Tag: history

Where History Means Knowledge. Be Informed.

When was Chrysotile NOT Asbestos? 1891

I was reading Facebook the other day and saw a question on whether the the types of fibers which are considered to be “asbestos” have changed through the years. I decided to blog on this issue within the bounds of my current project reviewing the USGS Minerals Yearbooks. This topic is addressed by the United…
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Asbestus 1882

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related to shipbuilding, sailors, and shipbreaking, I will start my due diligence research with some United States historical documents called the “Mineral Yearbooks.”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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The Child’s Guide to Knowledge: 1865

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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Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: A Historian’s Dream Book. 1980

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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Asbestos: 1830

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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Manville on Asbestos: What did it know and when did it know it? An Easy way to Find Out.

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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The Weird World of Chrysotile Asbestos

On March 5, 2021, I begged out of delving into the political aspects of Chrysotile Asbestos. Rather, I just laid out the history which, of course, is my forte. https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=2052. I stand by that history today and would like to note that the world seems divided on the extent of the danger from raw, pure…
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Searching for Asbestos History: Another Good Resource Example

This blog continues my discussion on historical resources available to search asbestos exposures; this time, with a focus on a United Kingdom authored and published book from 1919. The book is entitled Asbestos and the Asbestos Industry: The World’s Most Wonderful Mineral and Other Fireproof Materials authored by A. Leonard Summers as part of the…
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Asbestos Fundamentals: A 1963 Primer to Understand History

Last week, my Blog addressed a 148 page dynamo book originally written in German by Hans Berger and then translated in 1966 to English by Professor Ralph Oesper of the University of Cincinnati on the historical use of asbestos in plastics and rubbers. Today, we move back three years to 1963 and we broaden the…
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Mining the Archives for Asbestos History. The Manville Document Repository.

One of the best starting points for a historical based deep dig on asbestos is the document repository based in Aurora, Colorado, also known as the Asbestos Claims Research Facility (ACRF). This repository was formed after the Manville bankruptcy but includes documents related to just about any asbestos topic, issue, or defendant. Just their available…
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