1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
ASBESTOS, a fibrous mineral from Gr. aafitaras, unquenchable, by transference, incombustible, in allusion to its power of resisting the action of fire. The word was applied by Dioscorides and other Greek authors to quicklime, but Pliny evidently used it in its modern sense. It was occasionally woven by the ancients into handkerchiefs, and, it has been said, into shrouds which were used in cremation to prevent the ashes of the corpse from mingling with the wood-ashes of the pyre. In different varieties of asbestos t…
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- Vol. 2, pp. 714-714