Scientific American on the H. W. Johns Manufacturing Company's Asbestos Works (1881)

An illustrated article titled "Asbestos," number 67 in the "American Industries" series of Scientific American, a New York weekly, in its issue of February 26, 1881. It describes the mineral, its history and the works of the H. W. Johns Manufacturing Company, one of the businesses that later became Johns-Manville, with engravings of the factory, asbestos grinding, roofing and pipe covering. The article lists the company's products: asbestos fabrics and felts, millboard, steam packings, cements, fireproof paints, roofing and boiler and pipe coverings.

What it shows

The article shows how early and how widely asbestos products were being sold. It reports that Mr. Johns had searched the country for usable deposits and had built "an entirely new industry of large magnitude" in a little over thirteen years, with a New York office at 87 Maiden Lane and a London agent. It also describes the company's asbestos paints, saying that "the largest contract ever made for paints," for painting the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad in New York, had gone to the company. Nothing in the article mentions any risk to the people making or using the products.

About this copy

This is a photocopy of pages 127, 130 and 131 of the issue (Vol. XLIV, No. 9). Parts of page 130 appear twice, in two overlapping copies, and page 131 also carries unrelated short items. The copy bears a handwritten "JMA 360" and an exhibit sticker.