Carl G. Richmond of Arkwright Mutual to E. H. Jeffords with the Fire Test Report on the Asbestos-Cotton Dust (1935)

Copies of two papers on the fire hazard of the dust from Raybestos-Manhattan's North Charleston, South Carolina, plant. In a letter of August 10, 1935, Carl G. Richmond, engineer of the Arkwright Mutual Fire Insurance Company, told E. H. Jeffords that the dust samples had been received and tested, that the split between asbestos and cotton "checks well" with Jeffords's own figures, and that his letter was being held for Edward A. Barrier. The enclosed report of August 9 by E. E. Crandall of the Inspection Department of the Associated Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies found that the two samples would not burn with a flame, contained about 3.25% and 2.15% cotton, and that the planned tunnel's wooden floor should still be lined with sheet metal.

What it shows

The tests measured how much cotton was mixed into the asbestos dust the new collecting system would carry, because cotton burns and asbestos does not. The samples were almost entirely asbestos. The same two papers went on to Sumner Simpson with Jeffords's letter of August 12.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes these documents as follows:

02503-02504. Acknowledges that dust samples have been received and tested. Encloses report on result of dust samples.

02502. Reports results of the tests run on dust samples representing the type of material to pass through the tunnel at the Charleston-Raybestos plant. Samples were not combustible. Recommends that wooden floor of tunnel be lined with sheet metal.

Related documents

• E. H. Jeffords to Sumner Simpson on Progress of the North Charleston Dust Collecting System (1935)
• E. H. Jeffords to Sumner Simpson on the Dust Settling Chamber and Arkwright Correspondence (1935)
• E. H. Jeffords to Sumner Simpson Enclosing Arkwright's Ruling That the Dust Tunnel Needs No Sprinklers (1935)
• E. H. Jeffords to Carl G. Richmond of Arkwright Mutual Sending the Dust Tunnel Blueprint (1935)

About this copy

These are documents 02503-02504, 02502 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.