An Account of a Sort of Paper Made of Linum Asbestinum Found in Wales

This document is not a Victorian penny dreadful but rather a seventeenth-century scholarly letter from Edward Lloyd of Jesus College, Oxford, published in an early academic journal. Lloyd describes his investigation of asbestos (Linum Asbestinum) discovered in Anglesey, Wales. He details the mineral's occurrence in stone veins, its fibrous composition resembling down, and its whitish to straw-colored appearance. Lloyd conducted experiments demonstrating the material's incombustibility by exposing it to fire and creating a lamp wick. Most significantly, he attempted to manufacture paper from processed asbestos fibers at a local paper mill. The resulting product proved coarse and tear-prone, though Lloyd believed refinement was possible with more thorough processing. He submitted a sample sheet as evidence and proposed further trials with extended grinding.