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Extraordinarily Useful Things to Do with Condoms

Published by Louie Jerome in Offbeat
March 24, 2008

In some parts of the world, enterprising individuals have come up with ingenious ideas for using condoms.

People In the Indian city of Varanasi use more than 600,000 condoms everyday but this isn’t for birth control purposes.

Sari weavers use condoms to lubricate the shuttle in the weaving looms. They rub the condoms onto the sides of the shuttle to soften it and enable it to move more smoothly. Each loom uses about 5 condoms per day. The lubricant doesn’t leave any kind of stain on the silk that these expensive saris are woven from.

There are almost 200,000 of these looms in the city and they all use this method of lubrication.

When the Indian government was handing out free condoms during its attempts at population control, many weavers stored them away for future use.

Weavers claim that there is no better lubricant available for their looms but they are concerned that if the public found out about these very expensive saris being made in this way, sales would fall.

There are however, other strange uses for condoms.

Sewing thread rubbed with the same lubricant travel faster and more smoothly through sewing machines.

Villagers use them to carry water out into the fields where they are working.

In some third world countries condoms have been used to spread out under roofs to provide waterproofing.

Soldiers fighting in the desert sometimes put them over the ends of their guns to keep the sand out.

Drug smugglers use them to bring drugs across borders. They fill the condoms with the drugs and swallow them.

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8 Comments

  1. Judy Sheldon
    Posted March 24, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    I overheard a coworker brag about how she carried a urine specimen from her daughter in one to pass drug screening for a job. Something to be proud of, right?
    Good article. Take care.

  2. IcyCucky
    Posted March 24, 2008 at 6:22 pm

    That’s quite creative

  3. Alexa Gates
    Posted March 24, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    wow! those are some different ways to use a condom :)

  4. Anne Lyken-Garner
    Posted March 25, 2008 at 6:55 am

    Very fascinating. I found one when I was 14 and blew it up. I thought that it was a particularly oily sort of balloon, but I was happy with the find because it was bigger than normal balloons. (Yes, I was 14! HOw silly!)

  5. louie jerome
    Posted March 25, 2008 at 7:18 am

    LOL, Anne! One of my nieces at the age of 11 used to talk about having to wipe her bedroom window because of the ‘condomsation’ on it. Of course we laughed and never did correct her!

  6. Lucy Lockett
    Posted March 25, 2008 at 8:12 pm

    Well I never knew that! I love sari’s and would still buy one too.

  7. Joe Poniatowski
    Posted March 28, 2008 at 9:37 am

    Very interesting, and a great photo, too.

  8. Rachel
    Posted May 7, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    hmm… ok going to try that with the sewing thread.

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