Sort of OT: Old Asbestos Applications

[Chris J Dixon]

Which reminds me that the filters in the old gas masks we played with as kids more than likely contained asbestos.

Chris

[Andy Dingley]

They certainly did.

It's now impractical for a "hands on" museum to have a WW2 civilian gasmask out on display. They have to be enclosed, and even then the paperwork can be a nuisance.

Remember the black "plastic" toilet seats in every school from the '60s onwards? Fibre-reinforced, and with amosite too. The vast UK use of amosite (brown asbestos) all over the place was unusual, and one of the reasons why we still have such high mesothelioma rates compared to the USA and their fireproof snow.

[Dave]

Our grandkids will not believe that we could ever be so stupid as to fill a paper cylinder with some dried plant leaves, put said cylinder into our mouths, set fire to it and inhale the foul-smelling smoke.

[Huge]

Who's "we", white man?

[JimK]

shurely "human race"........

JimK

[Matty F]

My father used one to drill hundreds of holes in a concrete house so that he could attach timber to the inside. It took up to half an hour per hole. My brother-in-law produced an electric drill and masonry bit and made a hole in a few seconds! Up until a month before there was no electric power for 30 miles, and there were no rechargeable drills 60 years ago that I know of.

[John Whitworth]

I'm sure I read somewhere, that the original masks to protect against white asbestos contained blue asbestos as the filter! I guess that would make sense as far as trapping the white...

[John Whitworth]

The Doubl-Glo Asbestos snow did contain amosite as well as chrysotile.

Never realised that about the toilet seats - but now you come to mention it - they were quite a strange material. I guess I always imagined they were something bakelite based.

[Lobster]

"From a smoke-free home" - phew, that's all right then.

[John Whitworth]

And pet free - wouldn't want any irritant pet hairs! :-D

[Adrian C]

No problem, something else in the house probably killed off the pets ...

[Onetap]

WW2 Gas masks.

masks on and do some PE.

One of those showed up on open display a few years back at a parents' evening at one of my kids' secondary school, along with various Grandads' medals, ration books and WW1 and death pennies. I mentioned the asbestos to the teacher and got a look of blank incomprehension.

These type of things;

know of some that were installed in 1970.

[cynic]

I recall as a child we had white coloured asbestos pads to put on the cooker ring to reduce burning to food in the pans on top of it.

[chrisj.doran]

Yes, I remember those. And mum's wooden ironing board had an asbestos pad on the end to put the iron down on.

Chris

[newshound]

ROFL!

[newshound]

And the asbestos rope on the Rayburn door, in those days

[John Whitworth]

Was my dad's birthday today, so when visiting, I asked after his Rawlplastic. I was right - he did have some, in fact still had, and it's now mine - sitting clipped up in a freezer bag, for posterity and a bit of history! :-) It had 12p written on the box - so maybe late 70s, early 80s?

On 'fairly' close inspection and feel, yes, it's obviously asbestos in there. Didn't bother seeing what it smelt like! ;-)

He also had a pack of the fibre Rawlplugs - the brown type. I trust they aren't full of amosite?

JW

[Adrian C]

Ours still has.

[Clot]

Sig Snip

Yep! Still got a pad of quarter inch thick asbestos lurking in the garage somewhere reserved for putting behind any pipework that needs soldering to protect whatever is behind such as wallpaper and skirting board!

[Clot]

Again lurking somewhere in the garage, I have some RawlPlastic awaiting for the occasion that it might be needed! I'm fairly certain that it has not been needed since our first purchased house in 1974! But... it might just come in useful .. you never know!

In fact that's made me think... Son 1 is in the process of purchasing a Victorian house. Ideal for those irregular holes!