104-780: The Quincy Smelter , also known as the Quincy Smelting Works , is a former copper smelter located on the north side of the Keweenaw Waterway in Ripley, Michigan . It is a contributing property of the Quincy Mining Company Historic District , a National Historic Landmark District . The smelter was built in 1898 by the Quincy Mining Company , operating from 1898 to 1931 and again from 1948 to 1971. The smelter
208-565: A Bessemer converter or by other means including smelting reduction processes such as the Corex Process . Smelting has serious effects on the environment , producing wastewater and slag and releasing such toxic metals as copper , silver, iron, cobalt , and selenium into the atmosphere. Smelters also release gaseous sulfur dioxide , contributing to acid rain , which acidifies soil and water. The smelter in Flin Flon, Canada
312-415: A chemical reaction . Smelting, therefore, consists of using suitable reducing substances that combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal. In the case of sulfides and carbonates, a process called " roasting " removes the unwanted carbon or sulfur, leaving an oxide, which can be directly reduced. Roasting is usually carried out in an oxidizing environment. A few practical examples: Reduction
416-554: A 13-year timeframe, and that the EPA did not provide adequate evidence for the safety of alternative products. Until the mid-1980s, small amounts of white asbestos were used in the manufacture of Artex , a decorative stipple finish, however, some of the lesser-known suppliers of Artex-type materials were still adding white asbestos until 1999. Before the ban, asbestos was widely used in the construction industry in thousands of materials. Some are judged to be more dangerous than others due to
520-508: A Christian bishop living in 4th-century Egypt, references asbestos in one of his writings. Around the year 318, he wrote as follows: The natural property of fire is to burn. Suppose, then, that there was a substance such as the Indian asbestos is said to be, which had no fear of being burnt, but rather displayed the impotence of the fire by proving itself unburnable. If anyone doubted the truth of this, all he need do would be to wrap himself up in
624-774: A certified asbestos-testing laboratory found the tremolite form of amphibole asbestos used to be found in three out of eight popular brands of children's crayons that were made partly from talc: Crayola , Prang, and RoseArt. In Crayola crayons, the tests found asbestos levels around 0.05% in Carnation Pink and 2.86% in Orchid ; in Prang crayons, the range was from 0.3% in Periwinkle to 0.54% in Yellow ; in Rose Art crayons, it
728-424: A hammer to produce wrought iron . Some of the earliest evidence to date for the bloomery smelting of iron is found at Tell Hammeh , Jordan, radiocarbon-dated to c. 930 BC . From the medieval period, an indirect process began to replace the direct reduction in bloomeries. This used a blast furnace to make pig iron , which then had to undergo a further process to make forgeable bar iron. Processes for
832-633: A large number of early deaths and lung problems in asbestos-mining towns. The first such study was conducted by Murray at the Charing Cross Hospital , London , in 1900, in which a postmortem investigation discovered asbestos traces in the lungs of a young man who had died from pulmonary fibrosis after having worked for 14 years in an asbestos textile factory. Adelaide Anderson , the Inspector of Factories in Britain, included asbestos in
936-621: A list of harmful industrial substances in 1902. Similar investigations were conducted in France in 1906 and Italy in 1908. The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in the UK in 1924. Nellie Kershaw was employed at Turner Brothers Asbestos in Rochdale , Greater Manchester , England , from 1917, spinning raw asbestos fibre into yarn. Her death in 1924 led to a formal inquest. Pathologist William Edmund Cooke testified that his examination of
1040-709: A low concentration of sulfur dioxide that was difficult to capture; a new generation of copper smelting technologies has supplanted them. More recent furnaces exploit bath smelting, top-jetting lance smelting, flash smelting , and blast furnaces. Some examples of bath smelters include the Noranda furnace, the Isasmelt furnace, the Teniente reactor, the Vunyukov smelter, and the SKS technology. Top-jetting lance smelters include
1144-561: A materials analyst whose testimony on behalf of the asbestos industry has been accepted in lawsuits over 250 times, found its crayons tested negative for asbestos. In spite of that, in June 2000 Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola, and the other makers agreed to stop using talc in their products, and changed their product formulations in the United States. The mining company R T Vanderbilt Co of Gouverneur, New York , which supplied
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#17327835901611248-464: A potential health hazard and is no longer used at all. Amphiboles including amosite (brown asbestos) and crocidolite (blue asbestos) were formerly used in many products until the early 1980s. Tremolite asbestos constituted a contaminant of many if not all naturally occurring chrysotile deposits. The use of all types of asbestos in the amphibole group was banned in much of the Western world by
1352-481: A range of more complex organic compounds known collectively as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Treatment technologies include recycling of wastewater; settling basins , clarifiers and filtration systems for solids removal; oil skimmers and filtration; chemical precipitation and filtration for dissolved metals; carbon adsorption and biological oxidation for organic pollutants; and evaporation. Pollutants generated by other types of smelters varies with
