Robert H. Jones

“ I mean the artificially manufactured material called "Mineral or Slag Wool," which is made from the refuse of the furnaces at ironworks, by, it is said, passing jets of steam through molten slag. This material is manufactured on a somewhat extensive scale by the Western Mineral Wool Company, of Cleveland, Ohio. There is no doubt it is a very useful substance for many of the purposes for which it is recommended, but it can scarcely be expected to compete to any material extent with asbestos from its total want of elasticity and lubricity. ”

“ The value of manufactured asbestos imported into the United States from Canada, in 1880, is given in the Government Returns as under 10,000 dollars. In 1884 it had risen to 48,755 dollars, and it has been increasing yearly ever since. That the demand is rapidly increasing is unquestionable, not only for the present articles of manufacture, but for the new purposes to which it is being daily applied. More capital will, doubtless, soon be put in, and then new lines, which almost indicate themselves, will prepare the way for continued success. ”

“ The refuse rock, of which there is always an enormous quantity (probably as much as twenty tons of rock to one ton of asbestos) , is loaded into cars, run off and shot over on to the dumping-ground.
Boys are employed in the cobbing-sheds to chip, or cob, the rock cleanly from the ore, an operation which is much more troublesome with thin veins than with those of the better sort to which, as I have already said, the waste rock is less firmly [Pg 53] adherent. This cobbing is a very troublesome and expensive process, costing about 5 dollars a ton. ”

“ The rapidly increasing favour with which high pressure steam is now regarded by engineers, recently necessitated the introduction of a packing capable of resisting the higher temperatures and pressures; as a consequence manufacturers of asbestos goods had to devise improved methods of manufacture in order to meet the new condition of things, and this they succeeded in doing in a way to give universal satisfaction.
For washers asbestos has many advantages over rubber; its weight is less, they can be frequently used, and half the thickness of rubber is mostly sufficient. ”

“ It may be taken as a general rule that wherever the true serpentine occurs asbestos will be found, though it is difficult to say how the veins have been formed, or how the fact of their existence is to be known with any degree of certainty, except by the light superficial indication already mentioned, which seems at present to be the only, but by no means infallible, guide. The asbestos traverses the serpentine in irregular veins ranging from mere threads or stringers to a thickness of three or four, and in some cases it is asserted of as much as six inches ”

“ At the present time the supply scarcely keeps pace with the demand, and capitalists are beginning to wake up to the importance of this industry; it having been now conclusively proved that mining for asbestos, properly conducted, shows a more steady return for the money invested, with less elements of risk, than mining for any other known mineral.
I am unable to say, with any degree of exactness, what is the amount of the aggregate output of the Canadian mines ”

“ The Italian variety, again, seems frequently to be found, or the seams to end, in pockets, some of which have been known to contain a ton or a ton and a half of asbestos, after exhaustion of which all appearance of its presence ceased. The Canadian ore, on the other hand, generally runs in veins and seams, which almost invariably improve both in quantity and quality the lower you go down, but where or how it ends has never yet been discovered. ”

“ The use of the fibre in the manufacture of gas stoves is too well known to need any remark.
As a lubricant it is unrivalled.
Another very important use to which it is now being applied is in the manufacture of filters. These are specially useful where the liquid to be filtered is of a caustic or strongly acid nature, or where the filter with residue is to be ignited without consuming the filter, or where the residue is to be subsequently dissolved off the filter by acids or other solvents. In many cases a very finely divided asbestos is desirable. ”

“ The outcroppings here, moreover, are far superior to anything that can be seen on the ground lower down where work is now being carried on. A practical mining engineer who was recently sent to examine and report on this property says that it is 100 per cent. better than that at Black Lake; that 75 per cent. of the whole is veritable asbestos-bearing land, and that he knows of no other asbestos mine so well situate for practical work, or showing such advantages in timber, water, and, dumping ground. The timber is sufficient for all practical purposes for at least twenty-five years. ”

“ Italian ore, generally speaking, is won by running driftways, or tunnelling into the face of the rock. In Canada the mineral is got out by open quarrywork, no tunnelling there being possible. The serpentine rock in which the asbestos or chrysotile is there found is so split and seamed in every conceivable direction by the veins and stringers that if [Pg 22] tunnelling were attempted the first blast would inevitably bring the whole superincumbent mass down about your ears. ”

