The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-03-19
A TALK ON ASBESTUS
SOME LIGHT UPON HOW LONG 1T HAS
BEEN IN USE.

ghetu which he was eating IN restau-
rant and spoke to three others:
Say" he said, what do you people
know about asbestusr'
Two of his companions preserved
modest silence hut the third. who was
little man, spoke up;
Il know all about asbestus, he said
DO. eh> queried the man with the
spaghetti on MS plate. Then how
longs it been ~ lsey''
"Well. " said the little man. hesitat-
ingly, ''p'raps 30 years.
You're away off. OF course You
didn't know that Charlemagne had an
asbestus tableclothr p -
WHO'S Charlemagne2
well. said the elderly man.
"Charlemagne was king of the Franks
and emperor of the Romans about l, 100
years ago. Hezwas great fighter and
owned an asbestus tablecloth.
Don't believe it, - said the little
man. Il never heard of asbestus until
the Centennial.
"Wen. Charlemagne had the cloth
all right, said the elderly man. He
used to astouish 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
man 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 that?''
Its So declared the elderly man.
"But of course yOu never heard that
Benjamin Franklin had an asbestus
purseE''
NO. Had her. asked the little man.
with a sneer.
'Of course he had. He took it over
to England with him and sold it to a
man in Bloomsbury. London. for big
sum.
Il suppose. said the little man.
with wink. THAT the EnglisLman
was Il friend OF yours. and you know
his name. -
NO, replied the first man. Il
never saw him, but he was called Sir
Hans Sloane. and he had Il museum
Dime museum grinned the little
man
Not a hit of it. smiled the elderly
man good natUredly. 1t was a sure
enough museum, and as a matter Of
fact it constituted the nucleus of the
British museum. l dare say that Ben
iamin Franklin ) asbestus purse Is there
yet %
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 VINO are
shy On knowledge regarding aS5estus.
1t WASH t much used during recent cen
tur;es In 1876 an asbestus handker-
chief was shown to the Royal society
as great curiosity by Dr. Plos. who
had bought it frcm a traveller on his
return from China. They called it sala-
mander wool. DIR. Plot saturated the
handkerchief with oil and threw il into
n 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
surprised when the price of asbestus in
Chinese Tartary was quoted at $400 a
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 crematlng them y
That's long time ago, said the
little man sententiOusly.
''Well " continued the elderly man,
''if ven want to come down 10 later
years, there was a book published in
London. 10 years ago, giving accounts.
among other things; of remarkable ex-
periments previously made at Milan. in
Italy, by the Chevalier Aldini. who had
used asbestus in the construction of a
suit of firepr0of armor., The coverings
| for arms. legs and body were of heavy
cloth which had been soaked in a
strong solution of alum. The helmet,
gauntlets and stockings We're of ashes
| 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 q big
/ gridiron over blazing fire for ten min
| utes and buried their heads in piles of
/ burning hay and shavings, but never
| theless they came out unharlned. They
also handled bars of white hot iron
and did other things which seemed
quite miraculous That was over AZ
! years ago"
"Well," said the little man, Its
hard to believe that for several hun
dreds of thousands of years the world
was so full of chumps that there WASH
room for a man smart enough to utilize
asbestus. On the whole. l guess III e
on doubling.
"All right. returned the elderly
man. I've got So, 900 that says In
right Perhaps your doubts are strong
enough to uphold bet of $40 against
it.
But the little man wouldn't bet =