1456-519: A reasonable doubt, the primary cause of the fibrosis of the lungs and therefore of death." As a result of Cooke's paper, Parliament commissioned an inquiry into the effects of asbestos dust by E. R. A. Merewether, Medical Inspector of Factories, and C. W. Price , a factory inspector and pioneer of dust monitoring and control. Their subsequent report, Occurrence of Pulmonary Fibrosis & Other Pulmonary Affections in Asbestos Workers ,
1560-526: Is burned at one end to melt the dry sulfide concentrates (usually after partial roasting) which are fed through openings in the roof of the furnace. The slag floats over the heavier matte and is removed and discarded or recycled. The sulfide matte is then sent to the converter . The precise details of the process vary from one furnace to another depending on the mineralogy of the ore body. While reverberatory furnaces produced slags containing very little copper, they were relatively energy inefficient and off-gassed
1664-433: Is converted into steel . Plants for the electrolytic reduction of aluminium are referred to as aluminium smelters . Smelting involves more than just melting the metal out of its ore. Most ores are the chemical compound of the metal and other elements, such as oxygen (as an oxide ), sulfur (as a sulfide ), or carbon and oxygen together (as a carbonate ). To extract the metal, workers must make these compounds undergo
1768-403: Is corrugated asbestos-cement sheets or "A/C sheets" for roofing and sidewalls. Millions of homes, factories, schools or sheds, and shelters continue to use asbestos. Cutting these sheets to size and drilling holes to receive 'J' bolts to help secure the sheets to roof framing is done on-site. There has been no significant change in production and use of A/C sheets in developing countries following
1872-542: Is easily produced during the heating process, and as a gas comes into intimate contact with the ore. In the Old World , humans learned to smelt metals in prehistoric times, more than 8000 years ago. The discovery and use of the "useful" metals – copper and bronze at first, then iron a few millennia later – had an enormous impact on human society. The impact was so pervasive that scholars traditionally divide ancient history into Stone Age , Bronze Age , and Iron Age . In
1976-491: Is not a material covered under CERCLA 's innocent purchaser defense. In the UK, the removal and disposal of asbestos and substances containing it are covered by the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 . U.S. asbestos consumption hit a peak of 804,000 tons in 1973; world asbestos demand peaked around 1977, with 25 countries producing nearly 4.8 million metric tons annually. In older buildings (e.g. those built before 1999 in
2080-408: Is occasionally found in commercially significant quantities. These minerals are primarily carbonates , sulfides , or oxides of the metal, mixed with other components such as silica and alumina . Roasting the carbonate and sulfide minerals in the air converts them to oxides. The oxides, in turn, are smelted into the metal. Carbon monoxide was (and is) the reducing agent of choice for smelting. It
2184-490: Is often necessary to use flux , such as limestone (or dolomite ), to remove the accompanying rock gangue as slag. This calcination reaction emits carbon dioxide. The required temperature varies both in absolute terms and in terms of the melting point of the base metal. Examples: Fluxes are materials added to the ore during smelting to catalyze the desired reactions and to chemically bind to unwanted impurities or reaction products. Calcium carbonate or calcium oxide in
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#17327835901612288-597: Is only marginally harder, and had even less impact by itself. The earliest evidence for iron-making is a small number of iron fragments with the appropriate amounts of carbon admixture found in the Proto-Hittite layers at Kaman-Kalehöyük and dated to 2200–2000 BC. Souckova-Siegolová (2001) shows that iron implements were made in Central Anatolia in very limited quantities around 1800 BC and were in general use by elites, though not by commoners, during
2392-430: Is oxidized in two stages. First, carbon (C) combusts with oxygen (O 2 ) in the air to produce carbon monoxide (CO). Second, the carbon monoxide reacts with the ore (e.g. Fe 2 O 3 ) and removes one of its oxygen atoms, releasing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). After successive interactions with carbon monoxide, all of the oxygen in the ore will be removed, leaving the raw metal element (e.g. Fe). As most ores are impure, it
2496-412: Is the final, high-temperature step in smelting, in which the oxide becomes the elemental metal. A reducing environment (often provided by carbon monoxide, made by incomplete combustion in an air-starved furnace) pulls the final oxygen atoms from the raw metal. The carbon source acts as a chemical reactant to remove oxygen from the ore, yielding the purified metal element as a product. The carbon source
2600-562: Is unknown. The first such bronzes may have been a lucky accident from tin-contaminated copper ores. However, by 2000 BC, people were mining tin on purpose to produce bronze—which is remarkable as tin is a semi-rare metal, and even a rich cassiterite ore only has 5% tin. The discovery of copper and bronze manufacture had a significant impact on the history of the Old World . Metals were hard enough to make weapons that were heavier, stronger, and more resistant to impact damage than wood, bone, or stone equivalents. For several millennia, bronze
2704-517: The Americas , pre- Inca civilizations of the central Andes in Peru had mastered the smelting of copper and silver at least six centuries before the first Europeans arrived in the 16th century, while never mastering the smelting of metals such as iron for use with weapon craft. Copper was the first metal to be smelted. How the discovery came about is debated. Campfires are about 200 °C short of
