only comparatively small quantities of domestic origin being obtainable. Both these articles enter the United States free of duty.

Equipment. Machines in use are largely automatic. Only a small amount of hand labor is required to produce the finished article. Labor is chiefly employed to handle the raw materials and finished products.

In this industry there is practically the same use of machinery in foreign countries as in the United States.

In

Methods of production.-Two distinct processes for making asbestos shingles-one American, the other Austrian-are now in use. both high compression is necessary.

American method. In the American process the shingles are rolled. The mixed dry material-asbestos fibers and cement is automatically fed from a hopper to a traveling belt, evenly distributed and combed out before passing between rolls. The machine is automatic. Its operation, for example, when finished slabs of fiber concrete three-sixteenths of an inch thick are desired is as follows: The hopper gate is adjusted and the picker rolls arranged so that the feed of material and the combing and leveling operation of the picker rolls deliver a band or layer of material about three-fourths of an inch thick to the traveling belt. The pressure exerted by the rolls is so adjusted that a layer of material passing between the rolls is compacted, while still dry, to about one-half (three-eighths inch) its original depth. This compression gives the layer of material sufficient consistency to enable it to be projected across a slight gap to a belt on the "wet" part of the machine. After thus leaving the dry" division of the machine, the layer of dry compressed material is supplied from a vibrating sprinkler pipe with water, which penetrates all parts of the layer before the material reaches a second set of pressure rolls. These pressure rolls in the "wet" division of the machine are so adjusted as to compress the wet layer of material to a thickness of three-sixteenths of an inch. Slabs or sheets of sizes desired for the finished shingles are automatically cut from the layer. The sheets of fiber concrete then are stacked up, with metal sheets between the layers, in presses to dry. The pressure applied is from 8,000 to 10,000 pounds to the square inch and firmly unites the composition.1

Austrian method. The Austrian process makes use of a cardboard machine. The asbestos, which preferably is previously disintegrated in an edge mill, is subjected to treatment in a mixing machine until sufficiently broken up that is, until the fibers are separated as much as possible. Then the required proportion of hydraulic cement is gradually added and the entire bulk mixed thoroughly. This mixture flows immediately into a vessel with a stirring device, where it is diluted with five to six times the quantity of water while being continuously agitated or stirred. From this vessel the thin paste is conveyed to the cardboard-making machine, to obtain a cardboardlike product. The thin paste is carried to and on an endless rotating porous fabric, through which the water of the thin paste or pulp flows off, leaving on the upper side the hydraulic cement intermixed with asbestos as a thin layer. This layer is then conducted to a roller, which removes the layer from the endless fabric and rolls it up. Thus

1 From U. 8. Letters Patent No. 979547, granted to Chas. L. Norton, Hudson, N. H., Dec. 27, 1910.

a sheet is formed composed of several superimposed layers, the number of layers corresponding to the number of rotations of the roller. As soon as the product has reached the desired thickness it is cut to size and pressed to shape."

Geographical distribution.—According to Thomas's Register of Manufacturers, asbestos shingles, slates, wood, or lumber were manufactured in 1920 by 14 concerns--2 in New Hampshire, 1 in Massachusetts, 2 in New York, 2 in New Jersey, 1 in Rhode Island, 2 in Pennsylvania, 1 in Ohio, 2 in Illinois, and 1 in Wisconsin.

History of the industry.-The first invention for the manufacture of these articles was by Ludwig Haschek, an Austrian. The products were manufactured for a number of years in Europe before being made in the United States in 1904. În 1910 an American, Charles L. Norton, invented a process for making fibrous sheets of cement and asbestos.

Domestic production and consumption.--The amount and value of the total domestic output and consumption are not known. American manufacturing capacity is adequate to supply the domestic demand, and a shortage of the product is only possible through the failure to obtain sufficient supplies of asbestos, the bulk of which must be imported.

Domestic exports.-Statistics of imports of the articles mentioned in this survey are not separately compiled by United States customs. officials, but are included with figures showing total exports of all kinds of asbestos manufactures.

FOREIGN PRODUCTION.

Canada is the principal foreign country selling asbestos shingles and asbestos lumber in the American market. The Canadian product, which is made by one factory, is equal in quality to the product manufactured in this country, but the Canadian industry is small.

'IMPORTS.

Separate statistics of imports of asbestos shingles, slates, wood, or lumber are not compiled by the United States customs officials, and little is known, except that imports are not considerable, regarding the quantity annually received from foreign countries. It is probable that most, if not all, of these imported articles come from Canada, where only small quantities are produced.

PRICES.

In 1920 the catalogue prices of a popular brand of gray asbestos shingles, f. o. b. factory, ranged from $1.60 per hundred for 4 by 8 inch size to $11.50 per hundred for 16 by 16 inch size. Prices for veneered shingles were quoted from about 25 to 33 per cent higher, and colored shingles from 56 to 66 per cent higher than gray shingles. Asbestos building lumber was quoted from 15 cents a square foot for sheets one-eighth inch thick to $1.20 a foot for sheets 1 inch thick, with a liberal discount (not stated) on quantity lots.

2 From U. S. Letters Patent No. 12594, granted to Ludwig Hatschek, Austria-Hungary, Jan. 15, 1907.

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TARIFF HISTORY.

Asbestos shingles, slates, wood, or lumber have never been specifically mentioned in the tariff acts.

COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS.

The only competitor in the American market at this time is Canada, which country is well supplied with raw material, located just across our border. At present (1921) there is but one factory in Canada engaged in the manufacture of asbestos shingles and asbestos wood or lumber. This factory is controlled by American interests.

With available small supplies of domestic asbestos near at hand and large supplies in Canada, American manufacturers had a considerable advantage over European manufacturers, either in Great Britain or on the Continent, who must import their asbestos material. American manufacturers can obtain their material practically as cheaply as can the European producers, and in order to sell in the American market European manufacturers are required to meet the additional expense of transatlantic freight on the heavy finished product.

Rates of duty.

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