greater than 300 Da (Daltons). Molecular weights and equivalent weights herein are number average molecular and equivalent weights unless indicated otherwise. The isocyanate-terminated prepolymers and quasi-prepolymers advantageously have free isocyanate contents of from about 6% by weight to about 30% by weight. Prepolymers and quasi-prepolymers may be used in conjunction with other isocyanates as a blend.
The polyol component may, in the case where 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol is used as the chain extender, be any suitable polyurethane grade polyol, such as hydroxyl-functional polyester diols, polytetramethylene ether glycols, polycaprolactone diols, and the like, but preferably comprises one or more substantially polyoxypropylene polyols, preferably those which are copolymers with ethylene oxide to provide high primary hydroxyl content. Most preferably, the polyol component comprises, in major part, more preferably in most major part, and most preferably substantially all, of one or more low unsaturation polyoxypropylene polyols having unsaturation levels of less than 0.015 meq/g, preferably less than 0.010 meq/g, and most preferably less than 0.007 meq/g, all as determined by ASTM D 2849-69 "Testing Urethane Foam Polyol Raw Materials." Polymer polyols, e.g. those containing in situ polymerized vinyl monomers such as styrene and acrylonitrile, and polymer-modified polyols such as PIPA, PID, and PUD polyols may also be used. Preferably, all the polyols of the polyol component are low unsaturation polyols, or are polymer or polymer-modified polyols based on low unsaturation polyols, and most preferably all are ultra-low unsaturation polyols or polymer polyols based thereon, with an average intrinsic unsaturation in the polyol blend of less than 0.010 meq/g, and more preferably less than 0.007 meq/g. Intrinsic unsaturation is defined as the unsaturation which is unavoidably produced during polyoxyalkylene polyol synthesis.
The low and ultra-low unsaturation polyols useful in the present invention may have nominal functionalities between 2 and 8, more preferably between 2 and 6, and most preferably from 2 and 3. The polyols may be homopolymeric polyoxypropylene polyols, but are preferably copolymeric polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene polyols. In these copolymeric polyols, oxyethylene moieties may be randomly distributed, or may be in block or block random form. Polyols having terminal oxypropylene/oxyethylene blocks of high oxyethylene content or polyoxyethylene capped polyols are particularly suitable. Most preferably, the polyols are polyoxypropylene copolymer polyols containing random internal oxyethylene moieties with a finish of high oxyethylene content or all oxyethylene moieties. The total oxyethylene content should, in general, be less than 35 weight percent. The low and ultra-low unsaturation polyols may be prepared as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,470,812, 5,482,908, 5,545,601, 5,158,922, and 5,689,012. Such polyols are available commercially from the ARCO Chemical Company, for example under the trade name ACCLAIM™ polyether polyols.
The actual functionalities of low and ultra-low unsaturation polyols are close to the respective nominal functionalities. For ultra-low unsaturation polyols, for example, the actual functionality of a polyoxypropylene diol with a nominal functionality of 2 is ordinarily about 1.95 or greater, whereas the functionality of an analogous triol is ordinarily about 2.80 or greater. The average functionality of the polyol blends of the subject invention should range from 1.9 to about 3, more preferably 1.95 to about 2.6, and most preferably about 1.95 to about 2.4. These average functionalities are based on actual functionalities. The polyol functionalities useful will depend to some degree on the functionality of the isocyanate, with polyol functionalities in the higher portion of the range suitable with isocyanates with functionalities close to 2, and the lower portion of the range most suitable with isocyanates having a higher functionality, for example in the range of 2.2 to 2.4 or higher. The polyols advantageously have equivalent weights of 800 Da to 5000 Da, more preferably 1000 Da to 4000 Da, and most preferably 1000 Da to 2500 Da.
The chain extenders useful in the subject invention are advantageously isocyanate-reactive compounds bearing between 2 and 3 isocyanate-reactive groups per molecule, and an equivalent weight ranging from about 31 Da to about 250 Da. Most preferably, the isocyanate-reactive groups are hydroxyl groups, although other groups well known to those skilled in the polyurethane arts, such as amino groups, may also be used. Preferred chain extenders are low equivalent weight diols such as ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, propylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, tripropylene glycol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,4-butane diol, 1,6-hexanediol, 2,2,4-trimethylpentanediol, glycerine, and trimethylolpropane.
It is known that 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol is a particularly excellent chain extender, yielding increases in tuft bind and/or elongation when used alone or in conjunction with other chain extenders. When used with other chain extenders, 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol preferably constitutes 20% or more by weight of the chain extender component, more preferably 30% or more by weight, and yet more preferably, constitutes a major portion of the chain extender. The chain extender component, when used, may be employed in amounts of greater than 0 to 0.5 parts by weight per part by weight of the polyol component, more preferably 0.05 to 0.4 parts by weight, and more preferably about 0.1 to about 0.3 parts by weight, these parts by weight based on a chain extender equivalent weight of about 50 Da. Higher and lower equivalent weights will generally necessitate larger and smaller proportions of chain extender, respectively.
The compositions are normally catalyzed by urethane promoting catalysts, e.g. those which accelerate the reaction of isocyanate groups with hydroxyl groups. Conventional tin catalysts and amine catalysts are useful, for example, either singly or in admixture. Examples are tin catalysts such as tin octoate, dimethyltin diacetate, diethyltin diacetate, dibutyltin diacetate, dibutyltin dilaurate, among others; and amine catalysts such as diethylene triamine and triethylene diamine. Other catalysts such as the various transition metal acetylacetonates, bismuth compounds, and the like may also be used. Latent catalysts which do not become active until heated are also useful, either alone or in combination with other conventional catalysts.
Fillers, when employed may be selected from those traditionally used, for example finely divided, ground, precipitated or microcrystalline fillers such as aluminum hydroxide, felspar, dolomite, calcium carbonate, limestone, and wollastonite, among others. Mixtures of aluminum hydroxide and calcium carbonate, the latter often in the form of finely ground limestone, are preferred.
