The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1899-04-18
A TALK ON AsBESTUS
SOME LIGHT UPON HOW LONG II HAS
BEEN IN USE.

Assonishes another Who knew AL
About the Mineral, but Who SToald
Not Take = Tempting Bet.
! An elderly man, with a gray mus
tache, looked up from plate of spa
ghetti which he was eating in a restau-
rant and spoke to three others:
'sSay, he said. "what do you people
know about asbestnsy's
Two of his companions preserved a
modest silence. but the third. who was
a little man, spoke up:
al know all about asbestus, {" he said
"Do, chr queried the man with the
spaghetti On his plate. ''Then how
longs it been in use u
'iWell, /" said the little man. hesitat-
ifgly. ''p'raps 80 years. .
You're away off. OF course you
| didn't know that Charlemagne had an
asbestus tableclothf'
who's Charlel,aagneS''
'.Wen. = said the elderly man,
"Charlemagae was king of the Franks
and emperor Of the Romatis about 1, 100
years ago. He was great fighter and
owned an asbestus tablecloth. -
Don't believe it, said the little
man. ST never heard of asbesiu5 until
the Centennial
s'Wcl. Charlemagne had the cloth
all right. said the elderly man. HE
used TO astonish his friends from the
interior by throwing the tablecloth
into the fire after dinner, and Of course
it didn't burn. Asbestus became quite
fashionable after that for towels and
napkins 1t saved laundry bills. All a
mans wife had to do was to throw the
weeks wash into the stove and it came
out as clean as CHALK.
Say" said the little man, incred-
ulously. ''do you think you can string
me like thatr"
''It's SO. declared the elderly man
''B1t of course you never heard that
Benjamin franklin had an asbestus
pursef'
..No. Had her, asked the little man.
with sheer.
'Of course he had He took it over
to England with him and sold it to
man in Bloomsbury, London. for big
sum.
81 suppose" said the little man.
with wink. ''that the Englishman
was friend of yours, and you know
his name.
..No. replied the first man. ''1
never saw him. bat hewas called Sir
Hans Sloane. and be had d museum %
Dime museum3' grinned the little
man.
'Not bit of ii, smiled the elderly
man good nafaredly. cit was a sure
enough museun, and as matter of
fact il constituted the nucleus of the
British museum. dare say that Ben
iamin Franklin's asbestus purse is there
Jet
The little man looked little crest
fallen. but the elderly man consoled
him.
Don't worry he said, '.there are
lots of people besides yourself who are
shy on knowledge regarding asbestus.
1t wasn't much used during recent cen
turies, In 1873 an esbestus handlker-
ehief was shown TO the Royal society
as a great curiosity by DR.. Plot, who
had bought it from a traveller on his
return from China They called 1t sala-
mander's wool. Dr. Plot saturated the
handkerchief with oil and threw it into
a fierce charcoal fire The oil burned
off, but the handkerchief remained in
tact. The fellows of the society were
much. interested and were not greatly
SarpriEed when the price OF asbestus in
Chinese Tartary was quoted at $500
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 asbestus, which they wound
around corpses before eremating them .
THAT'S long time ago, said the
little man sententiously.
''Wel, - continued the elderly man,
''if yoa want to come down to later |
years, fnere was a book published IN |
London, 40 years ago. giving accounts. |
among other things. of remarkable ex-
reriments previously made at lillian, in |
Italy, by the Chevalier kldini. who bad |
used aEhest1s in the construction OF !
suit of fireproof armor. The coverings
for arms, legs and body were Of heavy |
cloth which had been soaked in a I
strong solution of alam. The helmet, |
gauntlets and stockings were of ashes
tbs. Then there was an overdress, coy
ering the bo5y. thighs and feet, Of wire |
gauze, 20 meshes to the inch. With |
this armor on, men stood on a big |
gridiron over a blazing fire for ten min
ates and buried their heads in piles of
burning hay and shayings. but never
theless they came out unframed. They
also handled bars Of white hot iron |
and did other things which seemed
quite miraculous That was over 90
fears ago.
Well" said the little man. ''it,s
hard to believe that for several hun.
areds of thousands of years the world
was SO full of chumps that there wasn't
room for a man spsart enough to utilize
On the whole. 1 gueEs III go
on doabting."
IAN right. =, returned the elderly
man. I've got s.. OO9 that says I'm