Produced by Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) ASBESTOS ITS PRODUCTION AND USE WITH _SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ASBESTOS MINES OF CANADA_ BY ROBERT H. JONES [Illustration] LONDON: CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND SON 7, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL 1888 PREFACE. The substance of the following pages was originally comprised in a series of Letters from Canada to a friend in London, who was desirous of obtaining all the authentic information possible on a subject on which so little appears to be generally known. The use of Asbestos in the arts and manufactures is now rapidly assuming such large proportions that, it is believed, it will presently be found more difficult to say to what purposes it cannot be applied than to what it can and is. Under these circumstances, although much of the information here given is not new, but has been gathered from every available source, it is hoped that the compilation in its present shape may be found acceptable. R. H. J. HOTEL VICTORIA, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE _April 20, 1888._ CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTORY 5-8 ASBESTOS AT THE AMERICAN EXHIBITION 9, 10 WHERE FOUND 12-15 ITALIAN AND CANADIAN ASBESTOS COMPARED 16-18 WHERE USED 18 THE ASBESTOS OF ITALY 19-24 CANADIAN MINING FOR ASBESTOS 24-29 ASBESTOS MINES OF CANADA-- THE THETFORD GROUP 29-36 THE COLERAINE GROUP 36-42 BROUGHTON 42-46 DANVILLE 46 SOUTH HAM 47-50 WOLFESTOWN 50 USES TO WHICH ASBESTOS IS APPLIED 55-72 INDEX 75, 76 ASBESTOS. One of Nature's most marvellous productions, asbestos is a physical paradox. It has been called a mineralogical vegetable; it is both fibrous and crystalline, elastic yet brittle; a floating stone, which can be as readily carded, spun, and woven into tissue as cotton or the finest silk.