The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1899-03-01
4 TALK ON ASBESTUS
SOME LIGHT UPON HOW LONG IT HAS
BEEN nv USE

MA" With IA Mine OF Information
AstonIshcs Another Who Knew All
Ab"ut the Mineral. hut Who would
Not Take Tempting Dct.
An elderly man, with a grny mus
tache looked up from n plato of spa
ghetti which he was eating in rcstau,
rant and spoke to three others
"Say. no eaid, "'what do you people
know about nsbestus?'
Two of his companions preserved a
modest silence, but the third, who was
little man, spoke mp
II know all about nsbestus, he said
DO. eh qneried the man with the
spaghetti Oh his plate Then how
longs it been in use
"Wcll " snid the little man, hcsitat
ingly, "p'raps 80 years
You're away OF or course you
didn't know that Charlemagno had an
asbestus tabeelothY
who's Charlemagne
We'll snid tho elderly man,
and emperor of tho Romans about 100
years ago He was great fighter and
owned an asbestus tablocloth.
Don't believe it, !" said tho little
man Il never heard of ashestus until
tho Centennial
We'll, Charlcmagne had the cloth
all right, said tho elderly man. "He
used TO astoniah his friends from tho
interior by throwing the tablecloth
t,,t.S no, Epn urt Itpnap nj ap
it didn't burn Asbestus became quite
fashionable after that for towels and
napkins 1t saved laundry bills, All n
mans wife had TO do wns TO throw the
week wash into the stove and it came
ont rs clean as chalk
Say, said the little man. incred
ulously. do You think you can string
,uo like that?
Its SO declared the elderly man
But of course you never heard that
Benjamin Franklin had an asbestus
pursef'
mo Had hey asked the little man
with sneer
"Of course no had He took it over
to England with him and sold it TO n
man in Bloomsbury London for n big
sum
Il suppose said the httlo man.
with wink. that tho Englishman
was friend of YOURS and you know
his name
NE replied tho first man. 81
never saw him. but he was called Sir
Hans Sloane. and he had museum.
Dime museum ~ grinped the little
man
Not bit of it, smiled the elderly
man good naturally 1T was sure
enough museum, and as matter of
fact il constituted the nucleus of the
British museum dare say that Ben
jamin Franklin's ashestus purse is there
vet
The little man looked little crest
fallen but the elderly man consoled
him
Don worry ho said. there are
lots of people besides yourself who are
shy on knowledge regarding asbestus
1t WASH much used during recent cen.
turtles In 1876 an ashestus handxer-
chief was shown TO the Royal society
as great curiosity by Or. Plot, who
had bought il from traveller on his
return from China They called il sala-
mander wool DR. Plot saturated the
handkerchief with oil and threw ii into
a fierce charcoal fire The oil burned
off. hut the handkerchief remained in
tact The fellows OF the society We're
much interested and were not greatly
surprised when the price of asbestus in
Chinese Tartary was quoted at 1900 Il
Chinese ell which isn't much more
than an English yard It's likely that
the price had risen since the days Of the
ancientS for those old fellows had big
sheets Of nshestus which they wound
around corpses before cremating them,
THAI : long time ago. said the
little man sentent;ously
We'll continued the elderly man,
''if you want Ia come down 10 later
years, there was book published in (
London ~ YEARS ago. giving accounts
among other things of remarkable ex-
periments previously made ar Milan, in !