The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-03-02
A TALK ON ASBESTUS
SOME LIGHT Upon HOW LONG 1T HAS
BEEN IN USE.

About the Mineral, but Who Would
Not Take a Tempting Bet.
An elderly man, with gray mus
tache. looked up from plate of spa
! ghetti which he was eating in a restau-
rant and spoke to three others:
Say he said, "what do you people
know about asbestus %
Two of his companions preserved a
modest silence, but the third, who was
little man, spoke up
II know ali about asbestus, he said.
do, eh?" queried the man with the
spaghetti on his plate. "Then how
longs it been in use?"
well" said the little man, hesitat-
ingly, ''p'raps 80 years. -
i You're away off Of course you
didn't know that Charlemagne had an
! asbestus tablecloth p
"Whos Charlemagne
{ "Well," said the elderly man,
"Charlemagne was king of the Franks
and emperor of the Romans about l, 100
years ago He was great fighter and
owned an asbestus tablecloth. -
Don't believe it, said the little
man. Il never heard of asbestus until
the Centennial.
"Well, 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. It saved laundry bills. All a
man 9 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 that2''
Its So" declared the elderly man.
"But Of course you never heard that
Benjamin Franklin had an asbestus
purse?'
mo. Had her" asked the little man,
with a sheer.
''Of course he had. He took it over
to England with him and sold it to
man in Bloomsbury. London, for big
sum.
Il suppose, said tie little man,
with a wink, "that the EnSlishlnan
was friend of yours, and you know
his name"
mo, replied the first man, Il
never saw him, but he was called Sir
Hans Sloane, and he had museum. .
''Dime museum grinned the little
man.
mot bit of it, smiled the elderly
man good naturally. 1T was sure
enough museum, and as matter of
fact it constituted the nucleus OF the
British museum. dare say that Ben
iarnin Franklin asoestus pursei is there
yet.
The little mar looked lietle crest
fallen. but, the elderly man consoled
him. -
Don { very" he gaid, ''there are
lots Of people besides yourself who are
shy On knowledge regarding asbestus.
It WASH : much used during recent CEN
turtles. IA 1878 an asbestCs handi-ar-
chief was shown to the Royal society
as a great curiosity by Dr.. Plot, who
had bought it from traveller on his
return from China. They called it sala-
mander's wool. DR.. Plot saturated the
handkerchief with oil and threw it into
fierce charcoal fire. The oil burned
Of, but 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 $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 cremating them. "
That's long time ago. said the
little man sententiously.
well" continued the elderly man,
''if you want to come down to later
years, there was a book published in
London, 40 years ago, giving accounts,
among other things, of remarkable ex-
periments previously made at Milan, in
Italy, by the Chevaher Aldini, who had
used ashestus in the construction of a
suit of ireproof armor The coverings
for arms, legs and body We're of heavy
cloth which had been soaked in 8
strong solution of alum. The helmet,
gauntlets and stockings We're of asbes-
tus. Then there was an overdress, COW
ering the body, thighs and feet of wire
gauze, 20 meshes to the inch. With
this armor on, men stood on big
| gridiron over a blazing fire for ten min
utes and buried their heads in piles of
burning hay and shavings, but never
tneless they came out unframed. They
also handled bars of white hot iron
and did other things which seemed
quite miraculous. That was over 40
years ago.
well. said the little man, sit
hard to believe that for several hun
dYeds Of thousands Of years the world
was so full of chumps that there wasn't
| room for q man smart enough to utilize
asb5stus On the whole, guess I'll &C
! on doubling.
..AIl right returned the elderly
man. eve got $4,000 that says I'm
right Perhaps your doubts are strong
!Anongh to uphold a bet Of SO against
ut the little man wouldn't bet. =
EHg YORK Times -
EgsSi --------