2808-489: The Hindu Kush . According to Biruni in his book Gems , any cloths made of asbestos ( Persian : آذرشست , āzarshost ) were called shostakeh ( Persian : شستكه ). Some Persians believed the fiber was the fur of an animal called the samandar ( Persian : سمندر ), which lived in fire and died when exposed to water; this was where the former belief originated that the salamander could tolerate fire. Charlemagne ,
2912-619: The New Hittite Empire (~1400–1200 BC). Archaeologists have found indications of iron working in Ancient Egypt , somewhere between the Third Intermediate Period and 23rd Dynasty (ca. 1100–750 BC). Significantly though, they have found no evidence of iron ore smelting in any (pre-modern) period. In addition, very early instances of carbon steel were in production around 2000 years ago (around
3016-951: The Urals of the Russian Empire in the 1880s, and the Alpine regions of Northern Italy with the formation in Turin of the Italo-English Pure Asbestos Company in 1876, although this was soon swamped by the greater production levels from the Canadian mines. Mining also took off in South Africa from 1893 under the aegis of the British businessman Francis Oates, the director of the De Beers company. It
3120-621: The 1600s, ultimately derives from the Ancient Greek : ἄσβεστος , meaning "unquenchable" or "inextinguishable". The name reflects use of the substance for wicks that would never burn up. It was adopted into English via the Old French abestos , which got the word from Greek via Latin , but in the original Greek, "asbestos" actually referred to quicklime . It is said by the Oxford English Dictionary that
3224-671: The 1850s but were unsuccessful in creating a market for such products. Canadian samples of asbestos were displayed in London in 1862, and the first companies were formed in England and Scotland to exploit this resource. Asbestos was first used in the manufacture of yarn, and German industrialist Louis Wertheim adopted this process in his factories in Germany. In 1871, the Patent Asbestos Manufacturing Company
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3328-630: The 1950s that talc products could be contaminated with asbestos. In 2020, laboratory tests of 21 talc-based cosmetics products found that 15 percent were contaminated with asbestos. In July 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) heightened its health warning about talc exposure. In a study published in The Lancet, the WHO changed its classification of talc from "possibly carcinogenic" to "probably carcinogenic." In 2000, tests in
3432-464: The 1970s. Many buildings constructed before the 1980s contain asbestos. The use of asbestos for construction and fireproofing has been made illegal in many countries. Despite this, around 255,000 people are thought to die each year from diseases related to asbestos exposure. In part, this is because many older buildings still contain asbestos; in addition, the consequences of exposure can take decades to arise. The latency period (from exposure until
3536-542: The Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops in the United Kingdom noted the negative health effects of asbestos, the contribution having been made by Lucy Deane Streatfeild , one of the first women factory inspectors . In 1899, H. Montague Murray noted the negative health effects of asbestos. The first documented death related to asbestos was in 1906. In the early 1900s, researchers began to notice
3640-463: The European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and New Zealand. A notable exception is the United States, where asbestos continues to be used in construction such as cement asbestos pipes. The 5th Circuit Court prevented the EPA from banning asbestos in 1991 because EPA research showed the ban would cost between US$ 450 and 800 million while only saving around 200 lives in
3744-601: The Franklin, Adventure , Allouez, and Centennial mines. As a result of low copper prices and the onset of the Great Depression , the Quincy Mining Company ceased operations on September 22, 1931. The company boarded up facilities including the smelter. The mine itself remained closed from 1931 through 1936, until an increase in copper prices in 1937 prompted reopening the mine. Instead of reopening
3848-465: The Libby mine was used as insulation in residential and commercial buildings through Canada and the United States. W. R. Grace and Company's loose-fill vermiculite was marketed as Zonolite but was also used in sprayed-on products such as Monokote . In 1999, the EPA began cleanup efforts in Libby and now the area is a Superfund cleanup area. The EPA has determined that harmful asbestos is released from
3952-546: The Mitsubishi smelting reactor. Flash smelters account for over 50% of the world's copper smelters. There are many more varieties of smelting processes, including the Kivset, Ausmelt, Tamano, EAF, and BF. Of the seven metals known in antiquity , only gold regularly occurs in nature as a native metal . The others – copper , lead , silver , tin , iron , and mercury – occur primarily as minerals, although native copper
4056-525: The Quincy Smelter, smelting was handled by Calumet and Hecla . Because prices remained elevated during World War II , in June 1942 Quincy built a reclamation plant on Torch Lake near its stamp mills to recover copper from the large volume of tailings in the lake. The reclamation plant began operating in November 1943, and made use of a floating dredge that vacuumed tailings from the lake. With
4160-497: The UK, before white asbestos was banned), asbestos may still be present in some areas. Being aware of asbestos locations reduces the risk of disturbing asbestos. Removal of asbestos building components can also remove the fire protection they provide, therefore fire protection substitutes are required for proper fire protection that the asbestos originally provided. Some countries, such as India , Indonesia, China and Russia, have continued widespread use of asbestos. The most common
