B. F. Stanton to M. F. Naylor on Tampering with Dust Sampling at the Manville Plant (1956)

A one-page memo of March 5, 1956, from B. F. Stanton at J-M's Manville, New Jersey, plant to M. F. Naylor, with copies to H. J. O'Brien, H. M. Jackson and others. Two engineers were taking a dust sample at the stamping press in the brake lining and clutch facing inspection area, a test arranged "because of repeated complaints by the Stamping Press operator and other employees," when someone put a large amount of dust into the impinger inlet and stopped the test. Stanton thought the person, not knowing it would be obvious, "sought to make sure that the complaint of dust in the air was well founded," and recommended that the work group be told severe discipline would follow such acts.

What it shows

The memo shows that by 1956 workers in the brake lining department were complaining about dust strongly enough that the company arranged special air sampling. Stanton treated the tampering as sabotage and asked for a warning of discipline; the memo does not say whether the area was sampled again or what the counts showed.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

B.F. Stanton reports to M.F. Naylor, 3/5/56, that an employee or employees interfered with dust sampling going on near the Stamping Press Operation at the Manville plant. They deposited a large amount of dust down into the impinger inlet choking the tube and rendering the sampling process inoperative. Stanton is very upset about this especially since the sampling was specially performed because of complaints about the dust exposure in the area. Stanton thinks that the employee "sought to make sure that the complaint of dust in the air was well founded." Stanton recommends severe disciplinary action for this sort of behavior.