Gibson-Homans

Gibson-Homans was an Ohio-based maker of roof coatings, roof cements and foundation coatings, sold under names such as Black-Jack and Handi-Gard, including a Handi-Gard Plastic Asbestos Roof Cement. Union Carbide sales papers of the 1970s discuss the company's use of asbestos at its Richmond, California, plant, and E. Wormser of Gibson-Homans argued in 1981 against banning asbestos in roof cements. Our library holds no record of a bankruptcy or asbestos trust; court papers in later asbestos lawsuits name Gardner-Gibson, Inc. as its successor-in-interest.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

History

The earliest mention of the name among the documents gathered here is from March 1928, when Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, described a direct-mail advertising campaign by the Gibson-Homans Western Company of Kansas City, Missouri, which it said made "roof coatings, roofing cements, paints and specialties."¹² The journal does not say how that company was related to The Gibson-Homans Company. In September 1931 the journal's list of trademarks passed for publication included Black-Jack, in the name of The Gibson-Homans Co.¹³

Later documents place the company in Ohio. A May 1974 memo from Jennat Corporation, a Union Carbide subsidiary, refers to "Gibson-Homans (Cleveland, Ohio)," and a 1975 Union Carbide call report mentions the company's "Cleveland labs."¹⁶ The same call report gives a plant at 810 Market Avenue, Richmond, California, and says the company had "at least 6 more plants throughout the country."⁶

Asbestos products

Our library holds labels and a brochure for three Gibson-Homans products. The trademark file gives first use in commerce on March 8, 1931, for Black-Jack Roof Coating, a liquid coating for whole roofs and a plastic cement for patching, and on August 1, 1957, for the two Handi-Gard products.³¹⁴⁴⁵ The Handi-Gard roof cement's label reads "Plastic Asbestos Roof Cement."⁴¹⁵ The one-gallon label for Handi-Gard Foundation Coating calls the product "Fibered" and says it is for sealing exterior concrete, stone and brick foundations.¹⁶

Union Carbide's Calidria papers

Gibson-Homans appears in Union Carbide's sales papers for its Calidria asbestos. In a call report for the week of August 11, 1975, Union Carbide's T. P. Norris wrote that the plant manager at Richmond was "having a difficult time" making two Calidria grades work in the company's compounds.⁶ The report says the Richmond plant alone used about 30 tons a month of a fiber grade it calls "7M," and that the plant manager leaned toward extending "his present supply of Canadian" fiber with another Calidria grade.⁶

A 1975 Union Carbide prospect list for the western states put Gibson-Homans in California and commented that the company would like "a local source on the west coast" rather than depend on cross-country rail service.⁷ It added that the company had bought a pallet sample for evaluation and that, if Union Carbide could replace "their longer fiber" at a competitive price, "we would expect to maintain this business."⁷ The same comments appear in later Union Carbide sales compilations.¹⁷ Union Carbide's 1976 technical service lists name "Gibson-Homans, OH" among the customers served,²¹⁸ and its 1980 list of Calidria customer ship-to locations includes Gibson-Homans Inc. at Richmond, California.¹⁹ Apart from Calidria, the May 1974 Jennat memo also says Gibson-Homans had planned a roof test of a Union Carbide latex coating, UCAR 153, over asphalt.¹

What the documents show

On January 15, 1974, the company's chief chemist, S. S. Painter, and its production manager, John Billich, are listed among those attending an "Asbestos & Health" meeting held in Cleveland, in attendee lists attached to a Johns-Manville paper on asbestos and health.²⁰ In 1976 Gibson-Homans Inc. was one of the companies and trade groups listed as endorsing the Asbestos Information Association's comments to OSHA on its proposed revision of the asbestos standard.²¹

In March 1981 Asbestos reported the views of E. Wormser of Gibson-Homans, which the article described as "the largest manufacturer in the United States of sealing and coating compounds."⁸ According to the article, Wormser said that if asbestos were banned in roof cements, the market would be flooded with inferior products.⁸ He was quoted as saying the company was "now able to produce solvent base asphalt roof coatings and roof cements which do not include asbestos fiber," but did not yet sell them in the United States because they cost about 15% more to make and, in the company's view, were "not as good as comparable products made with asbestos."⁸ The article also reports him saying that the hazards of asbestos fiber "have been thoroughly researched and documented and are readily controllable."⁸

OSHA's 1986 asbestos standard, published in the Federal Register, quotes written testimony from Eric Wormser of Gibson-Homans that during the tear-off of an old roof "there still is no asbestos exposure since asbestos fibers in any old coating or cement are encapsulated in the product."²² OSHA's own conclusion differed: it wrote that as a roof deteriorates with age and weather, "the quantity of asbestos fibers released will increase," cited Johns-Manville studies of roofing work, and concluded that respirators would be required during some roofing projects.²²

