O. H. Cilley to Sumner Simpson on Manheim Dust Counts for 1935, 1938 and 1939 (1939)

A signed letter of June 10, 1939, from O. H. Cilley of Raybestos-Manhattan's United States Asbestos Division at Manheim, Pennsylvania, to Sumner Simpson, the company's president, with a one-page table of total dust counts, in millions of particles per cubic foot of air, from Metropolitan Life's surveys of 1935, 1938 and 1939. The card room fell from 18.5 in 1935 to 4.7 in 1938 and 2.0 in 1939, and the preparing department from 19.9 to 7.9 and 4.0. Cilley wrote that the pan crushers had since been enclosed, so the preparing department should be "down to about two million particles per cubic foot," and that while the 1939 survey was "very gratifying," "further reductions are possible and entirely practicable."

What it shows

The table sets out, department by department, how much asbestos textile dust Metropolitan Life measured at Manheim before and after the dust-control work that began after its 1935 survey, which Simpson had called "rather startling, and very unfavorable" (Simpson to Weber, 1935). In 1935 every department with a figure was above 10 million particles per cubic foot; by 1939 all were between 1.6 and 4.0. Simpson's reply is his letter of June 16, and he sent the table to the North Charleston plant (to A. F. Heinsohn).

In Johns-Manville's index

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

04056-04057. Acknowledges receipt of letter enclosing recheck survey at Manheim plant. Encloses table which compares total dust counts of three surveys done by Metropolitan during 1935, 1938, and 1939. Informs that the results from 1939 survey are pleasing but believes further reduction in dust levels is possible and practicable.

03526-03527. Transmittal letter for table showing comparisons of dust counts for 1935, 1938, and 1939. Reports that although 1939 survey results are gratifying, further improvement is possible and practicable. Since last survey, new equipment in the preparation room should lower dust level to 2mppcf (table attached).

Related documents

• O. H. Cilley to Sumner Simpson Asking for the 1939 Manheim Dust Survey (1939)
• W. J. McConnell of Metropolitan Life to Sumner Simpson Enclosing the 1939 Manheim Recheck Survey (1939)
• Sumner Simpson to O. H. Cilley Congratulating Him on the Manheim Dust Counts (1939)
• Sumner Simpson to A. F. Heinsohn Sending the Manheim Dust Count Comparison (1939)
• A. F. Heinsohn to Sumner Simpson Comparing Manheim and Charleston Dust Counts (1939)
• Sumner Simpson to George R. Weber on the Startling Metropolitan Life Report on Manheim (1935)

About this copy

These are documents 04056-04057, 03526-03527 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.