Modern Asbestos History

In the early 1800s, a number of patents started to appear for various uses of asbestos, including the first known United States patent for asbestos insulating material. This material was used to insulate steam engines being used to spearhead the transportation and manufacturing industries during the industrial revolution. Also in the early 1800s asbestos was first discovered in Canada (the Thedford mines of Quebec) and in South Africa (the Woolstone mines of Orange). By the 1860s asbestos became an industry, with the Italian asbestos industry based on tremolite and the Canadian and Russian industries based on chrysotile. The American industry got its start about 1880, but at that time the industry was based on the use of Italian asbestos to produce paper and board products.