The common forms of asbestos found in lumps have been lately largely used in some kinds of gas-stoves for heating purposes.
Common asbestos is not indigenous to any particular part of the globe, but occurs in abundance in most countries. It is found in the veins and seams of the serpentine formation of rocks, which am blasted to procure the fibre. The long, strong, fibrous quality, which is found in sufficient quantity for commercial purposes, is taken from the Italian Alps at elevations of several thousand feet ; in this district alone at least one hundred different varieties are found, and no two localith seem to yield precisely the same fibre. In Great Britain it occurs in Cornwall, Inverness, Aber deenshire, and in some islands in the north of Scotland. It also occurs in France, Italy, Hungary, Silesia, and very abundantly in Corsica, where it has been employed for packing minerals. In Greenland it is also found abundantly, and the fibres are still used by the inhabitants of this country for twisting into lamp wicks. Tho United States of America yield it in considerable quantities.
The price of asbestos ranges between 101. and 1001. per ton, according to the quality of the
fibre. Owing to the many uses to which it is being put, it is likely to rise very much higher in price. It Is only recently that asbestos, formerly nothing more than a mineral curiosity, has become an important article of commerce; but there is every reason to believe that this substance will yet receive a much wider application, and that it will ultimately become a staple manufacture of this and other lands.
There are three other varieties of asbestos, besides the one, called respectively mountain leather, mountain wood, and mountain cork. In these three varieties the fibres are not parallel as in the common one, but are interwoven. Mountain leather is yellowish-white and tough, as its name implies ; it is chiefly found at Waldeck Head in Lanarkshire. Mountain wood occurs in soft, tough masses; it has a brown colour, much resembling wood, and is found in Scotland, France, and the Tyrol. Mountain cork, or elastic asbestos, varies in colour from white to brown ; it is elastic and opaque, much resembling cork in appearance.