MINERAL WOOL OR MINERAL COTTON

from Appletons’ Annual Cyclopædia for 1891

[p.528] [A] filamentous substance produced from furnace slag, resembling wool or cotton in appearance, useful, by reason of its low conducting power, as packing to prevent the freezing of water pipes and the cooling of steam pipes and boilers, and also to keep out dampness, and as a protection against fire, it being incombustible.¶

The spray from the slag emitted from the volcano of Kilauea is blown by the wind into glassy fibers called the “Hair of Pele,” which have the same nature and character as slag wool, the process of manufacturing which was invented by John Player, and was patented at the United States Patent Office on May 31, 1870, and the patent was renewed on Feb. 1, 1870. The liquid slag issuing from a tap in the pig-iron furnace is conducted through a runnel formed by coal ashes on iron plates to the point where it is to be blown and allowed to fall in a stream about 1 centimetre thick for a distance of 15 centimetres, where it is met by a powerful blast of steam, which separates it into long filaments, as fine as hair and as white as wool, in which form it drops into the room constructed for its reception. This chamber is about 100 feet from the place where the jet of steam strikes the falling stream of slag. In some furnaces the slag is brought on cars in a molten state to the place where it is tapped and blown into the wool house. In the Krupp works at Essen, Germany, a blast of cold air is used, instead of a jet of steam, to blow the slag into filaments.¶

Ordinarily, pellets of slag of various sizes are found mingled with the wool-like mass. These are larger drops of the slag that the blast fails to divide thoroughly, and must be separated from the product. A process for preventing them from falling into the chamber by means of a second blast of steam or air striking the blown slag in its passage through the air transversely from below was patented in Germany by A. D. Elbers in 1877.¶

The light wool, blown upward by this second blast, falls into a basket, while the heavier pellets and lumps are not deflected from their original course. The long filaments are broken up into short ones, and the substance when ready for use has the appearance of wool waste. The handling of mineral wool is attended with some danger to the health, as the fine threads penetrate the skin easily, producing inflammation, and the dust when inhaled irritates the respiratory organs. In some furnaces, after the manufacture of this by-product was introduced it was afterward abandoned on account of the injurious effects on the health of the workmen.¶

The uses of mineral wool are many. As a packing and insulating material for steam pipes, boilers, and cylinders it rivals asbestos. It is used for the insulating layer in ice chests and ice cellars. As a protection against damp and for deadening sound it is used in board floors, and also in roofing. To guard materials exposed to damp and decay it finds various employments. In making telegraph cables a protective layer of mineral wool is often used. Another application is for the filtration of the corrosive fluids used in the manufacture of paper and pasteboard. For purposes of insulation cotton or linen hose filled with mineral wool is sometimes wrapped round the pipes or cylinders. Another method is to mix it with dissolved borax or alum, forming a soft mass like mortar that hardens and adheres to the parts that are to be insulated.

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