The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-02-17
ASBESTOS AND IT'S QUALITIES.

ASBESTOS AND IT'S QUALITIES.
A Good Story From Italy.
From the Boston Journal of Chemistry.
Asbestos is one of the most curious and
interesting of minerals; or, we might rather
say, classes of minerals, the name being
applied to quite number of varieties of
actinolite. tremolite, ETC.. which are them
selves varieties of amphiboie or hornblene
as it is. most commonly called. Chem
ically viewed, these are compounds of
silica, nlagnesia, lime and oxide of iron.
They differ from other varieties of horn
blende chiefly in containing little or no
alumina, and are remarkable for assuming
a fibrous character, the fbres being some
times very long, fine and flexible, and
having much the appearance Of flax. They
form compact masses, but can often be
easily separated by the fingers. They vary
in color from white to green and light
brown.
The name asbestos is from the Greek, and
means incombustible. 1t is nothing strange
that a mineral should be uncomfortable, but
that delicate threads, looking like flax,
Eshould not be destroyed by fire, but should
come forth from the ordeal only the winter,
like ordinary thread when washed in water,
naturally seemed a remarkable phenomenon
to the ancients who gave them the name.
The finest variety is called amianthus,
which in the Greek means unpollutable;
all the stains that it receives being removed
by fire. -. ...
! The resemblance of these mineral threads
to flax at once suggests that they might be
| woven into an incOmbustible fabric; and
this was done by tile ancients, the cloth be-
! ing mainly used for Wrapping corpses for
the funeral pile, in order to preserve the
ashes Of the body from being mixed with
those of the materials used in burningit.
An Italian writer relates IN amusing in
cident which is wotth repeating here: In
1884 man working in his vineyard at Ma
pies, while digging a trench in which to
| set out some: vines, came across an old
Paruscan tomb, in which he found gar
made Of coarse linen. He took it home to
his wife, who washed it again and again, but
finding it impossible to get it clean, at last
fused it for wiping dirty floors and similar
kitchen work. When it had become too
much soiled for this purpose, she threw it
out on the dust heap. Here it was picked
up by some boys, one of whom carried it to
his father, the village baker. He, after
due examination, decided that it was good
for nothing but cleaning out his
oven. To this use he put it, until it became
so black with coal dust that he threw it
into the oven with the faggots to heat it.
But what was his establishment, ON opening
the oven to clean it out before putting in
his bread to find the old linen shirt uncon-
sumed, but white and clean, though the
faggots were burnt to ashes! Frightened out
of his wits, he ran into the street crying,
hov no
devil has got into my oven!' He then went
to the priest for confession, and told him
what had happened. The good man would
not believe the tale, but on going with the
baker to inspect the oven was more fright
ened than his parishioner had been. Join
ing the villagers and old women who had
collected round the bakers house. he told
them, crossing himself, that the devil indeed
had got into the oven, for he had seen him
with his own eyes, What was to be done? He
must be expelled some how or other.
Mass must be said, the priests
Of the neighboring villages collected,
a procession formed, ceremonies gone
through, and the evil one cast out Of
the oven by exercising him. So all this was
done, and after sprinkling the oven with
linen was dragged forth with pair Of tongs
and thrown with excavations upon dung
heap outside the village. The oven was
thus purified and the village freed from an
unwelcome visitor: An apothecary of the
| next village, hearing of this miraculous
| piece of linen, dared to go and look at it
| and carry it away. Seeing that it was some-
| thing curious, he took it into the city and
! presented it to an antiquarian friend. After
passing through various hands it reached
the great national museum of Naples, where,
enshrined in glass case and reposing on
velvet cushion, it found final resting place
! as one of the most perfect known specimens
of ancient asbestos cloth.
In our day some experiments have been
made with fabrics of ASBESTOS, especially as
| Il material for fremen's dresses, but we are
not aware that these have led to it's perman-
ent use for that purpose. Some years ago
it was tested in Paris, where tiremen, wear
ing hoods or helmets Of the incombustible
cloth, and garments Of it put on over other
clothing rendered freproof by chemical
preparations, remained for some minutes
without injury in the mids of blazing piles
of wood and straw Asbetos has also been
used for lining safes, for making incombus-
tible wicks for lamps, and for chemical fill
tiers; bat it's industrial application is still
| very limited.
The mineral is found in many localities,
but the chief deposits of it are in Savoy and
| Corsica, and on Staten Island. in New York
Harbor. ,
r Obituary Gems
From Mrs. A. Lewiss elbow to Live in Winter"
Not only are religion and science not OPP
posed, but they complete each other.
It's a great mistake to eat half raw steaks
| on cold winters: day. Half raw meat
yields much less nutrition than we'll cooked