Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1894 — Properties of Asbestos. [ARTICLE]

Properties of Asbestos.

Some of the common ideas concerning asbestos appear to have resulted in • mistakes of a serious practical nature. Thus, the usual conception that it is in nowise affected by heat is true only to the extent that, though infusible except at very high temperature, it is a fact that only a very moderate degree of heat—heating to low redness in a platinum crucible, for instance —is required to entirely destroy the flexibility of the fiber and render it so brittle that it may easily be crumbled between the thumb and finger. Another mistake is that relating to its high non-conductivlty or power of resisting the action of the heat—the assumption' being that because asbestos is infusible it must, of necessity, be a good non-conductor. The contrary assertion to this is made and proved on good authority, namely, that by placing a vessel of water on a sheet of asbewto& 'cardboard and applying heat from below, or more simple proof still, by placing a piece of wood on a sheet;of asbestos millboard on a hot stbvd.' 'If vhowever, asbestos is teased oui’ Wd worked, intoa.fluffy mass, therei&tbus obtained a non-cbndnctlng material, but it is the air inclosed by'the fibers that is the real non-conductor, the asbestos serving simply to entangle the air. ' *