According to Mr. Ells,[2] the serpentines in which it is found are intimately associated with masses of dioritic or doloritic rocks, of which rocks certain varieties, rich in olivine or some allied mineral, the serpentine is, in many cases, an alteration product. They are frequently associated with masses and dykes of whitish rocks, which are often composed entirely of quartz and felspar, but occasionally with a mixture of black mica, forming a granitoid rock. They occur generally not far from the axes of certain anticlinals which exist in the group of rocks called by Sir William Logan the "altered Quebec group."
For centuries asbestos was regarded merely as a mineral curiosity. Indeed, it is only within the last few years that it has developed into a valuable article of commerce, the first modern experiments in the use of it practically extending no farther back than 1850.
Its uses in the arts and manufactures are of a very important character, and now that it is clearly demonstrated that a fairly abundant supply can be obtained at a moderate cost, there seems no reasonable limit to be put to the demand, new uses for it being continually found. These will, of course, rapidly increase as its value becomes more clearly and widely known.
It is found in most parts of the world, but in only a few places of a sufficiently valuable kind or in quantities large enough to give it any commercial value. The main sources of supply at present are Canada and Italy.
A good deal has, at times, been found in Russia; and I remember an incident which occurred a few years ago at some extensive ironworks in that country, with which I was at the time connected, which amusingly illustrates how little was then known there of the nature and properties of the mineral. The iron ore, in the district referred to, is found in bunches or nodules, near the surface of the ground; and in order to get it, the peasants dig out pits about seven or eight feet in depth, and then burrow, rabbit-like, into the surrounding earth in all directions below. When all the ore is got out from one spot, they dig another pit further afield, and so they go on until the particular patch of ground they are working on is exhausted. On the occasion referred to, some of our men, in their burrowing, threw out a considerable quantity of asbestos. They had not the slightest idea what it was. In fact, they knew nothing at all about it, except that it was not what they were in search of; and, consequently, as it obstructed their work, they threw it all out in a heap near the piles of ore. Presently, one of the foremen or overlookers saw it, and wanted to know what all that rubbish had been put there for. "Here," said he, to some of the men, "just clear up all that mess at once, and fling it into the furnace, and get rid of it." And this was immediately done, with what result you may imagine.
Recently, however, it is said that enormous quantities of asbestos have been found in Russia, although I cannot learn that any use is made of it there at present. Its mercantile value must of course depend on its quality and distance from market. I have had a great number of specimens sent me, but they mostly turn out to be a coarse kind of so-called bastard asbestos, which would not pay for extracting. Now, however, we are told that from Orenburg to Ekaterinburg the country is thickly dotted with asbestos deposits, while near the Verkin Tagil ironworks there is a hill called Sholkovaya Gora, or Hill of Silk, which it is asserted is entirely composed of asbestos. The ore here is also said to be of the best white quality, well adapted for all the most important purposes to which asbestos is applied. I should much like to see a specimen of this; its value could be easily determined on inspection. In the Gorobtagsdat district of Perm, again, there are said to be large deposits cropping out above the surface, and also that enormous quantities could be had there for nothing, as at this moment it possesses no value in the Ural region. I imagine it would be found of considerable value if a practical man were sent out to see to its fiberization on the spot, when it might be compressed, packed, and exported in the same way as cotton. There can, however, be little doubt that if its quality is as good as it is represented to be, it will very soon be utilized, and will then form a very important addition to the vast mineral wealth of that region.
As might be expected, asbestos is also found in China, but, as a matter of course, the use to which it is put there is one we should little dream of here. For instance, in the translation of a Chinese medical book by Dr. Hobson, of the London Medical Mission, asbestos is seen to figure (of all places in the world) under the head of tonics, in company with such heterogeneous substances as "dried spotted lizard, silkworm moth, human milk, parasite of the mulberry tree, asses' glue, stalactite," and a few more surprising things. Perhaps it may be just as well for us that we are not yet educated up to so fine a point as that, and that consequently the mineral we are speaking of does not yet find a place in the British Pharmacopœia, but is left to exhibit its apparently more natural properties in the arts and manufactures.
A correspondent of The Financial News, writing from Barberton in January, 1888, says that at Komali Fields, fifty miles from that place, asbestos has just been found, but that it was as yet too soon to discuss the merits of the find.
In sending you an account of the Canadian asbestos industry, you will scarcely expect me to give you any very detailed information about its Italian competitor. Any account of the one, however, would necessarily be so incomplete without some mention of the other, that I will do the best I can with the little information I have been enabled to obtain on the subject of the Italian mines.
Experiments with the view of utilizing asbestos in Italy appear to have been first successfully carried on in 1850 by the Chevalier Aldini, of Milan, and others, mainly with the object of turning the mineral to account in the manufacture of asbestos cloth. The Chevalier had a complete suit made of it—cap, gloves, tunic, and stockings—for the purpose of testing its protective powers for firemen; and of this I shall have something to say presently.[3] But it was not until twenty years after this that any success was attained in the manufacture of asbestos millboard and paper, the commercial value of which is now assuming such large proportions.