What makes asbestos fireproof?
Most of the earth’s rocky minerals ccme in bumpy lumps or smooth faced crystals. Asbestos is a mineral made from fine silken threads, closely packed or matted together. Industry has 3000 jobs for asbestos, and there is more work for this marvel of minerals in the conquest of space. In the dim past, the bodies of eastern princes were burned in sheets of fireproof asbestos to preserve all the human ashes from the cinders. The eternal tapers on the altars of ancient rome had wicks of fireproof asbestos. The globe trotting reporter marco polo probed the legend of the salamander that was supposed to spring back to life after being consumed by a flaming fire. The so called salamander hair, he found, actually was the silken thread of the mineral asbestos. The fireproof qualities of this marvel of minerals have been known and used since ancient times. The explanation of this mysterious quality had to wait for the modern age of chemistry. When a substance burns, it combines with oxygen and its