When the adhesive is to be used in the form of a foam, either a blown foam or a froth foam or combinations thereof may be used. Froth foams are preferred. Blowing agents in blown and froth/blown foams may be selected from those conventionally used, including fluorochlorocarbons, in particular R-22 (dichlorodifluoromethane), but are more preferably low boiling hydrocarbons, ketones, ethers, carbonates, or the like, and most preferably is water, either alone or in conjunction with another blowing agent. Solid blowing agents may also be useful but are not preferred.
Froth foams are preferably prepared as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,267. Froth foams may also be prepared in the conventional manner by introducing the reactive ingredients together with a substantially inert gas such as air, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, or the like, into a froth mixer such as an Oakes or Firestone mixer. Froth and blown/froth foams are generally gauged with a doctor blade or roller, or the like, to the desired thickness. Frothed foams may also include a volatile or reactive blowing agent in addition to being mechanically frothed.
Pigments may be added when desired to impart color to the polyurethane adhesive. Pigments, which are used in most minor amounts, e.g. less than 2% by weight, should be considered distinct from fillers which are used in far larger amounts and for a different purpose. Plasticizers and other ingredients may be added as desired, as well as crosslinkers such as triethanolamine and diethanolamine.
Moreover, the skilled artisan will be aware that systems of apparatus other than that depicted in the FIGURE may be employed in the practice of the method of the invention without departing from the spirit of the invention.
In a preferred method of the invention the adhesive material such as polyurethane precursor, e.g., is frothed mechanically with air. The frothed weight is specified in grams per liter and is predetermined based on the properties desired in the final product and the natures of the greige and secondary. The adhesive material is then preferably delivered through a hose which traverses the width laying down the blended polyurethane adhesive on a surface of a secondary fabric. The latter may comprise woven or nonwoven fabrics made from one or more of natural or synthetic fibers or yams including jute, wool, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyamide, polyesters, rayon, or various copolymers, such as ethylene/vinyl acetate, as well as needle-punched products.
In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, approximately twenty-five ounces per square yard of frothed polyurethane is applied in a typical operation with it being understood that differing amounts may be applied depending upon the carpet greige and secondary constructions. The adhesive material is gauged on one-one hundred thousands of an inch by a blade over a trued roller.
After the application and gauging of the adhesive on to the secondary fabric the latter is carried by a woven fiberglass/Teflon coated transport belt over a series of steamed heated platens. The temperature settings of the platens are set and the speed of the belt are synchronized so as to deliver the polyurethane adhesive/secondary at a state of cure that would be most receptive when contact is made with the greige carpet. The carpet greige preferably has traveled above and parallel to the curing polyurethane/secondary composite prior to the contact point therebetween. The greige carpet/polyurethane composite contact point has been predetermined based on the cure profile of the adhesive so as to maximize the propensity of the polyurethane to penetrate and saturate the yarn fibers.
It is also desirable to apply downward pressure on the carpet to force contact with the polyurethane coated secondary. The weight on the pressure blanket is across the width and length which has been established based on the cure profile. The weight system serves two purposes: (1) to force the adhesive up into the bundles of yarn and (2) to hold the carpet in contact with the adhesive and secondary until the cured polyurethane has sufficient strength to hold the composite together. The length of the pressure blanket can vary from about ten feet to about sixty feet dependent mainly on the natures of the products and/or processing speeds. The heated platens underneath the pressure blanket preferably extend past the length of the run in order to ensure complete, total cure of the polyurethane adhesive. The carpet composite exits off of the curing platens into an accumulator and on to a roll-up for further processing.
The unique aspects of the method of the invention include:
1) A one-step method occasioned by the utilization of one adhesive precoat material in one application.
2) Application of an adhesive precoat onto the secondary fabric instead of the carpet greige as in conventional methods.
3) Maximum utilization of the amount of adhesive material being used and needed.
4) Directed heat from platens through the belting material, through the secondary into the polyurethane adhesive precoat.
5) The use of a tenter is not required which eliminates unwanted tensions being applied when transporting the carpet composite or extensions of width to make it receptive to receipt of a secondary.
The carpet selected for the run was a tufted synthetic turf product most commonly coated with unitary polyurethane with no secondary. One of the reasons for selection of this type product was that a history of processing and physical properties was available. The polyurethane formulation for the precoat/laminate was formulated as follows:
CHEMICALS PARTS
Polyol 100
Calcium Carbonate 235
Catalyst .018
Secondary Catalyst 1.26
Isocyanate 55.3
Polyol 2.59
Surfactant .5
Utilizing a system as depicted in the FIGURE, the formulation was mixed with air through a blender to a cup weight of 500 grams per liter. The foam mixture then travels though a hose which traverses a width of one hundred ninety inches. The polyurethane adhesive was applied on top of a 3.5 ounce per square yard non-woven polyester secondary. The application weight is twenty-five ounces per square yard. The frothed polyurethane adhesive is then gauged on at one-one hundred thousands of an inch by preset blade over a trued roller as it travels forward.
The travel of the coated secondary is 25-ft./min. on a belted carrier over 250 degrees F. steamed heated platens for approximately sixty feet before contact of the curing polyurethane with a run of uncoated synthetic turf. The polyurethane adhesive is still ungelled and wet to the touch at the point of contact with the carpet. The carpet marries into the uncured adhesive and travels approximately five feet in contact before pressure by a weighted blanket forces intimate contact between the carpet and the coated secondary. Pressure is then applied for approximately thirty feet while still traveling over heated platens. The precoat-laminate adhesive is crushed by pressure while held in intimate contact with the polyurethane adhesive as it cures to a point that holds the composite together. The semi-cured composite travels, another one hundred feet over heated platens to finish the cure.