Bankruptcy and trust

Our library holds no record of a Gibson-Homans bankruptcy or asbestos trust, and its company page lists no court decisions.⁹ The captions of two asbestos decisions of the federal court for the Southern District of Illinois, from 2009 and 2012, list among the defendants Gardner-Gibson, Inc., "as successor-in-interest to Gibson Homans Co." (2009) and "as successor-in-interest to Gibson Homans Company" (2012).¹⁰¹¹ A caption records how the plaintiffs named the parties; it is not a court finding about the companies' relationship. Gibson-Homans is also among the many defendants named in the caption of a 2000 Pennsylvania Superior Court asbestos decision.²³

References

1. UC-994: Compilation on Weather Barrier Mastics and Roof Coatings (1972–1974), p. 3
2. UC-2202: Technical Service Developmental Programs, Plant Assistance, Customer Technical Service and Dust Count Services Summary (1976), p. 3
3. Black-Jack Roof Coating (Gibson-Homans), product page
4. Handi-Gard Plastic Asbestos Roof Cement (Gibson-Homans), product page
5. Handi-Gard Foundation Coating (Gibson-Homans), product page
6. Union Carbide 345: T. P. Norris Call Report on Several San Francisco Area Customer Calls (Week of 8-11-75), pp. 1–2
7. UC-4463: R. E. Byrne, Jr. to J. L. Myers Transmitting Western States Sales Performance and Prospect List for Calidria Asbestos (1975), pp. 3–4
8. Asbestos, March 1981, p. 22
9. Gibson-Homans, company page
10. Fuller v. AW Chesterton, Inc. (S.D. Ill. 2009), case page
11. Adams v. Armstrong International, Inc. (S.D. Ill. 2012), case page
12. Asbestos, March 1928, p. 22
13. Asbestos, September 1931, p. 53
14. Label: Black-Jack liquid and plastic roof coating (The Gibson-Homans Company) (1931)
15. Label: handi-gard Plastic Asbestos Roof Cement (The Gibson-Homans Company) (1957)
16. Label: Handi-Gard Foundation Coating Fibered, one gallon (The Gibson-Homans Company) (1957)
17. UC-1332: Calidria Asbestos Sales Tables, Monthly Sales Reports and J. L. Myers Letter on 1971 Results (1972–1978), p. 98; UC-3675: Calidria Asbestos Sales Summaries and Related Metals Division Memos, Including G. L. Dickson to R. E. Byrne, Jr. on 1977 Eastern Region Sales (1978), p. 29
18. UC-5111: B. L. Ingalls to H. B. Rhodes on Calidria Asbestos Marketing Services Work Assignments (1976), p. 4
19. UC-245: Calidria Shipments to UCC Facilities and Customer Ship-To List (1980), p. 26
20. AIA-112: Johns-Manville Corporation, A Condensation of Environmental Facts on Asbestos and Health, with Customer Seminar Attendee Lists (1974), pp. 41–42
21. AIA-115: Asbestos Information Association to OSHA Docket Officer, Docket H-033, Transmitting Industry Comments on the Proposed Asbestos Standard (1976), pp. 1–2
22. Federal Register: Occupational Exposure to Asbestos, Tremolite, Anthophyllite, and Actinolite (1986), p. 100
23. Lonasco v. A-Best Products Co. (Pa. Super. Ct. 2000), case page

Asbestos products

6 products our documents name Gibson-Homans as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Black-Jack (Gibson-Homans)
• Black-Jack Roof Coating (Gibson-Homans)
• Handi-Gard (Gibson-Homans)
• Handi-Gard Foundation Coating (Gibson-Homans)
• Handi-Gard Plastic Asbestos Roof Cement (Gibson-Homans)
• Ipm #33 (Gibson-Homans)

In our library

4 documents in our library name Gibson-Homans, by collection.

Other library documents (4)

• Brochure: Handi-Gard Exterior Foundation Coating (The Gibson-Homans Company) (1957) (publisher)
• Label: Black-Jack liquid and plastic roof coating (The Gibson-Homans Company) (1931) (publisher)
• Label: Handi-Gard Foundation Coating Fibered, one gallon (The Gibson-Homans Company) (1957) (publisher)
• Label: handi-gard Plastic Asbestos Roof Cement (The Gibson-Homans Company) (1957) (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

Gibson-Homans is named in 5 Union Carbide documents dated 1975 to 1979 (5 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• T. P. Norris Call Report on Several San Francisco Area Customer Calls (Week of 8-11-75) Union Carbide 345 (mentioned)
• Technical Service Developmental Programs, Plant Assistance, Customer Technical Service and Dust Count Services Summary (1976) UC-2202 (mentioned)
• B. L. Ingalls to H. B. Rhodes on Calidria Asbestos Marketing Services Work Assignments, January-October 1976, with Attached Service Lists (1976) UC-5111 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide Metals Division Calidria Call Reports: Diamond Shamrock (1978, 1979) and T. P. Norris San Francisco Area Calls (1975) UC-315 (mentioned)
• Compilation on Weather Barrier Mastics and Roof Coatings: Jennat, Union Carbide R&D and Arthur D. Little Papers (1972-1974) UC-994 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Gibson-Homans, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: The Gibson-Homans Company · Gibson-Homans Inc.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Gibson-Homans, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.