4264-607: The UK, the Health and Safety Executive have issued guidance called HSG264 describing how surveys should be completed although other methods can be used if they can demonstrate they have met the regulations by other means. The EPA includes some, but not all, asbestos-contaminated facilities on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). Renovation and demolition of asbestos-contaminated buildings are subject to EPA NESHAP and OSHA Regulations. Asbestos
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4368-539: The air following the buildings' destruction. Inhalation of a mixture of asbestos and other toxicants is thought to be linked to the unusually high death rate from cancer of emergency service workers since the disaster. Thousands more are now thought to be at risk of developing cancer due to this exposure with those who have died so far being only the "tip of the iceberg". In May 2002, after numerous cleanup, dust collection, and air monitoring activities were conducted outdoors by EPA, other federal agencies, New York City, and
4472-409: The amount of asbestos and the material's friable nature. Sprayed coatings, pipe insulation, and Asbestos Insulating Board (AIB) are thought to be the most dangerous due to their high content of asbestos and friable nature. Many older buildings built before the late 1990s contain asbestos. In the United States, there is a minimum standard for asbestos surveys as described by ASTM standard E 2356–18. In
4576-418: The ancient world. It is too soft to use for structural elements or weapons, though its high density relative to other metals makes it ideal for sling projectiles. However, since it was easy to cast and shape, workers in the classical world of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome used it extensively to pipe and store water. They also used it as a mortar in stone buildings. Tin was much less common than lead,
4680-506: The atmosphere by abrasion and other processes. Inhalation of asbestos fibres can lead to various dangerous lung conditions, including mesothelioma , asbestosis , and lung cancer . As a result of these health effects, asbestos is considered a serious health and safety hazard . Archaeological studies have found evidence of asbestos being used as far back as the Stone Age to strengthen ceramic pots, but large-scale mining began at
4784-461: The base metal ore. For example, aluminum smelters typically generate fluoride , benzo(a)pyrene , antimony and nickel, as well as aluminum. Copper smelters typically discharge cadmium, lead, zinc , arsenic and nickel, in addition to copper. Lead smelters may discharge antimony , asbestos, cadmium, copper and zinc, in addition to lead. Labourers working in the smelting industry have reported respiratory illnesses inhibiting their ability to perform
4888-494: The bodies of their kings to preserve only their ashes and to prevent the ashes being mixed with those of wood or other combustible materials commonly used in funeral pyres . Others assert that these peoples used asbestos to make perpetual wicks for sepulchral or other lamps. A famous example is the golden lamp asbestos lychnis , which the sculptor Callimachus made for the Erechtheion . In more recent centuries, asbestos
4992-434: The bonds in the ore. Sulfide ores such as those commonly used to obtain copper, zinc or lead, are roasted before smelting in order to convert the sulfides to oxides, which are more readily reduced to the metal. Roasting heats the ore in the presence of oxygen from air, oxidizing the ore and liberating the sulfur as sulfur dioxide gas. Smelting most prominently takes place in a blast furnace to produce pig iron , which
5096-530: The boundaries of the Keweenaw National Historical Park. In 2016, ASM International designated the Quincy Smelter as an ASM Historical Landmark. The Quincy Smelter site juts out from the shoreline of the Keweenaw Waterway , built on stamp sands from the former Pewabic mill. The smelter has two docks, a 350 feet (110 m) shipping wharf that was used for copper and a 250 feet (76 m) wharf used for coal deliveries. Most of
5200-553: The detrimental effects of asbestos on human beings, examination of the primary sources reveals no support for either claim. In China, accounts of obtaining huo huan bu ( 火浣布 ) or "fire-laundered cloth" certainly dates to the Wei dynasty, and there are claims they were known as early as in the Zhou dynasty , though not substantiated except in writings thought to date much later (see huoshu or "fire rat"). Athanasius of Alexandria ,
5304-493: The diagnosis of negative health effects) is typically 20 years. The most common diseases associated with chronic asbestos exposure are asbestosis (scarring of the lungs due to asbestos inhalation) and mesothelioma (a type of cancer). Many developing countries still support the use of asbestos as a building material , and mining of asbestos is ongoing, with the top producer, Russia , having an estimated production of 790,000 tonnes in 2020. The word "asbestos", first used in
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#17327835901615408-408: The discovery happened several millennia before the invention of writing, there is no written record of how it was made. However, tin and lead can be smelted by placing the ores in a wood fire, leaving the possibility that the discovery may have occurred by accident. Recent scholarship however has called this find into question. Lead is a common metal, but its discovery had relatively little impact in
5512-440: The early 15th century, but this usage was superseded by "asbestos". The word is pronounced / æ s ˈ b ɛ s t ə s / or / æ s ˈ b ɛ s t ɒ s / . Asbestos has been used for thousands of years to create flexible objects that resist fire, including napkins, but, in the modern era, companies began producing consumer goods containing asbestos on an industrial scale. Today, the risk of asbestos has been recognized;
