Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-04-19
A TALK ON ASBESTUS
SOME LIGHT UPON HOW LONG 1T HAS
BEEN IN USE.
A Man with N Mine of Information
Astonishes Another Who Knew All
About the Mineral, but Who Would
Not Take n Tempting Bet.

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 asbestus2''
Two of his companions preserved a
modest silence. but the third, who was
little man, spoke up:
Il know all about asbestus, he said.
"Do. eh?" queried the man with the
spaghetti on his plate. ''Then how
longs it been in user
"Well.'' said the little man. hesitat-
ingly. ''p'raps 80 years
YOU'RE away off. OF course you
didn't know that Charlemagne had an
asbestus tablecloth?''
who's Charlemagne?
We'll said the elderly man,
| "Charlemagne was king of the Franks
and emperor of the Romans about 1, 100
years ago. He was great fighter and
owned an asbestus tablecloth.
| Don't believe it," said the little
man. 81 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. 1t saved laundry bills All a
mans wife had to do was to throw the
weeks wash into the stove and it came
out rs clean as chalk -
Say" said the little man, incred
ulously, "do you think you can string
me like thatf''
Its so, declared the elderly man.
"But of course you never heard that
Benjamin Franklin had an asbestus
purse2'
mo Had her" asked the little man,
with sneer.
"Of course he had. He took it over
to England with him and sold it to
man in Bloomsbury, London. for n big
sum-"
Il suppose said the little man,
with a wink. ''that the Englishman
was Il friend of yours, and you know
his name. !"
NO" replied the first man, 81
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 n sure
enough museum, and as matter of
fact it constituted the nucleus of the
British museum. 1 dare say that Ben
jamin Franklin's asbestus purse is there
yet. -
The little man looked n 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
turtles. In 1876 an asbestus handker-
chief was shown to the Royal society
as a great curiosity by DIR. Plot, who
had bought it from a 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
off, but the handkerchief remained in
tact. The fellows of the society We're
much interested and We're 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,
eff 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 I
Italy, by the Chevalier Aldini, who had /
used asbestus in the construction of a I.
suit of fireproof armor. The coverings
for arms, legs and body We're of heavy 1
cloth which had been soaked in n /
strong solution of alum. The helmet |
gauntlets and stockings We're of ashes /
tus-. Then there was an overdress. COW 1
ering the body, thighs and feet, of wire J
gauze. 30 meshes to the inch. With |
this armor ON, men stood on big |
gridiron over n blazing fire for ten min
utes and buried their heads in piles of |
burning hay and shavings. but never
theless they came ont unframed. They |
also handled bars of white hot iron 4
and did other things which seemed
quite miraculous That was over 40
years ago"
We'll" said the little man, ''it's
hard to believe that for several hun
dreds of thousands of years the world
was so full of chumps that there wasn't
room for man smart enough to utilize
asbestus On the whole. l guess I'll go
ON doubtiDg-"
''AIl right. returned the elderly !
man I've got So, 600 that says I'm
right. Perhaps your doubts are strong
enough to uphold a bet of SO against
it
But the little man wouldn't bet
New York Times
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