The finished synthetic turf, which has been precoated and laminated to a secondary, exits the belted line and goes to a roll-up for wrapping.
From the foregoing description, various modifications and changes in the composition and method will occur to those skilled in the art. All such modifications coming within the scope of the appended claims are intended to be included therein. The entire disclosures and contents of each and all references cited and discussed herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference. All percentages expressed herein are by weight unless otherwise indicated.
Previous Patent: Looped nonwoven web
Next Patent: Hydroxyl polymer web structures comprising a tuft


The scarves and shawls made using the Diamond Mesh Stitch look more complicated than they really are! In this scarf pattern, Berlini Ladder Ribbon Glitter is used to make a beautiful, sparkly mesh scarf.
Cut multiple strands approx 12" long. Attach to each end of the scarf to make fringe.


text:
Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival
by Sean Strub
The founder of POZ magazine shares "a captivating…eyewitness account from inside the AIDS epidemic" (Next) and "a moving, multi-decade memoir of one gay man's life" (San Francisco Chronicle).
As a politics-obsessed Georgetown freshman, Sean Strub arrived in Washington, DC, from Iowa in 1976, with a plum part-time job running a Senate elevator in the US Capitol. He also harbored a terrifying secret: his attraction to men. As Strub explored the capital's political and social circles, he discovered a parallel world where powerful men lived double lives shrouded in shame.
When the AIDS epidemic hit in the early 1980s, Strub was living in New York and soon found himself attending "more funerals than birthday parties." Scared and angry, he turned to radical activism to combat discrimination and demand research. Strub takes you through his own diagnosis and inside ACT UP, the organization that transformed a stigmatized cause into one of the defining political movements of our time.
From the New York of Studio 54 and Andy Warhol's Factory to the intersection of politics and burgeoning LGBT and AIDS movements, Strub's story crackles with history. He recounts his role in shocking AIDS demonstrations at St. Patrick's Cathedral as well as at the home of US Senator Jesse Helms. With an astonishing cast of characters, including Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Keith Haring, Bill Clinton, and Yoko Ono, is a vivid portrait of a tumultuous era: "A page-turner…[with] the suspense and horror of Paul Monette's memoir Borrowed Time and the drama of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart….What a lot of action—and life—there is in this gripping book" (The Washington Post).
Publisher: ScribnerReleased: Jan 14, 2014ISBN: 9781451661972Format: book
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More advance praise for Body Counts by Sean Strub
"Sean Strub has been a columnist, editor, publisher, theatrical producer, congressional candidate, conservationist, hotelier, and for most of that time an outspoken advocate in the fight against AIDS as well. His Body Counts is a stunning memoir—candid (at times startlingly so), courageous, and humane. Much like the author himself."
—John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
"On June 5, 1981, the day the AIDS epidemic was first recognized by the Centers for Disease Control, Sean Strub was with my close friend, gay activist Vito Russo, in Denver, Colorado. Body Counts is a powerful account of the epidemic's early years and the subsequent three decades. It encompasses the tragedy of lives lost young, as we lost Vito, as well as the triumph of empowerment, activism, and survival. Body Counts is a pageturner with moving insight and fresh analysis told in a compelling and highly personal style."
"Read Body Counts by Sean Strub and share one American's story of growing up with an instinct for justice, then finding oneself in an epidemic whose tragedy is multiplied by bias. As a man who survived sexual abuse, rape, and an HIV diagnosis, Strub embodies the shared interest of women and men who fight for human rights, and against any government or person intruding on our bodies. By taking us with him on his journey from a conservative family in Iowa to the heart of a global movement for human rights, Sean Strub gives us ideas, strength, and heart in our own journey."
"Sean Strub's Body Counts is an important document for several reasons. His direct and honest prose relates a familiar story of growing self-awareness, coming of age, and coming out in a fresh and compelling manner. The big surprise comes when one recognizes how dramatic the machinations of drug trials, power politics, and the building of a grassroots movement can be."
—Bill T. Jones
"Sean Strub's gripping personal history of the AIDS epidemic provides fresh insight into the foundations of the LGBT movement. Eye-opening and at times horrifying, Body Counts vividly depicts the growing trend of HIV criminalization. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand today's HIV epidemic."
—Rory Kennedy
"While Sean Strub resists seeing himself as a 'hero,' this inspiring book proves he is the voice of a community of people who are exactly that . . . . This is an important book, a vital history of ordinary people rising up and demonstrating the potential inherent in this extraordinary country . . . . This is the most personally powerful and authentic portrayal of our collective history that I have read since Paul Monette's On Borrowed Time."
What a life! From the Senate elevator to Studio 54 to Andy Warhol and Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and John Lennon to the famous demonstration inside St. Patrick's Cathedral . . . this is the compelling life-and-near-death story of Sean Strub, of thousands lost to HIV-AIDS, and thousands more living with it whom his activism helped save. Wow.
—Andrew Tobias, author of The Best Little Boy in the World
An absorbing read. It not only vividly recounts the personal odyssey of one man's struggle with AIDS, but places it—with remarkable objectivity—within the larger story of those years. Strub is a dispassionate, reliable guide whose directness and honesty create considerable impact. Anyone would profit from reading this book.
—Martin Duberman, author of Stonewall
"Sean Strub has written more than just a memoir. Body Counts pulls back the curtain on a hidden half century of American history, from closeted Washington politicos of the 1970s and 1980s to his interactions with a parade of American icons; Tennessee Williams, Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Gore Vidal all make cameos. AIDS looms large, but the story never feels like a tragedy. It is the tale of a life lived in high-resolution, high-intensity, saturated technicolor."
