James F. Morgan to W. G. Hazard on X-Ray Analysis of Kaylo Dust (1950)

A three-page letter of January 3, 1950, from James F. Morgan, a chemist, to W. G. Hazard of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company's Division of Industrial Hygiene, with a one-page report dated January 4, 1950, from the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research's Department of Research in Chemical Physics, marked "Confidential." They give the results of X-ray diffraction tests on dust collected while Kaylo was loaded into boxcars, made to learn whether quartz was present and how much asbestos the dust held. Quartz was not detected in the fine dust, but the tests could not settle the asbestos question, and Morgan wrote that X-ray study "appears to be incapable at the present time" of answering it. He proposed electron microscope studies instead.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

James F. Morgan (Chemist for Mellon Institute of Industrial Research) letter to W. G. Hazard, 1/3/50, discussing results of analysis done on a "vacuum cleaner" sample of the Kaylo dust given off during the loading of boxcars at OIG's Sayreville, New Jersey plant as well as on two samples of finished Kaylo. The purpose of the study was to determine whether quartz is present, and if so, to what extent, and to determine the amount of asbestos present in the dust. The report from the Chemical Physics Department of the Mellon Institute is attached. Attempts at analysis by the X-ray diffraction method proved inconclusive, unreliable and incomplete. Electron microscope studies were proposed.

Related documents

• W. G. Hazard to J. F. McMahon Sending Kaylo Boxcar Dust for Analysis (1949)

About this copy

This is document 506 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001895 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001898.