5616-488: The end of the 19th century when its diverse applications included fire-retardant coatings, concrete, bricks, pipes and fireplace cement, heat-, fire-, and acid-resistant gaskets, pipe insulation, ceiling insulation, fireproof drywall, flooring, roofing, lawn furniture, and drywall joint compound. In 2011, it was reported that over 50% of UK houses still contained asbestos, despite a ban on asbestos products some years earlier. In Japan, particularly after World War II , asbestos
5720-453: The end of the 19th century when manufacturers and builders began using asbestos for its desirable physical properties. Asbestos is an excellent thermal and electrical insulator , and is highly fire resistant, so for much of the 20th century, it was very commonly used around the world as a building material (particularly for its fire-retardant properties), until its adverse effects on human health were more widely recognized and acknowledged in
5824-598: The end of the war, copper prices again decreased and the mine ceased operations permanently on September 1, 1945. However, the reclamation project continued as it was very productive and less expensive than mining. In June 1948, the Quincy Smelter reopened as Calumet and Hecla was no longer able to meet Quincy's needs. Around the same time, the Copper Range Company closed the Michigan Smelter and contracted its smelting needs with Quincy. Reclamation
5928-513: The establishment of trade networks that spanned large areas of Europe and Asia and had a major effect on the distribution of wealth among individuals and nations. The earliest known cast lead beads were thought to be in the Çatalhöyük site in Anatolia ( Turkey ), and dated from about 6500 BC. However, recent research has discovered that this was not lead, but rather cerussite and galena, minerals rich in, but distinct from, lead. Since
6032-498: The first Holy Roman Emperor (800–814), is also said to have possessed such a tablecloth. Marco Polo recounts having been shown, in a place he calls Ghinghin talas , "a good vein from which the cloth which we call of salamander, which cannot be burnt if it is thrown into the fire, is made ..." The large-scale asbestos industry began in the mid-19th century. Early attempts at producing asbestos paper and cloth in Italy began in
6136-454: The first-century .) in northwest Tanzania , based on complex preheating principles. These discoveries are significant for the history of metallurgy. Most early processes in Europe and Africa involved smelting iron ore in a bloomery , where the temperature is kept low enough so that the iron does not melt. This produces a spongy mass of iron called a bloom, which then must be consolidated with
6240-520: The form of lime are often used for this purpose, since they react with sulfur, phosphorus, and silicon impurities to allow them to be readily separated and discarded, in the form of slag. Fluxes may also serve to control the viscosity and neutralize unwanted acids. Flux and slag can provide a secondary service after the reduction step is complete; they provide a molten cover on the purified metal, preventing contact with oxygen while still hot enough to readily oxidize. This prevents impurities from forming in
6344-477: The late 1890s, the quantity of rock mined by Quincy justified the company building its own smelter. In May 1898, the Quincy Mining Company started construction of the Quincy Smelter on the stamp sands of the old Pewabic mill; Quincy had acquired the Pewabic Mining Company in 1891. The shoreline was dredged and pilings were inserted for the loading dock. This was followed by laying foundations for
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#17327835901616448-442: The lungs indicated old scarring indicative of a previous, healed tuberculosis infection, and extensive fibrosis , in which were visible "particles of mineral matter ... of various shapes, but the large majority have sharp angles." Having compared these particles with samples of asbestos dust provided by S. A. Henry, His Majesty's Medical Inspector of Factories, Cooke concluded that they "originated from asbestos and were, beyond
6552-474: The mainland headquarters of Isle Royale National Park to the smelter site. In September 2010, a fire destroyed the carpentry shop and damaged a wood storage lean-to on the site. The Quincy Smelter was removed from the list of Superfund sites in 2013. In 2014, Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission purchased the smelter from Franklin Township. In late 2015, an ice house was demolished as it
6656-515: The metal. The ores of base metals are often sulfides. In recent centuries, reverberatory furnaces have been used to keep the charge being smelted separately from the fuel. Traditionally, they were used for the first step of smelting: forming two liquids, one an oxide slag containing most of the impurities, and the other a sulfide matte containing the valuable metal sulfide and some impurities. Such "reverb" furnaces are today about 40 meters long, 3 meters high, and 10 meters wide. Fuel
6760-483: The mid-1980s, and in Japan by 1995. Some products that included amphibole types of asbestos included the following: Cigarette manufacturer Lorillard ( Kent's filtered cigarette ) used crocidolite asbestos in its "Micronite" filter from 1952 to 1956. While mostly chrysotile asbestos fibers were once used in automobile brake pads , shoes, and clutch discs , contaminants of amphiboles were present. Since approximately
6864-407: The mid-1990s, brake pads, new or replacement, have been manufactured instead with linings made of ceramic, carbon, metallic, and aramid fiber ( Twaron or Kevlar —the same material used in bulletproof vests ). Artificial Christmas snow, known as flocking, was previously made with asbestos. It was used as an effect in films including The Wizard of Oz and department store window displays and it