—Ari Shapiro, NPR White House Correspondent
Searingly honest about himself and others, Strub shows how the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s brought out the best and the worst in people. His heroes are the ordinary men and women who fought to save lives. His villains—and deservedly so—are the cowardly public officials, from Reagan through Clinton, whose opportunism proved deadly to others. This take-no-prisoners memoir has the quality of a suspenseful page-turner, and will keep you reading until the final sentence.
—John D'Emilio, author of Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America
From early struggles against AIDS to later collective acting up, Sean Strub's lively, gossipy memoir is also deeply moving history.
—Jonathan Ned Katz, author of Gay American History
"The education and evolution of Sean Strub is a riveting and moving tale that needed to be told, and has life lessons for us all. Body Counts is an important document in the history of our era that challenges conventional wisdoms and speaks truth to power."
—Doug Ireland, veteran political journalist
"Body Counts—so smart and affecting, idealistic and clear-eyed—chronicles Strub's own personal experience with HIV, and, at the same time, explores how culture shapes us and how we can shape it in turn. Strub's memoir, like Strub himself, is an inspiration."
—Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows
December 1989, New York City
Chapter 1: Out of Iowa
Chapter 2: The Way Out
Chapter 3: Tennessee and Me
Chapter 4: Sphere of Influence
Chapter 5: Making Movement
Chapter 6: Virus and Violence
Chapter 7: Kentucky Fried Closet
Chapter 8: The End of a Day Like This
Chapter 9: Of Mousetraps and Men
Chapter 10: Stigma and Solidarity
Chapter 11: Testing and Telling
Chapter 12: The Living Room
Chapter 13: Rolo-dead File
Chapter 14: Silence=Death
Chapter 15: Unexpected Expire
Chapter 16: Keith and Swen
Chapter 17: Cardinal Sin
Chapter 18: Hope Is Hope
Chapter 19: Running Man
Chapter 20: Taking the Helms
Chapter 21: Today Is a Good Day
Chapter 22: The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me
Chapter 23: Ask and Tell
Chapter 24: Launch
Chapter 25: Firsts
Chapter 26: Pharma Watching
Chapter 27: Creating Communities
Chapter 28: Dark Mark
Chapter 29: Feeling Our Pain
Chapter 30: Barebacking
Chapter 31: Eugene and Angel
Chapter 32: Memento Mori
Chapter 33: Recall
Chapter 34: Lazarus
Chapter 35: Stephen
Chapter 36: Postpartum
Chapter 37: Naked to the World
Chapter 38: HIV Is Not a Crime
About Sean Strub
For Javy and Megan
I am nervously sitting in a pew near the front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York where John Cardinal O'Connor is about to celebrate Mass. It has been years since I attended a Catholic Mass and even longer since I took communion, the holiest of sacraments, but that is why I am here. Looking up at the cathedral's soaring nave, I remember the awe I felt as an altar boy at St. Mary's in Iowa City and, later, the anger when the Church betrayed me.
It is bitterly cold, a near record low. Many parishioners wear heavy coats as they hold hymnals in gloved hands. Slush-covered boots have left a wet trail down the long center aisle. There's a puddle under my pew. The mood in the church is tense—nothing like the droning boredom of the Masses of my youth. As the minutes pass, I think of the Jesuits who taught me as a child that a good Catholic acts upon the church's social teachings, even if that means confronting the church. My hands are trembling with the cold, my apprehension and other feelings too deep to name.
Outside St. Patrick's, forty-five hundred angry men and women have assembled, packing Fifth Avenue and chanting and waving placards that read Curb your Dogma, Papal Bull, and Condoms Not Coffins. Fists pump the air, bullhorns blare. ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, is protesting O'Connor's assault on safe sex and reproductive rights. There is an almost carnival-like spirit to the demonstration with ACT UP affinity groups, such as Church Ladies for Choice, the Hail Marys, and Speaking in Tongues, performing their protests. In ACT UP, high camp and high seriousness are uniquely compatible. An artist named Ray Navarro is dressed as Jesus Christ, swathed in a white shroud, carrying a large wooden cross over his nearskeletal shoulder. His bearded face is gaunt, and he wears a crown of thorns over his long, thinning hair. Despite the cold, Ray looks beatific. He will be dead in less than a year. Keith Haring is there, too, in a knitted cap with a long, hand-knitted scarf wrapped around his slender neck. He has two months left.
Inside the cathedral, O'Connor's Mass is interrupted again and again by ACT UP protesters. Surreptitiously spread throughout the church, they stand up and yell out their statements. My friend Michael Petrelis climbs on a pew and shouts, O'Connor, you're killing us! Another friend, Jamie Leo, dressed as a priest near the front of the church, offers up a prayer in protest. Two boyfriends in black leather motorcycle jackets handcuff themselves to one pew. Right after O'Connor begins his homily, thirty protesters stage a die-in, blowing whistles, throwing hundreds of condoms in the air, and going limp in the center aisle. The cops, two long lines of blue on either side of the cathedral, have their moment, binding wrists with plastic handcuffs and carrying the protesters away on stretchers, as if they were taking them to a hospital rather than to paddy wagons.
With his homily in tatters, O'Connor retreats from the altar to his thronelike chair. He sits with his head in his hands, melodramatically trying to convey spiritual pain. Photographs of the media-savvy cardinal looking tragically besieged will elicit overwhelming sympathy when they appear on the front page of Monday's newspapers.
Communion begins amid the general confusion. ACT UP protesters line up, interspersed among the regular parishioners, but when it is their turn, they make loud political pronouncements: Safe sex is moral sex! I support a woman's right to choose! Condoms save lives! Soon it is my turn to receive the body and blood of Christ. A small, darkskinned priest is serving my queue; his white, green, and gold vestments are oversized and bright. He hesitates briefly, his eyes fixed on the pink triangle and Silence=Death logo visible on the T-shirt underneath my coat. Then he holds the host in the air and intones, with a strong Spanish accent, the body of Christ.
