Asbestos in the Union of South Africa (1918)

The South African Geological Survey's account of the country's asbestos deposits as commercial mining was getting under way. A. L. Hall, the Survey's assistant director, describes the asbestos minerals and their properties, the crocidolite (blue asbestos) belt of the Cape Province, and the Transvaal deposits of chrysotile, amosite and crocidolite.

Its photographic plates show the work in the field, including surface workings and the hand cobbing and sieving of crocidolite at the Cape Asbestos Company's Westerberg and Koegas operations.

Why it matters

It documents the South African crocidolite and amosite fields at their beginning, and the hand methods that put workers, and often their families, in direct contact with the fiber.