6968-530: The mine as well as through other activities that disturb soil in the area. Talc can sometimes be contaminated with asbestos due to the proximity of asbestos ore (usually tremolite ) in underground talc deposits. By 1973, US federal law required all talc products to be asbestos-free. Separating cosmetic-grade talc (e.g. talcum powder) from industrial-grade talc (often used in friction products) has largely eliminated this issue for consumers. Cosmetics companies, including Johnson & Johnson, have known since
7072-513: The national rate. Thousands of tons of asbestos were used in World War II ships to insulate piping, boilers, steam engines, and steam turbines. There were approximately 4.3 million shipyard workers in the United States during the war; for every 1,000 workers, about 14 died of mesothelioma and an unknown number died of asbestosis. The United States government and the asbestos industry have been criticized for not acting quickly enough to inform
7176-722: The oldest evidence, now appears to be hammered, native copper. Combining copper with tin and/or arsenic in the right proportions produces bronze , an alloy that is significantly harder than copper. The first copper/arsenic bronzes date from 4200 BC from Asia Minor . The Inca bronze alloys were also of this type. Arsenic is often an impurity in copper ores, so the discovery could have been made by accident. Eventually, arsenic-bearing minerals were intentionally added during smelting. Copper–tin bronzes, harder and more durable, were developed around 3500 BC, also in Asia Minor. How smiths learned to produce copper/tin bronzes
7280-480: The only remaining copper smelter in the world of its era. On February 10, 1989, the Quincy Mining Company Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was named a National Historic Landmark District . At the time of nomination, there were 25 contributing buildings and 15 non-contributing buildings in the historic district at the smelter site. The smelter is also within
7384-573: The opening of the Quebec Central Railway in 1876, mining entrepreneurs such as Andrew Stuart Johnson established the asbestos industry in the province. The 50-ton output of the mines in 1878 rose to over 10,000 tonnes in the 1890s with the adoption of machine technologies and expanded production. For a long time, the world's largest asbestos mine was the Jeffrey mine in the town of Asbestos, Quebec . Asbestos production began in
7488-412: The ore, driving off other elements as gases or slag and leaving the metal behind. The reducing agent is commonly a fossil-fuel source of carbon , such as carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion of coke —or, in earlier times, of charcoal . The oxygen in the ore binds to carbon at high temperatures, as the chemical potential energy of the bonds in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is lower than that of
7592-700: The physical tasks demanded by their jobs. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has published pollution control regulations for smelters. Asbestos Asbestos ( / æ s ˈ b ɛ s t ə s , æ z -, - t ɒ s / ass- BES -təs, az-, -toss ) is a group of naturally occurring, toxic , carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals . There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals , each fibre ( particulate with length substantially greater than width) being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into
7696-629: The potential as well, but asbestos may have the greatest potential and is the subject of research now in progress in an emerging field of scientific study to examine it. The most common type of asbestos, chrysotile, chemically reacts with CO 2 to produce ecologically stable magnesium carbonate . Chrysotile , like all types of asbestos, has a large surface area that provides more places for chemical reactions to occur, compared to most other naturally occurring materials. The use of asbestos in new construction projects has been banned for health and safety reasons in many developed countries or regions, including
7800-471: The primary smelter buildings: the reverberatory furnace building and the cupola furnace building. By the end of 1898, over a dozen buildings had been built on the smelter site. The smelter began operation on December 1, 1898. The smelter was estimated to save the Quincy Mining Company approximately $ 100,000 per year. Aside from processing copper from the Quincy Mine, the smelter also did business with
7904-441: The public of dangers and to reduce public exposure. In the late 1970s, court documents proved that asbestos industry officials knew of asbestos dangers since the 1930s and had concealed them from the public. In Australia, asbestos was widely used in construction and other industries between 1946 and 1980. From the 1970s, there was increasing concern about the dangers of asbestos, and following community and union campaigning, its use
8008-585: The second stage include fining in a finery forge . In the 13th century during the High Middle Ages the blast furnace was introduced by China who had been using it since as early as 200 b.c during the Qin dynasty . [1] Puddling was also introduced in the Industrial Revolution . Both processes are now obsolete, and wrought iron is now rarely made. Instead, mild steel is produced from
8112-444: The serpentine group. In the United States, chrysotile has been the most commonly used type of asbestos. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Asbestos Building Inspectors Manual, chrysotile accounts for approximately 95% of asbestos found in buildings in the United States. Chrysotile is often present in a wide variety of products and materials, including: In the European Union and Australia, it has been banned as
8216-516: The shoreline. In 2008, all the remaining asbestos from the site was removed (from a total of twelve buildings). One smokestack at the smelter was also removed in 2008 as it had become hazardous. Public tours of the smelter began as early as 2009. In the first years, tours could not go inside the smelter buildings because of contamination and structure instability. As early as 2010, the National Park Service had plans to possibly move