This is the moment—my moment to confront the Church—when instead of repeating the body of Christ as expected, I am to make my political statement. But I have not prepared one. When I rehearsed this moment in my mind, I imagined I might break into tears or erupt in rage because no slogan—in fact, no words at all—seemed adequate.
May the Lord bless the man I love, who died a year ago this week, I hear myself say. My voice begins as a tremble but finishes strong. Police standing a few feet away are ready to intervene, watching to see how the priest reacts. His hand jerks slightly, but he looks me in the eye and gives me the wafer.
With my heart pounding, I walk back to my pew. My mind is fixed on bodies, but not the body of Christ. I think of Michael's body and the agonizing brain infection that turned his last days into a kind of crucifixion. I think of the bodies of the protesters carried out on stretchers and those chanting outside, many struggling to survive. I think of my own body, wondering how much longer it will last.
Parishioners are staring at me, their faces disgusted or sympathetic or just plain stunned. Some have their heads bowed, hands pressed tightly in prayer like the devout at St. Mary's, their faith unshakable and unwilling to brook any criticism of the Church. They might be praying for us.
After Mass, I pass through the cathedral's heavy doors into the bright sunlight and, it seems to me, into the arms of my true community. I am exultant, in a state that feels like grace, certain that if I am to die of AIDS, I will die as a fighter, not a victim.
In front of the Iowa State Capitol, wearing the red jacket required of all State Senate pages, May 1975.
Out of Iowa
Elevator number one was Senators Only, and my job was to move senators up to the Senate floor in the U.S. Capitol and back to their offices as quickly as possible. From 1976 to 1978, for twenty hours a week, I manually opened and closed a shiny brass accordion-style gate at each floor, always with a friendly greeting. Whenever the gate squeaked or scraped, I would squirt a little oil on its metal joints. The interior of the antique elevator cab was polished walnut and rosewood, with a hand-operated cast-iron gearshift worn smooth by many decades of constant movement forward ( Going up! ) and back ( Going down! ). A small wooden folding seat was hinged against the wall, but I never used it. I preferred to stand and greet passengers eye to eye.
I had arrived in Washington from Iowa in March 1976, with a copy of Michael Harrington's The Other America in my suitcase, as a seventeen-year-old idealist determined to make my mark in the world. I wasn't sure what that might be, but I harbored political ambition and secretly thought I might go very far. My parents believed I went to Washington to attend Georgetown University that fall. A fine Jesuit school, my dad called it. But for me, the main attraction was the job ferrying members of the U.S. Senate up and down. It was a plum post for an eager young politico, and the pay was good. I also liked that my elevator was on the Senate side of the Capitol, the so-called upper chamber of Congress.
I was on a political fast track. When I had hit adolescence, and the attention of my male peers turned to girls, mine turned to politics. That's how I lucked in to the elevator operator post. As a page in the Iowa State Senate in 1975, I often got rides from the capital in Des Moines to my parents' house in Iowa City from a journalist, Frank Nye, who lived nearby in Cedar Rapids. Shortly before Christmas in 1975, he and his wife invited me to a dinner party at their house, where I met Iowa's senator Dick Clark, one of the U.S. Senate's most liberal members. I didn't realize Clark was an elected official until the dinner conversation turned to national politics. He seemed particularly well informed, so I asked him, Do you work in Washington?, prompting a humiliating burst of laughter from others at the table.
Despite my faux pas, Clark thought I showed promise and handed me his card with his executive assistant's name scrawled on the back. Tell Bob I told you to call and see if we might be able to get you an appointment as a page, and maybe you could help out a bit in my office as an intern, he said. I left Clark's aide a message the next morning, saying I had already served as a page in the State Senate in Des Moines and was excited about the chance to work in Washington. When he called back, he said I was too old to be a page—the cutoff was sixteen—but he would look into another patronage position for me, which turned out to be the elevator post.
I should already have been in college at the time, but I had taken a gap year to work on the Democratic presidential campaigns leading up to the January 1976 Iowa precinct caucuses. Even though I wasn't old enough to vote, I was elected as a delegate to the state convention for U.S. Representative Morris Udall. When his campaign fizzled (he commented at the time, the people have spoken—the bastards! ), I switched my allegiance to California's governor, Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian who was a late entry into the race. A few weeks after my move to Washington, I took a day off from the elevator job to join Brown's campaign entourage in Maryland on May 16, 1976—my eighteenth birthday—just two days before that state's primary.
The Capitol Hill complex—which then included three House and two Senate office buildings, as well as the Capitol—had fifty-eight elevators. Most still required manual operation, which was supplied by politically well-connected teenagers. Members of Congress and staff treated us like mascots, though we were hardly pampered. If the Senate worked late into the night, we did as well. One perk was that we could wander through parts of the Capitol that the public never sees. Another elevator operator, Jay, and I made good use of his knowledge of the meandering labyrinth of passageways, tunnels, and hidden staircases and his cache of master keys. Once, we climbed the steep steps to the dome and smoked a quick joint while enjoying a spectacular 360-degree view of the city. During the day, we slipped past velvet-roped brass stanchions forbidding public passage as though we owned the place, and at night, we wandered through the several levels of underground tunnels, noiseless except for the sounds of our footsteps echoing off overhanging steam pipes. One night when the Senate was working very late, we sneaked into the engineer's office and cranked up the heat in the Senate chamber until the senators were so miserable that they adjourned, releasing us from our posts.
I couldn't imagine anything more exciting for an ambitious political junkie than employment literally a few steps away from the Senate chamber. I got a daily contact high as I angled to meet as many powerful political figures as I possibly could, and I let myself imagine that I was nearly as much a part of the political process as they were. I knew several members of Congress had served as pages, worked in the mailroom, or run an elevator in the Capitol when they were young. If being in the right place at the right time mattered, I would make sure I was in the right places at all the right times.