“ In the Blue Book on the "Geological Survey of Canada, 1882" (Mr. Willimott's report) , published by the Dominion Government, it is stated that "there appears to be unlimited quantities of asbestos distributed throughout the entire serpentine belt which attains its greatest prominence in the townships of Thetford and Coleraine. Its existence is generally made apparent by a whitish shining substance found coating the serpentine, arising from the decay of the outcropping veins. But this," he says, "must not be taken as always indicating the presence of workable veins." ”

“ The cost of extraction varies in different localities, depending mainly on the mass of barren rock to be encountered and removed. At Thetford the cost may be put at from $20 to $25 per ton, the latter probably being nearer the [Pg 36] average. On the Anglo-Canadian Company's property at Black Lake it is a more serious matter. There the quantity of barren overlying rock and earth is enormous, and detracts immensely from the value of the mines. The minimum cost here is $28.
In addition to asbestos, it is worthy of note that the whole of the Thetford district is rich in minerals. ”

“ The rock is often impure, the impurity arising mostly from the admixture of particles, occasionally of small irregular thread-like veins, of magnetite or of chromic iron, which break the continuity of the fibre and cause very careful cobbing of the ore to be necessary in order to get rid of these impurities. This is particularly the case at Thetford, as we shall see when speaking of Messrs. King's mine there. [7]
In other districts the fibre is discoloured (and the value of it consequently much reduced) by the infiltration of water impregnated with the oxide of iron. ”

“ The experiment, if expensive, would be both valuable and instructive, especially bearing in mind the well-known fact in Canadian mining that the deeper you follow the veins into the ground the better the quality of the cotton becomes.
There is one more point of distinction between the two kinds, and that is in the surface indications, which may possibly be due to atmospheric influences. In Italian exploration the prospector is not guided by any hard lines or ridges on the rock surface of the ground, as in Canada. ”

“ Andrew Johnson, who now represents Megantic in the Provincial Legislative Assembly at Quebec, is the resident manager. The features of this and the neighbouring mines are very similar. They consist of a massive serpentine, varying in colour from a dark green to almost white, intersected by numerous veins of asbestos of varying thickness, remarkably free (except in one instance) from any admixture of foreign substances. A large extent of this mine is now opened. It is being worked with energy and success, its produce being second to none that has yet been put on the market. ”

“ Sometimes when the great fire-fountains toss their spray so high that it flies above the level of the cliffs, the breeze catches it sportively and carries it far away over the island; and the birds line their nests with this silky volcanic hair. ”

“ A workable bed of very superior quality has been found also at Potton, and there is another at South Ham, near the antimony mines on the Lake Nicolet estate. Reduced to powder, the softness and unctuosity of steatite have caused it to be used, in the same manner as plumbago, for lubricating purposes, and when finely ground it is employed for giving a surface to some kinds of paperhangings.
The substance called Venetian or French chalk, used by tailors and others, is nothing more than steatite. It can be readily cut with a knife, and is infusible in any ordinary furnace heat. ”

“ An extraordinary specimen of Italian asbestos, obtained from one of the mines of the United Asbestos Company, situate in the Valtellina Valley, is in the possession of that company, and is no doubt the finest piece of asbestos ever brought from Italy, whether as regards strength or fineness of fibre. ”

“ In one of the large palatial buildings recently erected in London, where engines are required to be in constant work for pumping water for working the lifts and for general purposes, as well as for the dynamos, the heat from the boilers forms so great a nuisance, and occasions so much loss in other ways, that very considerable expense is about to be incurred, with a view to lowering the temperature. When conversing recently with an expert on this subject I asked whether the use of asbestos would not effect the desired object. ”

“ When a sufficient number of holes of the proper depth are drilled and duly charged with dynamite or powder, they are linked together, and fired by a battery in such a way that the face of rock shall be thrown outward on to the floor of the pit. The asbestos is then picked out, the adhering rock roughly broken off, and the ore piled into boxes or tubs, which are loaded on to trolleys, and run off on tram-lines to the cobbing-sheds. ”