Mineral Wools

Mineral wool insulation is partially available from Mother Nature herself. These products have been linked with various occupational diseases. I'm talking about substances known as "vitreous fiber insulation wools", which include such things as glass wool, slag wool, and most importantly, rock wool. Glass wool is actually fiber-glass, and is made from ground glass. Slag wool is made from steelmill slag. There's also cellulose, which is ground up newspaper to which some chemicals, primarily Borax, have been added to make it fire and insect resistant. I just got all of this off the Net, from a site that talks about Loose Fill and Alternative Materials.

Rock-wool is widely used to grow both hydroponics and aquarium plants. It seems that rock wool is made out of ground basalt rock subjected to a blast of steam. Basalt rock should always be in great abundance on our planet, as any geologist will tell you, and I suppose all we have to do now is figure out how to make the wool out of it! Maybe the manufacturing process will prove too complex for the simple Aftertime settler, but certainly both basalt and steam should be available, and so perhaps this subject should be further looked into, to see how exactly the stuff is made. I better add a word of warning that these mineral wools all have fibers that are known to irritate the skin, the eyes and the breathing passages, so protective clothing has to be used when working around them. Then it's put into the wall and basically forgotten about.

Offered by Sol.