As I sort out my plans for a book on the international use of asbestos with a focus on safety and environmental issues related to shipbuilding, sailors, and shipbreaking, I will start my due diligence research with some United States historical documents called the “Mineral Yearbooks.” In summary this is a good place to start…
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I have a historical sale brochure for Kaylo Insulation with no date, although we know that it has to be prior to 1958 as Owens Illinois then sold the Kaylo line to Owens Corning. This brochure is a good example of how the insulation industry was advertising their use of asbestos products. Initially, we know…
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Dedicated to my English friends across the pond. The Child’s Guide to Knowledge: Being a Collection of Useful and Familiar Questions and Answers on Every-Day Subjects, Adapted for Young Persons, and Arranged in the Most Simple and Easy Language, By a lady has one heck of a title. My electronic edition was published in London…
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This is it, so long as you are looking for information from 1899 to 1980. The Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects authored by George Peters and Barbara Peters published in 1980 by Garland Publishing can be yours on Amazon for anywhere between $120 and $770 at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sourcebook+on+asbestos+peters+1980&ref=nb_sb_noss or, alternatively, you may…
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Much of the discussion about the commercial benefits of asbestos fibers to society begin their discussion in the 1870s or 1880s. However, that is somewhat too late. For those readers who like old pictures, today you are in luck. History will take us all the way back to 1830 with Art de se préserver de…
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Personally, I like to begin my searches for historical asbestos information by using the Hathi Digital Trust. Many documents are available in a complete format while those protected by copyrights typically allow you to undertake more limited searches. Either way, it is worth a shot as you begin to travel down the yellow brick road…
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Welcome to my 38th Blog since we started going down this path during December 2020. I very much appreciate all of your support, and I plan to continue my postings to educate those readers who are interested in the history of asbestos. After all, unless you understand that history, how could you hope to make…
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Let’s start out that I am not an expert on talc. However, in today’s world, talc and asbestos are very much intertwined and, as such, I think that a historical perspective on their relationship would be useful. From my research, we can take this historical association between talc and asbestos at least back over 110…
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On the brink of World War II with asbestos being a critical mineral to the Allies and a problem to obtain for the Axis, one book in particular shows exactly how society viewed asbestos. Asbestos, a Magic Mineral was authored by Lilian Holmes Strack in 1941 as a primer for school age children. She had…
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With my Masters in History second semester starting in a couple of weeks, I am focused on getting my advance class work in shape. I will be focusing this semester on two primary issues: (1) whether an asbestos substitute contributed to the January 28, 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and (2) the international section of…
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