T. Wilson Brown Asbestos, Feldspar and Soapstone Mine


Location: between Stoney Lane and Airport Road, West Nottingham

Newspaper Clippings

Daily Local News
15th May 1875


Asbestos Mine Discovered

Mr. J.[sic] W. Brown, residing in West Nottingham twp., proprietor of the Chromedale mills, has discovered a vein of asbestos on his farm which bids fair to become a mine of wealth to him. He began digging last Monday, and had already succeeded in taking out over one ton of the valuable deposit, which he ships to a firm in New York city who have engaged to pay him $80 per ton delivered on the cars at Nottingham Station. Asbestos is a fibrous mineral, the fibers of which are very long, flexible and easily separated by the fingers, resembling flax. It is composed of tremolite, actmolite, and other forms of hornblende, excepting those containing much alumina, and has been supposed to be a vegetable production, although good for making incombustible cloth. The amianthus of the Greeks and Latins was the same; the word meaning undefiled and alluding to the facility for cleaning the cloth by throwing it into the fire. The colors vary from white to green to wood brown. The name amianthus is now applied usually to the finer and more silky kinds. The ancients were familiar with the combustibility of asbestos, and wove cloth of it for the purpose of wrapping up the bodies of the dead when exposed on the funeral pile; they have also made napkins of it, which were cleaned by throwing them onto the fire; and they have employed the finer varieties for the wicking of votive lamps. Gloves for handling hot iron, and firemen’s clothing have been made of it in Bohemia and France; at one time it was thought that an important industry would grow out of this application, but experience has developed some practical difficulties asbestos fabrics are now a curiosity. The use of this mineral for the non-conduction envelope of steam pipes, for fire-proof roofing, and for safes, bids fair to become extensive. Asbestos is found in abundance in Switzerland, Italy, Scotland, on the Island of Corsica, and on Staten Island, and numerous other localities. A magnesium-iron hornblende, called amthophyllite frequently, occurs as a boulder on the island of New York.

We understand that the vein discovered by Mr. Brown is about 18 feet deep, and West Nottingham bids fair to become noted for its great mineral wealth.

Daily Local News 13th July 1875

Great Mineral Deposits

Some few weeks ago we spoke of a vein of asbestos having been discovered of Mr. T. Wilson Brown, in West Nottingham township, which gave promise of proving a deposit of considerable magnitude and value. Since then Mr. Brown was unearthed what gives promise of being two valuable deposits of Soapstone or Steatite, and the other of Feldspar. The first named is of a very rare and superior quality, being soft and perfectly free from any granite or hard substances, thereby making it quite valuable for the uses for which it is chiefly adapted. When it is very strongly heated, it looses the small portion of combined water, which it invariably contains, and becomes harder and susceptible of a very fine polish. In this state it is made into jets for gas burners, which have the advantage of not being liable to rust or corrosion. When reduced to a powder, it is used like plumbago, as a lubricator and to diminish friction, as well as to give a surface to some kinds of paper-hangings. It is also made use of in some manner in the manufacture of rubber shoes and other ware made of rubber material.

The Feldspar deposit is equally good in point of quality, and the market for this mineral is both a continuous and lucrative one. There are several kinds of this mineral, and of them may be fused before the blowpipe to a more or less vitreous enamel, and this property causes them to be extensively used for glazing porcelain. Some of the varieties also partake of a dazzling splendor when subjected to a high order of polish, which renders them quite valuable as articles of jewelry. In general terms, the decomposition of the feldspathic rocks has furnished the principle parts of the various clays, those containing the largest proportion of feldspar affording the finest deposits, such as kaolin, of which porcelain is made. The soil derived from them, particularly from the common potash species, is noted for its fertility when under good cultivation, on account of them furnishing a large supply of potash, and important constituent of plants. The feldspars are in all cases anhydrous double silicates consisting of silicate of alumina combined with a silicate of some one or more of the protoxides of potash, soda, lithia, baryta, or lime.

Mr. Brown has on his premises a grist mill, in which he purposes grinding both the feldspar and soapstone into such powders as shall be fit for shipment and immediate use. Parties from Philadelphia have visited the mine and made Mr. B. some liberal offers for these products by the ton, but he prefers to look about for a market himself before entering into any contract for their sale.

As to the asbestos, operations have been temporarily suspended owing to an accumulation of water in the mine, but he hopes soon to have all obstacles removed, and the work of developing the hidden treasures of his farm begun and pushed forward in lively earnestness. Should either of these deposits prove to be what it promises, that portion of Chester county will speedily be made the scene of envied activity and luxuriousness. Mr. Brown’s farm lies a little distance east of that tract know far and wide as “The Barrens.”