n 1860, Thomas M. Armstrong, the son of Scotish-Irish immigrants from Londonderry, joined with John D. Glass to open a one-room shop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, carving bottle stoppers from cork by hand. Their first deliveries were made in a wheelbarrow. He was a business pioneer in some respects: he branded each cork he shipped as early as 1864, and soon was putting a written guarantee in each burlap bag of corks he shipped from his big new factory. The company grew to be the largest cork supplier in the world by the 1890s. The company incorporated in 1891. Cork began being displaced by other closures, but the company introduced insulating corkboard and brick. In 1906, two years before he died, Thomas Armstrong concluded that the solid foundation of the future was covered with linoleum, and construction began on a new factory in a cornfield at the edge of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1909, Armstrong linoleum was first offered to the trade. After corkboard, the logical move was to fiberboard, and then to ceiling board. Cork tile and linoleum led to vinyl flooring, then ceramic tile, laminate flooring and carpeting. Armstrong Holdings Inc. used to produce asbestos, either of two incombustible, chemical-resistant, fibrous mineral forms of impure magnesium silicate, used for fireproofing, electrical insulation, building materials, brake linings, and chemical filters, before they started to manufacture interior furnishings, however, on November 16, 2000 it was reported that …
Posts Tagged ‘Tile’
1965 Armstong asbestos tile commercial
Monday, March 15th, 2010Asbestos Tile Source Guide
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Asbestos tiles were pretty popular back then in the US from 1920 to the 1960s. Nobody knew anything about the side effects of asbestos. Asbestos were used to manufacture brake pads, filtered cigarettes, electric ovens, battle ships, even asbestos tiles! Imagine that.Then somebody came along and blew the whistle on asbestos and said, “Asbestos is responsible for serious respiratory illnesses such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer. Do you want my filtered cigarette?”Since then many countries have banned the use of asbestos in many common household and industry items. Asbestos tiles went out of style. Or at least it was supposed to.According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, asbestos content in floor and ceiling tiles is safe as long as it doesn’t exceed 1%. But problem is it can range anywhere from 0% to 70%, which is more than enough to poison everyone living under the roof.The color of the tile is a good indicator of its asbestos content. Dark colored tiles usually have higher concentrations of asbestos, but of course that doesn’t mean all dark colored tiles contain asbestos. Always make it a point to ask the dealer to show you only asbestos-free tiles.The thing with asbestos tiles is that they are safe as long as the asbestos doesn’t spread into the air. This happens when the tile is cracked or chipped by another hard object.For this reason, asbestos tiles are much safer to use as ceiling tiles than floor tiles. But even so, avoid using asbestos tiles if you can help it – floor or ceiling.For more information and tips On Asbestos Tile Source Guide visit, http://asbestos-tile.info
Tile / Linoleum Installers – Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Risks
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
Although asbestos is tightly regulated in the US, it is not yet banned, and remains in many commercial products, including tiles and linoleum. For this reason, tile and linoleum installers have a greater risk than the general population of contracting the asbestos cancer mesothelioma.