The Ruberoid Company / GAF Corporation plant at Gloucester City, New Jersey

The Gloucester City, New Jersey plant made Calsilite, a high-temperature pipe covering and block insulation of The Ruberoid Company, later GAF Corporation: the U.S. Navy's 1951 list of qualified products gives "Plant: Gloucester City, N. J." for it.² In its sworn answers in a group of 1981 shipyard asbestos lawsuits, GAF said Calsilite, "manufactured from the early 1940's until mid-1970," was "a white-colored high temperature pipe covering and block containing approximately 10% amosite, 2% chrysotile, and calcium hydrosilicate and diatamaceous earth," and that it "was manufactured at Gloucester, New Jersey."¹ According to those answers, Calsilite "was unprofitable and thus was discontinued in mid-1970 when it was replaced by asbestos-free Calsilite II."¹ The same answers say GAF made asbestos paper and millboard "from approximately 1969 to 1971 in Gloucester, New Jersey," and at Whitehall, Pennsylvania, after that.¹

Other GAF statements date Calsilite differently, without naming the plant: in a 1989 submission to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, GAF said that "in 1944 Ruberoid constructed a Calsilite plant," that all Calsilite made during World War II was for the U.S. Navy, and that production "shut down temporarily in June, 1947; reopened July 10, 1947 and operated on a pilot plant basis until March 7, 1949," when commercial production began.³ That submission says Calsilite was made "by GAF Corporation from 1968 to October, 1971," while the 1981 answers end it in mid-1970, and an insurance company's 1981 list, compiled from other companies' answers in lawsuits, gives its last year as 1972.^1,3,4 GAF also said the product was made by a "pan-molding" method until 1964, when Ruberoid began using a "filter-press" method, and that its formula "was adjusted often."³

Ruberoid itself said Calsilite "contains 10% asbestos and the balance is composed of diatamaceous earth and Hydrous Lime Silicate," and the insurance company's list gives 12 percent; those figures describe the product, not Gloucester City's output in particular.^4,5 GAF described the pipe covering as made "in three-foot lengths and varying thicknesses," normally with "cotton or canvas jackets applied with silicate of soda," and the blocks as "flat blocks in 18 or 36-inch lengths."³ Ruberoid wrote that it was used on "high temperature steam lines and equipment."⁶

Location

Pictures of products made here

Labels, packages, photographs and catalog pages from our library of products documents say were made at this plant. Each picture has its own page and library number.

• Label: Gasilite (Ruberoid)Calsilite (GAF)Label or package · ACL Doc 15023
• Label: Ruberoid Calsilite Insulation (The Ruberoid Co.)Calsilite (GAF)Label or package · ACL Doc 20550

Asbestos products made here

The products documents say were made at this plant, with the years a document gives for the product here. Each product's page has what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Calsilite (GAF)²

Asbestos claims

If you or a family member worked at this plant, lived with someone who did, or worked with its products, and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the G-I Holdings (GAF) asbestos trust. Free case review.

What each document says

Every statement about this plant in the documents, in each document's own words.

GAF's Answers to Plaintiffs' Interrogatories in the Key Highway, Fairfield and Sparrows Point Shipyards Asbestos Cases (1981)

• Products made: “Calsilite, manufactured from the early 1940's until mid-1970” (GAF Corporation), p. 5¹
• Products made: “asbestos paper and millboard, from approximately 1969 to 1971 in Gloucester” (GAF Corporation), p. 6¹

Other names

Documents call this plant “Gloucester City, N. J.”, “Gloucester, New Jersey”, “Gloucester City, New Jersey”.

See also

• The Ruberoid Company: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• GAF Corporation: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Asbestos exposure sites in New Jersey

References

1. GAF's Answers to Plaintiffs' Interrogatories in the Key Highway, Fairfield and Sparrows Point Shipyards Asbestos Cases (July 22, 1981), pp. 5–6.
2. Military Qualified Products List (1951–1995) (December 3, 1951), p. 2.
3. GAF Asbestos Information Act Submission (October 6, 1989), pp. 2–3.
4. The Travelers Insurance Company's Product Information Booklet for Its Asbestos Seminar (1980–1981) (April 30, 1981), p. 4.
5. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File (1969-1972), Answers to interrogatories (April 17, 1970), p. 1.
6. Asbestos Magazine, 1960, September 1960 (September 1, 1960), p. 22.