Washington was definitely that place in the spring of 1976, full of promise and drama for a teenager with a political consciousness shaped by Watergate, the Vietnam War, feminism, and social-justice movements. The voting age had dropped from twenty-one to eighteen, the Equal Rights Amendment had passed Congress, and the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision had energized the women's rights movement. It had been only two years since Gerald Ford had assumed the presidency in the wake of Richard Nixon's resignation, declaring, Our long national nightmare is over. Jimmy Carter, the little-known former Georgia governor, campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 with a promise— I will never lie to you —that was emblematic of a hopeful new era.
When I saw the White House, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol building for the first time, I felt as if I had reached the center of the universe. The red, white, and blue logos for the upcoming bicentennial celebration were plastered all over town. The freshman class in Congress at the time was full of young reform-minded liberals known as the Watergate babies, elected in the Democratic landslide of 1974 and driving a progressive national agenda. Across the country, Americans felt corruption skulking out the window and a fresh breeze of clean politics coming through the door.
My interest in politics was partly a geographic coincidence. In 1967, when I was nine, my family moved from an isolated rural area north of Iowa City, where we kept horses and sheep, to an affluent neighborhood in Iowa City adjacent to the sprawling University of Iowa campus and its huge medical center. The parents of most of the kids in the neighborhood were college professors or doctors at the UI hospital. While my fourth-grade classmates at Lincoln Elementary watched cartoons and read Spider-Man comics, I followed politics and current events in the Des Moines Register, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, and the Daily Iowan. Our proximity to a politically progressive campus meant that anti-war protests and the social-justice movement became part of my daily life.
My dad's family had been in Iowa City since the 1840s, when they opened a small grocery that became a well-known department store—Strub's Store for Everybody—in subsequent generations. After World War II, my grandfather sold the store but kept the appliance and bottled gas divisions, starting a propane gas company to service the postwar growth in suburban residential developments, which was the business my dad ran.
My mother's father was a shanty Irish entrepreneur, operating a pool hall and cigar store in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and promoting boxing matches in northwest Iowa and the Dakota territories early in the twentieth century. He died of lung cancer in 1931, right before she was born. Her mother, from a prominent lace-curtain Irish family in Cedar Rapids, died of breast cancer when my mother was two years old, so her childhood was nomadic; she bounced from one boarding school or convent to another, raised mostly by nuns. As a teenager, she came to Iowa City to live with an aunt and uncle and attend high school, where she met my father.
My parents weren't especially political; their Catholicism was vastly more defining than any political ideology. They never knew quite what to make of my obsession with politics, let alone the increasingly radical views I embraced in later years. I was the third of six children. My older brother was named Carl, after my father and grandfather; when I was born, I was named for my mother's Irish heritage and given her maiden name, O'Brien, as my middle name. My three sisters all were given Mary as a first name, after my father's devotion to the Virgin Mother. My younger brother, Thomas Jerome, was named after my father's close friend, who was best man at my parent's wedding.
The thrill of being away from home and near the nexus of power and politics in Washington was dampened by a humiliating secret. While many teenage boys at the time had a poster of television star Farrah Fawcett, with her long legs and blond hair, I was obsessed with Mark Spitz, the muscular and handsome 1972 Olympic swimmer. Even though I hadn't acted on my desire for men, I lived in constant fear that exposure would demolish my life as I knew it.
Homosexuals had no chance of finding love or affection, according to the Catholic Church, my family, and Dr. David Reuben's 1972 best seller, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), which my parents hid under their mattress. We were condemned to a life of misery and empty sexual encounters. I thought my same-sex attraction was inherently evil; all I could do was hope it was a phase that might pass, like my youthful infatuation with magic. To the world, I looked like a young person with bright prospects, but I was damaged on the inside, shame smothering any vision of my future. That sense of alienation gave me empathy for others similarly marginalized or maligned and I think helped spark my interest in politics.
At thirteen, I briefly thought I had a calling for the priesthood, a period I now recognize as a desperate attempt to escape others' oppressive expectation that I become interested in girls. When I didn't pursue a religious vocation, I thought marriage might extinguish my attraction to men. However, my concept of marriage had nothing to do with love or creating a family. It was something to acquire or achieve.
I had it all wrong, of course. Not just about myself and the suppression of hormonal desire but also about the country's direction at the time. What I thought was a national renewal was, in fact, a curtain closing on liberalism. The building blocks of the New Right, the right-wing conservative movement exemplified by Reverend Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, were firmly in place. The stage was set for the rise of the Reagan revolution, radicalization of the Republican Party, and destruction of the expanding social contract that had defined American politics since World War II.
I arrived in Washington as a virgin. I had never admitted my attraction to men to anyone, except in a confessional at fifteen, to a creepy priest who then interrogated me, wanting highly specific details of my sinful thoughts. Though I knew there was a gay rights movement on the political fringe, I had met only a handful of openly gay men or lesbians in Iowa City. San Francisco's Castro neighborhood and New York's Christopher Street were then already known around the world as coming-out meccas, but Washington was fiercely closeted, more like Iowa City, with a gay scene that was mostly underground. Washington was full of gay men who had devised an elaborate system of secrecy—with its own language, codes, and customs—and attended hidden bars and parties.
During those first few months, I tried to dress like preppy congressional staffers on the Hill and even bought my first pair of denim jeans to blend in after-hours with my peers. It was an opportunity to reinvent myself for new acquaintances who didn't know I couldn't throw a ball, wasn't interested in girls, and had been taunted for years as a faggot. Since the onset of puberty, I had been repressing sexual thoughts, so by the time I got to Washington, I was pretty good at it.
