I recall a story about O'Grady, where after being shot down he found a sponge useful for collecting dew for water. I imagine this would be faster than tying rags to your shoes (as the sponge will hold more, and will also give more water when rung)

It could also be useful for personal hygene. Of course, it can be sterilized periodically through boiling. Vaccum packed, it shouldn't take up much room at all. May not fit into a tin, but might be useful to throw in a belt sized kit or larger.

I have a piece of an artist's "wet palette" sponge in my kit. It's only a 1/16 inch thick, and when moistened expands to about 1/4 inch thick.

More info on sponges at this thread:
How to store a sponge?

Steve

Yes I carry a sponge.
In my belt kit, not in a tin.
Again, a handy item, that may not always see immediate use, but it doesn't take up a lot of room (I have one of the shrunken ones that expands when introduced to water) and can serve a few different purposes.

I have carried a sponge for years. However, I stole mine from the hospital I worked at (actually just out of date for medical use) so I had no worries about them being streile. However my stash has been used up and I can not find anywhere to purchase medical sterile sponges. Medical folks will also use the word sponge for a gause pad, but these were very nice compressed sterile sponge pads about 2x3" in a pretty tough package.

How does one know if the various sponges mentioned above are safe to use with drinking water? Some manufactured materials have various coatings etc which I prefer not to ingest.

Anybody know where to buy medical sponges? I have tried pharmacies and medical supply places with no luck Perhaps they are not "allowed" any more.

I didn't know there was such a thing as a medical sponge. But typing "medical sponge" with the quotes into google got 400+ hits. I'm sure some of them are vendors.

Thanks for the tip. I went to my local art store and picked up a package. 4, 4"x6" pieces compressed to less than 1/4" thick. Expand to 5/8" for $4.50.

Played around with one and it seems free of the odors and slippery feel that others seem to have. Soaked up some good water and tasted it. No taste added. Seems like a winner.
thanks again.

I don't carry a sponge but I have carried clean cloths of various types for the purpose of collecting dew.

Once in dry season in Brazil I "stranded" myself on an "island", a dry ridge with no flowing water. I was forced to use expedient means to collect water from the "island".

I used a solar still, transpiration bags, and dew collection. By far the dew collection paid off the best and made the other two methods seem like a waste of time. The solar still and transpiration bags collected a few ounces of water combined. Collecting dew I was able to produce a liter and half in about an hour. Much of that was very clean water collected from my tent surface. The water collected from the wet grass was very muddy looking and needed to be filtered twice. Dew collection is worth packing a sponge for. It paid off very well for me. At other times in the same location very little dew was formed.

On that trip I carried plenty of water to measure my requirements compared to what I was able to collect. I drank as I felt necessary. I judged myself to have survived. If I had needed to stay longer I would have risen pre-dawn and collected dew for several hours each day for a total collection of three liters per day. That was what I drank of the water I brought with me to the "island". It would have been fairly easy to do. Mac

How about also using a "Squeeze Dropper" (fropm Chemistry Sets, Medicine Cabinet, etc), -to manually soak up individual Dew Drops, into a container, en masse / one after the other!?

May or May Not this be as Good as, or Better, -than a Sponge? [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Burncycle[/email]

After doing a google, apparently the sponge O'Grady used was made by Skilcraft, who employs the blind (NIB) to produce items. I don't know if this is air force issue, or if he just bought it himself, but the sponge in their catalog does not appear to be particularly special. If there is a specifically designed sterile version for air force E&E, then they don't show it in the catalog <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
http://www.nib.org/products/products.htm
http://www.nib.org/JWOD%20Catalog/clean/main.html

Anyway,
I stopped by hobby lobby and bought a 4 pack of "painting sponges". They're blueish in color, 3" x 4 1/2" in size, and wafer thin... they really do expand to pretty thick when they touch water, but I'm afraid of trying to drink water out of them because I don't know what kind of chemicals were used during processing and compacting... they do have a very slight odor (the expanded one) so I'm just not sure...

What brand were yours?