Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Supplementary Dust Survey of Raybestos-Manhattan's North Charleston Plant (1934)

A 37-page report on dust at the North Charleston, South Carolina, plant of the General Asbestos and Rubber Division of Raybestos-Manhattan, made to measure the effect of new and redesigned exhaust equipment since the survey of January 1930. Air samples were taken July 9 to 13, 1934, in the preparation, card, spinning and weave rooms. The preparation room was little changed and its dust count "remained constant"; dust in the spinning department averaged 2.68 million particles per cubic foot, higher than the 0.6 million of 1930, and 92 to 98.5 percent of the particles were under 10 microns.

What it shows

The report found that the conveyors bringing fiber into the card room raised the dust count through leaks from the storage bins, and that a muslin enclosure around one card did not keep out fine dust. It made no further recommendations until a new card-room exhaust system and experimental loom exhausts were finished, and held back "a detailed discussion of the disease asbestosis and a correlation of the X-ray findings" for the general report. Compare the January 1930 survey of the same plant.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

"The General Asbestos and Rubber Division of Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. North Charleston, S.C." This is a supplement to the report of January 1930. Few changes were made in the preparation room, and dust count results remain constant. An exhaust system and other required changes are under way in the card room. No recommendations forthcoming until the new system has been tested. Notes that 92-93% of dust particles are less than 10 microns in diameter.

About this copy

This is document 01898-01938 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.