I was also pretty good at a key requirement for the elevator job: the ability to recognize senators. Every elevator operator was given a face book (long before that term's contemporary meaning); I had already pored over the encyclopedic Almanac of American Politics, studying the pictures and collecting arcane minutiae about candidates and campaigns the way sports fanatics study athletes and game statistics. I knew that the voting records of Iowa's two senators at the time—Dick Clark, who sponsored me for the elevator position, and John Culver—gave them the highest average rating from Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal advocacy group, of any state in the country. I knew which senators won in landslides and which narrowly slid through their last election; I read brief biographies on all the senators, which revealed where they went to school, their careers prior to election to the Senate, and information about their wives and children.
I started out as an operator on a bank of eight Senate-side public elevators. As soon as I saw a senator getting off the underground tram that ran between the Capitol and the Dirksen and Russell Senate office buildings, I made sure an empty elevator was held, ready for his private use. This adolescent precocity soon got me promoted to elevator number one, hidden around the corner from the main bank of public elevators. The Capitol had many such private senatorial sanctums—washrooms, barbershops, dining rooms, and hideaway offices—behind unmarked doors. The promotion meant I no longer had tourists or staff on my elevator, only members of Congress, cabinet officials, and the occasional Supreme Court justice, with any staff or guests who might accompany them.
The other elevator operators were the first people I met in Washington, and we often hung out in our break room, which was like a secret clubhouse in the bowels of the Capitol. It was behind an inconspicuous door at the end of a long, poorly lit basement hallway painted battleship gray, with exposed pipes overhead. The hallway led to offices serving the more mundane needs of the Senate, including one we called Jack the Wrapper, because they wrapped bulky packages for shipping, and a room marked SERVICE CLOSET, which housed a small snack shop for staffers.
In the break room, we entertained ourselves by playing cards and games or snapping rubber bands at rats scurrying along the baseboard. The Capitol was full of rats—a shocking revelation, I know—but they were a concern only on the rare occasions when they ventured into brightly lit public areas, startling tourists.
The oldest elevator operator, a middle-aged man, spent many hours in the break room reading. When I met him on my first day on the job, he was introduced to me as the Senator. He never spoke to me, so I asked Jon, another elevator operator, if he knew what was wrong. It's just that he used to be a member of the Senate, Jon said. When he was defeated, he didn't want to leave, so he took a job running the elevator. But he's really proud and usually won't talk to someone new until they ask about his service in the Senate. Do that and it'll be fine.
I was intimidated, but a little while later, I was in the break room with several other operators and tried to strike up a conversation. Senator, how long did you serve upstairs? I asked tentatively. He let out a long, weary sigh and said, Three terms, until that bastard Domenici beat me. Pete Domenici was a senator from New Mexico, so I said, Oh, you're from New Mexico? During our conversation, Gisele Gravel, an elevator operator and niece of Alaska senator Mike Gravel, came into the break room. Overhearing our exchange, she said to me, They're pulling your leg. He's not a senator, he's an asshole.
Every elevator operator heard and retold a story about Texas Republican senator John Tower, known to be sensitive about his short stature. He dressed meticulously—shiny cowboy boots with an extra-high heel, carefully tailored suits, and sometimes a cowboy hat. He was arrogant and rude, especially to service staff, and known for his explosive temper.
One day a new operator was in his cab on the first floor of the Russell Senate Office Building when a short man wearing a cowboy hat and shiny boots walked onto the elevator and commanded, Third floor! The elevator operator closed the door and put the elevator in gear. As he passed the second floor, the call buzzer sounded three times, the code that it was a senator making the request. A call from a senator always took priority, so the new operator stopped the car with a hard lurch and reversed it. His passenger, furious, berated the operator. The elevator operator, initially nonplussed, looked at his passenger sternly and said, Hold on, cowboy, we got us a U.S. senator coming aboard! Tower exploded in rage and later got the elevator operator reassigned.
On my elevator, I saw senators on days they were happy and days they were upset. I saw them in the middle of temper tantrums with colleagues. I got to know most of them well enough to understand how best to greet them and when to stay entirely silent. Several senators, including James Eastland, Russell Long, Herman Talmadge, John Culver, and Lowell Weicker, frequented a hideaway office on the third floor that was mostly a private drinking club. Some were undoubtedly heavy drinkers, but just as many used the hideaway to drink strategically, loosening up colleagues whose votes they sought. Alcohol has always been an effective lubricant of democracy. After the first time a senator asked if I had a breath mint, I made sure to keep a supply on hand.
I took my job seriously, believing I played a small but important role in the legislative process. Crossing the crucial threshold from witness to participant made me feel less like an outsider, less like the bullied kid at the playground. Like with my earlier stint as an altar boy at St. Mary's parish in Iowa City, or later as a frequenter of Studio 54 in New York, the elevator operator position bestowed insider status. The costumes—whether the suits and ties of politics, the Catholic liturgical garments, or the glittering disco garb of New York nightlife—and the corresponding rituals were all part of the fun. Each milieu required a respect for the sanctity of its inner workings, and in exchange, participants gained membership, even if only a junior one, in the insiders' club.
Power is the drug to which all of Washington is addicted, and simply being in the presence of the powerful was intoxicating. It was only an elevator, but proximity to senators was the first step to access and influence. In Washington, fresh anecdotes and gossip about members of the Senate formed a currency that guaranteed an attentive audience; stories from my elevator provided a never-ending supply.
That first summer in Washington, I rented a spare bedroom in my friend Bill Flannery's compact ivy-covered basement apartment on Capitol Hill. While in high school, I had taken a journalism course at the University of Iowa and helped out as a gofer at the student paper, The Daily Iowan, when Flannery was its editor. He subsequently moved to Washington to work for the Center for Defense Information, a left-leaning think tank that studied U.S. military and foreign policy. Flannery was almost a caricature of a flaming radical. He was all of twenty-five and had adopted the tweedy academic look of an Oxford don. He had a small bust of Lenin on his desk, and he sometimes called me comrade as he lectured me on the blood-soaked history of the leftist movement. He gave me a political education, explaining what was really happening according to his own radical analysis.
