WHY ASBESTOS?

[Music] [Music] fire one of the most terrifying destructive and irresistible forces known to man capable in an instant of turning solids to liquids liquids to Vapors and gases dark to light light to death how ironic it is that from the Earth's great geological fire over millions of years should have come a substance to resist and tame this for the paradoxical mineral [Music] asbest even the name is a paradox asbestos the unquenchable rock that burns and cannot be extinguished what other substance has a name which signifies the object opposite of its most important property what other Rock has been considered to be a vegetable substance what other Rock could have been passed off as the skin of the salamander of what other Rock could it have been believed that it derived its qualities from the action of the sun and the proximity of serpents what other Rock has formed the funeral Robes of Emperors the lampwick of the Vestal virgins being called undefiled Stone Flex The Woolly Stone the fine hair of gold No Ordinary Rock no single Rock indeed but a group of related minerals with characteristics in common but in varying degrees a substance which resolves easily into fibers soft to the touch often silky and endlessly divisible it seems certainly beyond the resolving capacity of the human eye fibers so fine that care must be taken to avoid inhaling them the asbest fiber it's diameter 1,000th that of a human hair its tensile strength greater than that of Steel from the incandescent accidents of a planet's birth a family of minerals which can resist heat withstand acids absorb sound insulate electricity and subdivide into fibers of astonishing finess and immense tensile strength fibers which can be graded into different lengths to suit a thousand different purposes one of the earliest known uses of asbestos was in heat resisting textiles the emperor Charlamagne performed a similar trick with an asbestos cloth as bestus with its strangely flexible fibers can be carded like wool or cotton and spun into yarn the yarn can be flatted or braided or woven into heat resistant cloth look where you will in the modern world the chances are you'll find asbest coping with the pressures that beset us ironing out the problems and usually doing it unobtrusively like this cloth on a laundry roller or this packing in a steam valve pipelines retain their heat protected by asbestos and oil heaters depend on asbestos Wicks but mainly asbest weaves protection from heat and Flame where we work for the [Music] welder for the steel worker for the glass worker and for the firefighter [Music] protection where we work and where we [Applause] play asers give strength as well as safety the short fine flexible fibers of this strange material are sufficiently versatile to mix with cement in a liquid state and the result as best as cement is a substance easy to handle easy to mold strong corrosion resistant and [Music] non-combustible it's typical of the versatility of asbest that in this form it is used not so much for its heat resisting qualities as for its lightness and strength indeed as best a cement shines in many situations where heat resistance is no problem at all keeping our feet dry by supporting river banks with sheeting that will not corrode or rot cladding Airy buildings against the never quite spotless air or just throwing a great light simple and inexpensive cover a non-combustible cover of course over a warehouse asbest cement like all asbest products meets and often surpasses every relevant Standard Building regulation or code of [Music] practice of course asbest has what you might call its underground uses too serious and important uses which never quite appeared in the Limelight but take a multitude of [Music] [Applause] forms rolled onto a mandrel as best a cement can form a pipe asbest cement pipes light and strong non-conductive of electricity corrosion resistant needing no maintenance pipes to protect telephone and power cables or simple pipes to get the rain off your roof pipes to carry water pipes for drainage and sewage pipes of all kinds are also insulated and protected by [Applause] asbestos this versatile substance can even be applied in liquid form it combats condensation its acoustic qualities almost rle its ability to insulate from Heat and the ability to spray it on an existing building must have saved many a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] headache asbestos the rock that drowns [Applause] noise asbestos in combination with lime compressed and sealed into standard Boards of varying size thickness and density ASB bestus board ceiling panels protecting International ears from the D of their transport or Housewives from the of their own weary feet the squeak of Supermarket trolleys The Clash of Cans and ringing of cash registers the complaints of irritated Offspring asbest working to protect our Frid Good Humor asbestos at sea for the protection of people and cargo as insulating board unobtrusive but virtually obligatory nowadays to prevent the spread of fire in one of the most isolated and therefore vulnerable forms of habitation and again soundproofing insulating easy to fit when molded easy to work in the form of boarding as easy as wood to cut plane drill nail screw champer homogeneous and non-s splintering light easily joined and sealed life saving should the need arise because it keeps fire in as well as out gives time when it's most [Music] needed home again these metal plates are thermocouples to record the temperature in a house burning experiment which demonstrated how asbestos building materials can avert tragedy in the event of a fire used judiciously you can't make the whole house of it asers can give time for help to arrive again containing the blaze cutting down the circulation of air protecting more combustible materials even when a fire takes hold and wise men stand clear and the plumbing runs Molten even then ASB bester ceiling panels will confine The Blaze to one story The shattered glass from the windows will have melted on what remains of the floors before the asbest finally surrenders and fire floods the whole building asbest may not stop a house burning down but it delays it long enough to make sure there are no human beings in the ashes asbestos is also used to reinforce Plastics in this form you find it everywhere exploiting the strange qualities we have already seen their strength so that an asbestos bearing can replace a metal bearing five times its weight in circumstances where Precision really counts there heat resistance so that they can Shield less talented [Music] [Applause] materials their moisture resistance and stability so that they they do not distort under difficult [Music] [Music] conditions they're low coefficient of friction so that they enhance rather than the action of a lubricant in uses like these asbestos is an anti-friction [Music] material asbestos is also used to create friction wherever there is rapid movement and the need to control and curb that movement there's a place for asbest as This Test shows suppose every time you break your car this happened and in traffic you're breaking all the time the streets would be like shooting galleries so it's nice to know isn't it that wherever you drive asb's brake linings go with you to make sure that every time you have to stop you stop and to start you need clutch facings okay [Music] asbest wherever a situation arises in which friction has to be handled quickly and dextrously and where the result are highly Critical with no allowance for failure you're sure to find asbestos asbestos for a smooth ride and now an experiment taking the asbest out of an ordinary car see what [Music] happens the battery like many others depends on asbest for its resistance to the acid that it contains no asbest and soon no battery the engine gaskets depend entirely on asbestos take them away and the engine begins quietly or not so quietly to fall apart and remember the carburetor take away its heat proof sealing gaskets and back nothing to do now but stop if you can oh dear no asbest no brakes most of us don't notice asers very much why should we asbest chooses to be anonymous but things get pretty hot without it that's why asbestos