1965 Armstong asbestos tile commercial

n 1860, Thomas M. Armstrong, the son of Scotish-Irish immigrants from Londonderry, joined with John D. Glass to open a one-room shop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, carving bottle stoppers from cork by hand. Their first deliveries were made in a wheelbarrow. He was a business pioneer in some respects: he branded each cork he shipped as early as 1864, and soon was putting a written guarantee in each burlap bag of corks he shipped from his big new factory. The company grew to be the largest cork supplier in the world by the 1890s. The company incorporated in 1891.

Cork began being displaced by other closures, but the company introduced insulating corkboard and brick. In 1906, two years before he died, Thomas Armstrong concluded that the solid foundation of the future was covered with linoleum, and construction began on a new factory in a cornfield at the edge of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1909, Armstrong linoleum was first offered to the trade.

After corkboard, the logical move was to fiberboard, and then to ceiling board. Cork tile and linoleum led to vinyl flooring, then ceramic tile, laminate flooring and carpeting.

Armstrong Holdings Inc. used to produce asbestos, either of two incombustible, chemical-resistant, fibrous mineral forms of impure magnesium silicate, used for fireproofing, electrical insulation, building materials, brake linings, and chemical filters, before they started to manufacture interior furnishings, however, on November 16, 2000 it was reported that Armstrong Holdings Inc. was facing about 173,000 asbestos personal injury claims that would cost between $758.8 million and $1.36 billion through 2006. They have filed bankruptcy because of all their asbestos liabilities.Armstrong no longer produces asbestos and now makes vinyl and wood flooring and other interior furnishings. In 2002 Armstrong Holdings Inc. was ranked number 86 on the Political Economy Research Institutes the "Toxic 100: Top Corporate Air Polluters in the United States" list. Armstrong now claims "We offer you a proud heritage of innovation, commitment to environmental sustainability, and operations based on integrity, respect, diversity, continuous improvement, and a passion for safety."

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[NarutoFreak07]

:D cool

how'd you get your hands on this?

[thegreatersnake]

@NarutoFreak07 You can find old commercials all over the net, I just started collecting them and putting them on youtube. Although I will admit I haven't up loaded anything in awhile.

[avaliduser]

it says vinyl not asbestos

[thegreatersnake]

It's vinyl asbestos. Listen to the commercial I know it just says vinyl in the text at the beginning, but vinyl can be made from a variety of things =] in this cause its asbestos.

[BBsgalore]

"A Beautiful floor for an active room like a deadly room!"

[xbjllb]

Asbestos was added to vinyl tile for years to make it more fireproof. It only is a problem when torn up in demolition. Now of course it's prohibited.

Now if Armstrong would just make all those patterns and wild colors again...

[willdav713]

@xbjllb that won't happen because of the democrats and the greedy trial lawyers.

[HickysBoy]

DIY floors were the remodeling hit of the late 1950s. Most of the inexpensive post war houses had unfinished basements. By the mid-1950s the veterans from the war who bought those houses were established with families, stable jobs (remember those?!) and ready to finish out the basement with a nice floor, wood paneling and if you were really uptown - a pool table and small bar. I remember watching my father tile our den, circa 1958 or so. TWTD.

[adwiyo]

Dance til you die!

[halifaxshayman27]

@GenoPeppino I don't doubt the practical danger of asbestos. However, when you consider how extensively it was used, just about every builder would have come into regular contact with it during the 50s and 60s at least. Plus nearly every mechanic during the same time period. Not to mention all the remodel and demo jobs done since then. And of course nearly everyone in the general public would have had exposure to released asbestos through products that were aged or damaged, even still today.

[GenoPeppino]

@halifaxshayman27 The two main draws to asbestos were its fire-retardant nature and it's easy to shape structure. It was as hard as metal, but easy to cut like wood. This was great for contractors. It meant less heavy equipment to cut a panel to fit. However, asbestos is unlike anything else, with microscopic fibers that stick to and shred human tissue. So when these contractors would work with the material they would breath it in. Doesn't take much of that stuff to destroy lungs. It's not hype.

[Ihateirans]

Maybe we should give Astestos another chance. See how it enhanced living in the '50s and '60s.

[lrd9999]

@halifaxshayman27 They ripped it all out of the WTC after it had protected the N. tower from a very hot fire. It looks as if the replacement didn't do so well. In the west, we tend to exaggerate and fixate upon one hazard while ignoring all the others. Asbestos was pretty harmless when embedded in things that weren't being ground up.

[halifaxshayman27]

@67tr876 whenever we've had to remove asbestos items, we sprayed it down with water first as that should minimize the danger significantly.

[67tr876]

@halifaxshayman27 ya and why cant they fill a room with water and take up the floor ? I know there could be some water over the place but if they seal it good i think it would work. then there is no dust to fly. what do you think ?

[halifaxshayman27]

@67tr876 true, but nearly every product cracks or flakes off dust and particles through use and aging.  I'm not sure if asbestos dangers are just over-hyped by the health and safety brigade.