Living as his tenant and semi-ward, I was a captive and sympathetic audience. A year earlier, I published the first and only issue of Radical Rites Press, a project in the journalism course, but I had only a peripheral sense of leftist politics. It was a mimeographed zine containing three manifestos (all written by me) in support of abortion rights, the legalization of both marijuana and gay marriage—all positions I know would have shocked my parents, if I had told them—and an endorsement of Mo Udall's presidential candidacy. It felt daring to put those opinions in print, even though its circulation extended only as far as my teacher's desk and to a few friends in the Daily Iowan newsroom. I was proud when Flannery read it and said, You've got talent, kid!
Flannery and I had long talks, and I came close to telling him about my attraction to men. But when I managed to steer our conversation toward gay rights or homosexuality, he was either dismissive or pejorative. He wasn't a bigot, just uninformed. He grew to respect LGBT activism and, in time, treasured his openly LGBT friends. But in 1976, his insensitivity felt to me like a hammer sealing tight the already closed door to my suffocating closet.
I had to be home by ten P.M. every night or face a grilling from Flannery, who acted like a surrogate parent. He admonished me to walk only to the right, toward East Capitol Street, as I left our Fifth Street NE apartment. To the left, toward Maryland Avenue and Stanton Park, was too dangerous, he said. I felt on edge on the streets, especially at night, but the streets were where I eventually went in search of other gay men. I was self-conscious about my virginity, and it was becoming more difficult to believe my same-sex attraction was just a phase. I needed to experience actual sex with another man to know for sure. Gay men recognized me as one of them—and as an object of desire—and I started to understand that there were homosexuals in the world beyond the flamboyant stereotypes I could identify easily. Working in the Senate, both running the elevator and as an intern in Senator Clark's office, brought me into contact with many closeted gay men. I grew attuned to the subtle clues they used to signal each other—the lingering glance, a style of dress, or conversational innuendo. I developed gaydar and took notice of those men who were groomed more carefully than others, whose ties were tied perfectly symmetrically with a dimple in the knot, and who exuded awareness or heightened sensitivity that I associated with being gay. I learned to distinguish among cordiality, friendliness, and flirtation.
Flannery's curfew and babysitting style kept my desires in check temporarily, but they didn't stop me from spending countless hours privately speculating about whether this or that man was gay. My awareness of bigoted comments also became more acute. Jokes or slurs that wouldn't have caused me a second thought a year or two earlier now felt unkind, ignorant, or hateful. When I thought all gay men were flamboyant and obvious, those comments didn't apply to me because I wasn't like that. But the more I privately identified as a gay person, the uglier those comments sounded, and the closer they hit to home.
During those first few months in Washington, I started to accept my sexual desire as a permanent part of who I was. I began to see the injustices that gay men endured and to recognize the consequences. Surprisingly, I didn't view lesbians the same way; I saw their struggle as part of the broader feminist movement. I didn't understand what gay men and lesbians had in common, but I already had a feminist consciousness and was quickly developing a gay one as well. To the extent that I recognized a binary movement, I thought of it in terms of gay men and feminists.
My earliest political mentors were Iowa state senator Minnette Doderer, one of Iowa's most important feminists in the 1970s, and Jean Lloyd-Jones, president of the Iowa chapter of the League of Women Voters and later a state legislator. Minnette often gave me rides back and forth to Des Moines from Iowa City, and I worked on Jean's first campaign. I spent hundreds of hours with them talking about the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion rights, and other feminist priorities, but I don't think homosexuality ever came up.
My sexuality throughout my teen years existed in a conflict zone boundaried by my church, my body, and my conscience. Coming out wasn't an option I even considered. Keeping my desire private—and fighting to suppress it—was a survival strategy. Once I began to accept my desire, I realized the closet was only a temporary refuge, one I could not inhabit forever.
One night Bill Flannery took me to meet colleagues of his at the Tune Inn, a popular burger and beer joint on Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks southeast of the Capitol. One of the guys who worked with Flannery started telling fag jokes. Everyone at the table was laughing boisterously, and I did, too. While I drank my beer and ate my cheeseburger, I felt disgusted with myself. I wanted to say something to get him to stop, but I was a coward, afraid that if I objected, it would cast suspicion on my own sexuality. Was this the way it was always going to be? Sitting in silent misery while others made jokes at my expense? I knew I couldn't live my life that way and privately started to question how others could.
Part of my self-acceptance came from recognizing others—especially well-known and well-respected people in public life or from history—who were gay or lesbian. I also heard rumors about politicians and others in positions of great power and privilege who were gay but denied it, even some who spoke disparagingly of gay people or exploited anti-gay prejudice
michaelc0oliveiraGo to michaelc0oliveira's profile
A quick read, lots of name dropping, feels a bit too naive at times, overall an engaging look into Strub's view of his life and the AIDS crisis.
sigmundfraudGo to sigmundfraud's profile
Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival by Sean Strub is the story of a young boy growing up in Iowa who sort of realizes he is gay but is not certain exactly what that is all about. He is very interested in politics, goes to Georgetown University but isn't interested in school. He gets a job as elevator operator in the Senate where he satisfies some of his interest in politics. During this period he comes to an understanding that he is in fact gay and he pursues a gay life. He quits school, moves to NYC where he becomes involved with pursuing the AIDS problem that he finds. He comes down with AIDS but late enough in the epidemic that treatment has improved and he lives, as an activist. I got a little tired of all the AIDS discussion and the social aspect of the book. I can't recommend the book wholeheartedly but if you are into social causes or specifically AIDS you will find it interesting.
bobbieharvGo to bobbieharv's profile
I enjoyed this book in the beginning when it was more like a memoir. About halfway through it became a bit of a slog: too much detail about every single meeting, too much name-dropping, too much about his many businesses and activism. It needed some drastic editing to give it more power.

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