Asbestos+and+Rubber+Company+Limited

=The Asbestos and Rubber Company Limited=

Company Number: SC001103 Date of Incorporation: 23 March 1882 Contact Details: c/o Downie Wilson, 135 Buchanan Street, Glasgow Operating Details: Dissolved 8 September 1996 Other names (if known): The Scottish Asbestos Company, Scottish Asbestos and Rubber Company Limited (until 1994), SARC Limited (1990-1994) Function of Company*: Other Manufacturing (2500) Headquarters/Base of Operations Location: Unknown, initially Glasgow (see below) Area of Operation: Glasgow (manufacture), Quebec (mining)


 * Taken from Standard Industrial Classification 2003, as used by Companies House in 2010

Records
I have been unable to find any records of this particular company in any archive. The contact address has not responded, and there appears to be no successor organisation. This company is not related to ARCO, who were the original Asbestos and Rubber Company and are still operating in Hull.

Company History
The first commercial use of asbestos occurred in 1874, and generally the Scots were regarded as pioneering its use. It was particularly useful in shipbuilding, where its flame-retardant properties could be used in boilers and the engine room.

I believe this particular company was initially known as the Scottish Asbestos Company, and was in operation some time before its actual date of incorporation (possibly 1877). By the mid-1880s it had purchased substantial mines in East Broughton and Black Lake in Quebec, and by 1886 had embarked upon a number of large-scale improvements to these properties. The material excavated from these mines was processed at Leavenshields Works, Nitshill, Glasgow, also owned by the company. Looking at the name of the company, it seems to have branched out into rubber processing and manufacture in the twentieth century. However it did not seem to have been involved in any of the compensation actions undertaken by workers following the discovery of the harmful effects of asbestos processing.

See [] [] Both accessed in March 2011.

Robert H Jones, //Asbestos, its properties, occurences and uses// (Crosby Lockwood & Sons, 1890)