E. H. Jeffords to Edward A. Barrier on the Cotton Content of the North Charleston Dust (1935)

A one-page copy, marked for Sumner Simpson, of a letter of August 15, 1935, from E. H. Jeffords of Raybestos-Manhattan's General Asbestos & Rubber Division at North Charleston, South Carolina, to Edward A. Barrier of the Arkwright Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Answering Barrier's August 13 letter, Jeffords assured him that the dust would stay like the tested samples: "the cotton does not drop out of the mix in any large quantities. The droppings are practically all asbestos," and the cotton "is carried along into the finished product." He offered to send samples from time to time and said a blueprint of the tunnel had gone out on August 13.

What it shows

To avoid sprinklers and a metal floor in the roof tunnel, the plant's manager told the fire insurer that the dust its collectors gathered was "practically all asbestos." The letter is about fire risk, but it is also a plain statement from the plant of what its dust collection system was taking out of the mill air.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Confirms that since cotton content in dust is very low it is not necessary to tin floor or put sprinkler system in tunnel. Advises that requested blueprint of tunnel construction was mailed on 8/13/35.

Related documents

• 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

This is document 02510 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.