8320-431: The site and the township built a water tank for the project. However, QDC pulled out, and the township was given the smelter in lieu of payment for the tank. In 2004, the EPA took action to clean up and stabilize the smelter site. The agency removed laboratory chemicals and tested for asbestos . An 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) chain link fence was built around the site, and geotextile fabric and riprap were added to stabilize
8424-415: The smelter buildings are built of Jacobsville Sandstone . Copper smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron , copper , silver , tin , lead and zinc . Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to decompose
8528-669: The state of Michigan, Quincy abandoned the smelter and transferred ownership to the Quincy Development Corporation. In 1986, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed the Torch Lake Superfund site on the National Priorities List , with the Quincy Smelter included as an Area of Concern. In 1999, Franklin Township acquired the smelter from the Quincy Development Corporation. QDC had planned to build condominiums on
8632-837: The state of New York, New York City formally requested federal assistance to clean and test residences in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site for airborne asbestos. Vermiculite is a hydrated laminar magnesium-aluminum-iron silicate that resembles mica . It can be used for many industrial applications and has been used as insulation. Some deposits of vermiculite are contaminated with small amounts of asbestos. One vermiculite mine operated by W. R. Grace and Company in Libby, Montana exposed workers and community residents to danger by mining vermiculite contaminated with asbestos, typically richterite , winchite, actinolite or tremolite . Vermiculite contaminated with asbestos from
8736-418: The substance in question and then touch the fire." Wealthy Persians amazed guests by cleaning a cloth by exposing it to fire . For example, according to Tabari , one of the curious items belonging to Khosrow II Parviz, the great Sassanian king (r. 590–628), was a napkin ( Persian : منديل ) that he cleaned simply by throwing it into fire. Such cloth is believed to have been made of asbestos imported over
8840-512: The talc to the crayon makers, states that "to the best of our knowledge and belief" there had never been any asbestos-related disease among the company's workers. However media reports claim that the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) had found asbestos in four talc samples tested in 2000. The Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health subsequently wrote to the news reporter, stating that "In fact,
8944-651: The temperature needed, so some propose that the first smelting of copper may have occurred in pottery kilns . (The development of copper smelting in the Andes, which is believed to have occurred independently of the Old World , may have occurred in the same way. ) The earliest current evidence of copper smelting, dating from between 5500 BC and 5000 BC, has been found in Pločnik and Belovode, Serbia. A mace head found in Turkey and dated to 5000 BC, once thought to be
9048-593: The use of asbestos is completely banned in 66 countries and strictly regulated in many others. Asbestos use dates back at least 4,500 years, when the inhabitants of the Lake Juojärvi region in East Finland strengthened earthenware pots and cooking utensils with the asbestos mineral anthophyllite ; archaeologists call this style of pottery " asbestos-ceramic ". Some archaeologists believe that ancient peoples made shrouds of asbestos, wherein they burned
9152-578: The widespread restrictions in developed nations. As New York City 's World Trade Center collapsed following the September 11 attacks , Lower Manhattan was blanketed in a mixture of building debris and combustible materials. This complex mixture gave rise to the concern that thousands of residents and workers in the area would be exposed to known hazards in the air and dust, such as asbestos, lead, glass fibers, and pulverized concrete. More than 1,000 tons of asbestos are thought to have been released into
9256-642: The word was wrongly used by Pliny for what we now call asbestos, and that he popularized the misnomer . Asbestos was originally referred to in Greek as amiantos , meaning "undefiled", because when thrown into a fire it came out unmarked. "Amiantos" is the source for the word for asbestos in many languages, such as the Portuguese amianto and the French amiante . It had also been called "amiant" in English in
9360-514: The word ἀσβεστος or ασβέστης stands consistently and solely for lime . The term asbestos is traceable to Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder 's first-century manuscript Natural History and his use of the term asbestinon , meaning "unquenchable"; he described the mineral as being more expensive than pearls . While Pliny or his nephew Pliny the Younger is popularly credited with recognising
9464-650: Was affecting the pH of the surrounding groundwater. In 2017, the National Park Service decided that it would not move the headquarters of Isle Royale National Park to the smelter site. The Quincy Smelter is the only remaining copper smelter in the United States from the early 20th century. It is described by the EPA as the "best preserved copper smelter" in the United States, and by the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission as possibly
9568-626: Was established in Glasgow , and during the following decades, the Clydebank area became a centre for the nascent industry. Industrial-scale mining began in the Thetford hills , Quebec , from the 1870s. Sir William Edmond Logan was the first to notice the large deposits of chrysotile in the hills in his capacity as head of Geological Survey of Canada . Samples of the minerals from there were displayed in London and elicited much interest. With
