Episode 10: The Mines Open

Arc 3: The Industrial Revolution — Premiere Episode

How did a 'miracle fix' for deadly boiler explosions become a century-long catastrophe? In 1880, 159 boilers exploded in a single year—killing workers and bystanders with scalding steam and flying metal. Asbestos insulation solved the problem. But boiler explosions killed dozens per year. Asbestos would kill hundreds of thousands. The cure was worse than the disease—by orders of magnitude.

Episode 10 marks the premiere of Arc 3: The Industrial Revolution. After nine episodes covering 4,500 years of asbestos as rare curiosity, we examine the century (1828-1900) when it became cheap enough to wrap every steam pipe in America—and deadly enough to kill the founder of the American asbestos industry.

In this episode:

• The 1836 Patent Office fire that erased the identity of America's first asbestos patent holder—the fireproof mineral, lost to fire

• Quebec's production explosion: 50 tonnes (1878) to 10,000+ tonnes (1890s)—and zero worker injury records for the entire century

• Thomas Reily: killed by flying boiler metal while walking home in 1853, his death blamed on 'a man in Canada'

• Henry Ward Johns: founded the American asbestos industry, died in 1898 from breathing his own product

• The 1899 Charing Cross case: a textile worker who knew all 10 of his coworkers had died—and became the first documented victim

• Why corporate origin myths always involve blueberries and tea kettles, never 'dust and coughing'

Who this episode is for: Anyone researching asbestos industry history, families tracing occupational exposure in mining or manufacturing, historians interested in Industrial Revolution workplace safety, and listeners following the series from ancient origins into the modern conspiracy.

Expert perspective: "The conspiracy doesn't start with what companies knew—it starts with who they didn't bother counting," notes Paul Danziger, founding partner of Danziger & De Llano and a mesothelioma attorney with over 30 years of experience. "The bodies were always there. Someone just had to decide they mattered."

Resources:

→ Asbestos Exposure Pathways: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/

→ Attorney Rod De Llano: https://dandell.com/rod-de-llano/

→ Mesothelioma Compensation Options: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma-compensation/

→ Free Consultation: https://dandell.com/contact-us/

About this series: Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making traces the full history of asbestos—from 4700 BCE Finnish pottery to the 2024 EPA ban—revealing how corporations suppressed evidence while workers died. Produced by Danziger

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano Mesothelioma Law Firm, a nationwide practice with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, the exposure happened somewhere—and Paul Danziger and Rod De Llano know how to trace it back. For a free consultation, visit https://dandell.com.

Resources:

→ Mesothelioma legal rights: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/

→ Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/

→ Asbestos trust funds ($30B+ available): https://dandell.com/asbestos-trust-funds/

→ Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact/

Sister Podcast - MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast:

http://mesotheliomapodcast.com/