From 1970, within the Company where he was working, Jacques Roulland was in charge of trade and technical relationship with asbestos-cement manufacturers, first in France and soon after in Germany and Spain. From 1992, he entirely devoted himself to this activity on four continents, thus acquiring a true knowledge of the fibrecement industry, including its technics and prob-lems.
Once retired, he published a first book, “Cofpa, 4 companies and a wedding”, telling the history of the Company where he spent 34 years. This book met a local success. Backed by this first experi-ence, with some recklessness, he took up into a wider and tougher subject: Asbestos-Cement, now Fibre-Cement Industry, spread worldwide over some 120 years. He knows how this activity is den-igrated in spite of having supplied roof, water de-livery and sewerage to millions of families in so many countries. Incidentally, he tells us about as-bestos cement mines and the unexpected links be-tween Arts, Architecture and Fibre-Cement.
Such is the topic he passionately develops, with the essential help of formers customers, lots of whom turned into friends, who trusted him with their memories and archives.
Comments received from one of the first American purchasers of #fibre(S)cement.com 120 years of the history of an industry
“Wonderful and ambitious project: historians, health researchers, policy makers, and anyone with curiosity will want this important and historical information about the modern history of the asbestos and fiber cement industry. This work fills in a tremendous amount of information that has been absent from earlier works and its importance is still greater for its bringing together information from so many countries. It is very valuable to have a more-complete description of this important industry, and one written for a more-broad audience.
Your writing style is informal, making the data more accessible.
– Daniel Friedman, Editor/Publisher,” InspectApedia.com