9672-466: Was first used in medical literature in 1931; its association with asbestos was first noted sometime in the 1940s. Similar legislation followed in the U.S. about ten years later. Approximately 100,000 people in the United States have died, or are terminally ill, from asbestos exposure related to shipbuilding. In the Hampton Roads area, a shipbuilding center, mesothelioma occurrence is seven times
9776-595: Was from 0.03% in Brown to 1.20% in Orange . Overall, 32 different types of crayons from these brands used to contain more than trace amounts of asbestos, and eight others contained trace amounts. The Art and Creative Materials Institute , a trade association which tested the safety of crayons on behalf of the makers, initially insisted the test results must have been incorrect, although they later said they do not test for asbestos. In May 2000, Crayola said tests by Richard Lee,
9880-733: Was in South Africa that the production of amosite began in 1910. The U.S. asbestos industry had an early start in 1858 when fibrous anthophyllite was mined for use as asbestos insulation by the Johns Company, a predecessor to the current Johns Manville , at a quarry at Ward's Hill on Staten Island, New York . US production began in earnest in 1899 with the discovery of large deposits in Belvidere Mountain in Vermont. The use of asbestos became increasingly widespread toward
9984-546: Was indeed used for this purpose. A once-purported first description of asbestos occurs in Theophrastus , On Stones , from around 300 BC, but this identification has been refuted. In both modern and ancient Greek , the usual name for the material known in English as "asbestos" is amiantos ("undefiled", "pure"), which was adapted into the French as amiante and into Spanish and Portuguese as amianto . In modern Greek ,
10088-572: Was interrupted twice: in January 1956 from the loss of one dredge in a storm, and for ten months in 1958. After the loss of the first dredge, Quincy Dredge Number Two operated until the stamp sands were exhausted in 1967. Also in 1967, the last Copper Range mine, the Champion Mine , closed. In 1968, natural gas burners were installed on the number 5 furnace for melting scrap copper until 1971. In 1971, because of new environmental regulations from
10192-483: Was marketed for use in private homes under brand names that included "Pure White", "Snow Drift" and "White Magic". The potential for use of asbestos to mitigate climate change has been raised. Although the adverse aspects of mining of minerals, including health effects, must be taken into account, exploration of the use of mineral wastes to sequester carbon is being studied. The use of mining waste materials from nickel , copper , diamond , and platinum mines have
10296-1041: Was one of the largest point sources of mercury in North America in the 20th century. Even after smelter releases were drastically reduced, landscape re-emission continued to be a major regional source of mercury. Lakes will likely receive mercury contamination from the smelter for decades, from both re-emissions returning as rainwater and leaching of metals from the soil. Air pollutants generated by aluminium smelters include carbonyl sulfide , hydrogen fluoride , polycyclic compounds , lead, nickel , manganese , polychlorinated biphenyls , and mercury . Copper smelter emissions include arsenic, beryllium , cadmium , chromium , lead, manganese, and nickel. Lead smelters typically emit arsenic, antimony , cadmium and various lead compounds. Wastewater pollutants discharged by iron and steel mills includes gasification products such as benzene , naphthalene , anthracene , cyanide , ammonia , phenols and cresols , together with
10400-529: Was part of a Superfund site from 1986 to 2013. The Quincy Mining Company incorporated in 1848. Like other mines in the area, Quincy had its own stamp mills , but did not produce enough copper to justify the investment of operating its own smelter . Before 1860, when the Lake Superior Smelter opened in Hancock , copper was shipped out to be smelted in cities such as Boston or Detroit. By
10504-525: Was phased out, with mining having ceased in 1983. The use of asbestos was phased out in 1989 and banned entirely in December 2003. The dangers of asbestos are now well known in Australia, and there is help and support for those suffering from asbestosis or mesothelioma. Serpentine minerals have a sheet or layered structure. Chrysotile (commonly known as white asbestos) is the only asbestos mineral in
10608-547: Was presented to Parliament on 24 March 1930. It concluded that the development of asbestosis was irrefutably linked to the prolonged inhalation of asbestos dust, and included the first health study of asbestos workers, which found that 66% of those employed for 20 years or more suffered from asbestosis. The report led to the publication of the first asbestos industry regulations in 1931, which came into effect on 1 March 1932. These rules regulated ventilation and made asbestosis an excusable work-related disease. The term mesothelioma
10712-526: Was the material of choice for weapons such as swords , daggers , battle axes , and spear and arrow points, as well as protective gear such as shields , helmets , greaves (metal shin guards), and other body armor . Bronze also supplanted stone, wood, and organic materials in tools and household utensils—such as chisels , saws , adzes , nails , blade shears , knives , sewing needles and pins , jugs , cooking pots and cauldrons , mirrors , and horse harnesses . Tin and copper also contributed to
10816-402: Was used in the manufacture of ammonium sulfate for purposes of rice production, sprayed upon the ceilings, iron skeletons, and walls of railroad cars and buildings (during the 1960s), and used for energy efficiency reasons as well. Production of asbestos in Japan peaked in 1974 and went through ups and downs until about 1990 when production began to drop dramatically. The 1898 Annual Report of
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