LITERATURE RELATING TO STATEN ISLAND 87 
New Wor.wps To Conquer. Not signed. Scientif. American 
1213 254, 208, four text fig. Sept. 13, 1919. 
This somewhat ambiguous and non-committal title refers to an 
illustrated article on the economic uses of asbestos as a refractory 
and insulating medium; and we are informed that “in the middle 
of the present summer it was discovered that a hill at Tompkins- 
ville, Staten Island, within the city limits of New York, long 
known as a freak serpentine intrusion bearing asbestos of good 
fiber, was heavily veined with amphibole asbestos of the actinolite 
and tremolite varieties. Engineering reports are quoted as show- 
ing several million tons, in perpendicular veins running completely 
through a 150-foot elevation at a distance of only 600 feet from 
tide water.” 
It is somewhat surprising and more or less amusing to realize 
that a publication such as the Scientific American could be imposed 
upon as easily as would be implied by the acceptance of this article ; 
especially as the facts, historical, scientific, and economic, in con- 
nection with the Tompkinsville asbestos are so well known and 
have been the subject of so many descriptions, reports, etc., since 
the first reference to the subject about a century ago (see Amer. 
Jour. Sci. 1*: 54, 55. 1818), in a communication from James 
Pierce to the Editor of the Journal, in which he says: “I forward 
you specimens of straw and rose-coloured amianthus I recently 
met with on Staten Island. ... It breaks up like flax, and may 
be spun and wove without the aid of moisture .. . etc.” 
The Johns Co., manufacturers of asbestos goods, mined about 
seventy or eighty tons on Pavilion and Ward’s hill some forty 
years ago and then abandoned the enterprise, as it was not in 
sufficient quantity to repay the expense of excavating, although 
some of the material was of excellent quality, as may be seen by 
examining the numerous specimens contained in our collections. 
It may also be pertinent to recall that on or about August 15, 
Ig19, a certain Ernest E. V. von Brandenberg, better known as 
“ Broughton Brandenberg,” was arrested and held on seven indict- 
