Spit Balls!!!

Ok so we all know the theory about how spit balls work right? Well when I came across a trumpet site that recommend that I use spit balls to clean my trumpet I had to dig in deeper to figure out what they were talking about. Today my local music store got my order of spit balls in so of course it was time to give them a try. I know, those of you non-brass players or ignorant brass players like I was are going, "You bought spit balls? Why not make them." I guess at this point I should explain what a spit ball is when used in the context of brass instruments. A spit ball is a foam plug designed to fit into the tubing of a brass instrument. It is soaked in a cleaning liquid. When blown through the horn, it cleans the walls of the horn and leaves a protective coating behind. Needless to say this is a lot easier than snaking a cleaning snake through all the tubing (although that's still necessary on occasion). Now the only thing I want to know is why no one told me about these things before now. Oh and if you're interested, you can buy them here.