J. P. Kottcamp to S. A. Williams on Dust Collecting Equipment at Waukegan (1932)

A one-page "Personal & Confidential" letter of December 22, 1932, from J. P. Kottcamp, manager of the Waukegan factories, answering S. A. Williams's memo of December 20. "Up to the present time we have not spent any money for actual installation of equipment for the elimination of dust," Kottcamp writes. Plans for the textile, pipe covering and shingle departments had not been finished or approved by D. C. Renton "through a misunderstanding," so no budget proposal had gone in; estimates of $11,000 for pipe covering and $14,700 for the shingle department were pending.

What it shows

Fifteen months after Williams's 1931 directive, and a month after Kottcamp himself urged the work to protect the company against suits (letter of November 25, 1932), the Waukegan plant had installed nothing. The letter adds that examination cards were being made for employees and that no written instructions on respirators had been issued; foremen had been told at meetings to insist on their use.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

J.P. Kottcamp (Waukegan Plant Manager) memorandum to S.A. Williams (Vice President, GHQ), 12/22/32. Kottcamp states that up to the present time no money has been spent for the actual installation of dust collection equipment. The Engineering Department has been working in conjunction with Renton, however, on the development of plans for the installation of dust collecting equipment in the Textile, Pipecovering and Shingle Departments. Unfortunately, because of a misunderstanding, these plans have not been completed nor have they been approved by Renton. For this reason, the budget proposal has not been submitted. Today, instructions have been issued to concentrate on getting final approval for this equipment at the earliest possible moment. Relative to the question of physical examinations of employees, Kottcamp attaches a set of cards which are filled out for each individual employee in the plant. With respect to respirators, Kottcamp states that no written instructions have been issued regarding their use, but from time to time at superintendents' meetings their importance has been stressed to the foremen. Foremen have been told to insist on employees using respirators and, to the best of Kottcamp's knowledge, these respirators have been used at the points of maximum dust concentrations.

Related documents

• S. A. Williams to J-M Plant Managers Asking for a Report on Dust Control (1932)