The Portland daily press., 1896-06-12
PHYSICAL PARADOX.
Asbestos Has the characteristics Of O
Vegetable and a Mineral.

| Vegetable and a Mineral.
Where 1t Is Found and What 1t Is Used
For.
| washington Starr
10 the question, what ia asbestos?"
IL Is not altogether easy to find an an
swer. Biologists classify it among the
hornblendes. In itself, asbestos is a
physical paradox, meteorological vegeta-
BILE, both fibrous and crystalline, elastic
yet brittle, floating stone, but as capa-
BILE OF being carded, spun and woven as
flax, cotton OF silk. 1t is apparently
connecting link between the vegetable
and the mineral kingdom, possessing
some Of the characteristics Of each. In
appearance 1T is light. buoyant and feath-
cry as thistle down, yet, In it's crude
state, it is dense and heavy as the solid
rock in which 10 is found. Apparently
as perishable as grass, it ia yet older than
any order of animal or vegetable life on
earth. The dissolving Influences of time
seem to have no effect upon it, The 40
ton OF unnumbered centuries, by which
the hardest rocks known to biologists are
worn away, has left no peroaptible i'm
print on the asbestos found embedded in
them.
| While much of it's bulk is of the rough
est and most gritty materials known, it
Is really as smooth to the touch as soap
or oil. Seemingly as oombustible as
tow. the fiercest heat cannot consume it,
and no known combination of acids
will destructiyely affect the appearance
and strength Of It's fiber, even after day s
of exposure to its action. 1t is, in fact,
practically indestruotible. Its incom-
bustible nature renders it complete pro-
lection from flames, bat beyond this
most valuable quality it's industrial value
is greatly augmented by it's non-eonduc-
ton of heat and electricity, as well as by
it's Important property of practical insol-
utility in acids.
| Asbestos has been found in all quarters
OF tho globe. 1t comes from Italy, China,
Japan, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Hun
gary. Germany, Russia, The Cape, Gen.
trail Africa, Canada, Newfoundland,
Texas and other parts of this country,
and from Southern and Central America
Scarcely week passes without the opin-
lon of experts being asked on some new
discovery of this mineral substance.
Most OF the samples are, II not Of poor
| quality, very much inferior to the best.
The asbestos OF different countries Is as
varied as the characteristic foliage. The
smooth and white, rooklike form of the
mineral from the Pyrenees is an absolute
contrast to the harsh and brittle tremolite
of Servia, unpleasant to handle, with its
| fiue needles like the particles of Stag
wool, which insidiousiy penetrate the
skin. The Corsioan variety is long, soft
and silky, its silvery white or pale gold
tufts resem bling skeins newly wound
from cocoon, while the singular Soandi-
naylan forms are rough and rugged as
the country from which they come 1t
may be said here that while the appear
| anoe OF asbestos is often very deceptive as
a gauge Of it's commercial value the
points most sought for in the mineral are
| the length and tneness of fiber, oom-
bined with infusibility, toughness and
| fexibility
The asbestos generally found in the
| United States, especially in Virginia, the
Carolin as and Iexas also 10 Staten Is.
land, New jersey and Pennsylvania, ls
the woody form, in appearance like fossil
| LIED wood. The veins range in length
| from few inches to several feet The
| fiber can be split off like soft WOOD, the
| appearance being woolly, and when sepa-
| rated it has no strength or cohesion. 1t
cannot be spun nor even pulped. At one
time 1T was thought it might be profita-
| bly, used as filler in paper making, but
virtually it is OF no commercial value
This and kindred classes of asbestos have
often beenfinstrumenta In the creation Of
visions OF wealth that we're never to be
realized. sensation was recently caused
by the announcement that whole noun
tain OF asbestos had been discovered in
Oregon. The fiber was reputed to vary
| from one-half an Inch to two inches in
length, and to be OF excellent quality.
The discovery was made through the
herding of sheep on a mountain side.
The value of the find, however, was dis
| counted in the eyes of experts by the sup
look had trampled the rock, the as
beatos threads showed up like punches of
| wool. #
Notwithstanding this wide distribution
of asbestos, the only varieties which at
present appear to demand serious consid-
| GRAFTON. from commercial point of view,
are the Russian, the South African, the
Italian and the Canadian.
Before the development of the Cana
dian fields, the Italian asbestos was SUI
preme in the market. For nearly twenty
years Italy has been looked to for the
best grades OF the fiber From point
on the northern mountain slope of the
Sunsa valley is taken the floss asbestos
fiber, the appearance OF which in gas
stoves is SO familiar. In the same locality
is found a fine white powder of asbestos,
which serves for paint and other pur-
poses. The mining is carried on at q
height of from 5000 to 10, 000 feet above
sea level.
But the italian asbestos industry, once
SO important, is already on the down
grade. The difficulties of mining are
very great, aud unduly increase tho cost
| Of production. The asbestos itself, judged
by the latest standards, is of inferior
quality, it is not easy to spin, and it does
not pulp we'll IN the making of paper.
The best grade is extremely rare, and its
cost of mining and transportation is pro-
hibitive. The supply from the Italian
mines is rapidly falling off. AS matter
of fact, Canada contains the great as
bestos region If the world, in the sense
that while its mines are practically I'M
limited In productive capacity, the pro-
duct Is Of quality which fully meets
the requirements of the newest and most
exacting of the innumsrable uses that
arc daily being found for it.
This district lies in the eastern town