1930 “National Problems of Canada: The Asbestos Industry of Canada” Edition One: the First Factory for Manufacturing Asbestos Products was Established by Russia in 1760.

The 1930 book written as part of the McGill University Economic Studies entitled National Problems of Canada: The Asbestos Industry of Canada authored by M. M. Mendels is quite a domino of information not readily available elsewhere. That is, a historian’s dream. I purchased a copy on EBay and am not able to locate an electronic version on the Internet. I will be posting on information contained in this book for both this week and next week.

Lots of new or updated information can be gleaned from the book. As an example, on page 54 while focusing on Russia as a competitor to Canada in the sale of asbestos, the book states:

“The history of Russian asbestos is not generally known. Asbestos was first discovered in the Ural Mountains in 1720 and 40 years later, a factory for the manufacture of asbestos articles was established; but the applications and uses for the mineral were very limited; hence the industry almost disappeared.”

Turns out that this manufacturing effort in 1760 may have been related to much (like 500 years) earlier travels by Marco Polo. From page 15:

“[Asbestos] is mentioned in Marco Polo’s travels through Siberia in the thirteenth century and reappears in the year 1720 when it was discovered in the Ural Mountains. In 1760 an attempt was made there to exploit is on a commercial scale, but owing to a lack of knowledge of the uses of asbestos, the industry soon disappeared.”

The book is full of global information on asbestos as it discusses how Canada fits into the picture and the challenges it faced at the time from Italy, Russia, the United States, and elsewhere; both in mining and manufacturing. Something that I had not previously focused on was the extreme difference between Canadian asbestos and Italian asbestos. As stated in the book on page 15:

“The asbestos found in Italy is totally different, both in form and appearance, from the Canadian variety, the technical name for which is chrysotile. Their differences are so great that the uses for each often vary, and in many cases a mixture of both is adopted.”

Next week, we will discuss other sections of the book, such as the forest fire that uncovered the asbestos veins in Canada and the understanding of good housekeeping practices when handling asbestos as far back as 1930 by Canadian companies.

Let me know your comments to this blog, either in the comments section or by emailing me at TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com. Thanks. Marty