DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0101
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 73
-old man tottering along with his barrow laid across his arras like a baby in long clothes!
.The first snort of the iron horse seems to have produced a complete panic, and the
.movement of a steam-engine was hailed like a new Avatur. I was at much pains, he
says, in endeavouring to explain the principles of its action to the most intelligent of the
workmen; but I found they had long ago provided themselves with what, to their
thinking, was, a complete theory of the whole matter. The doctrine was, that the
boiler contained an English, bhoot (spirit); that we made a fire beneath the boiler, and
roasted the said bhoot until he called out duhagei (mercy) through the safety-valve; and
then only, and not before, would he go to work: the water was merely given to quench
his thirst! The time is not far distant when the rich produce of Central India will
be poured into Europe with a profusion and regularity never yet dreamed of. The
steam-engine is destined to do more for India than all her other teachers have yet
effected. This iron apostle of civilization does not declaim; it does not dispute nor
vituperate; but it works, and always succeeds.
CHAPTER XI.
MANUFACTURES FROM CAOUTCHOUC.
(From the Jury Reports.)
ACCOUNT OS PRODUCTION OP CAOUTCHOUC—HOW PEEPAEED AND PUEIEIED—PIRH OP JIACEIN-
TOSH AND CO.—ME. GOODTEAE—VULCANIZATION OP INDIA EUBBEE—ITS CONTINUALLY
INCREASING USEPULNESS----MANUFACTURES FROM GUTTA PEECHA—MODE OP OBTAINING
GUTTA PEECHA—EEMAEES ON ITS VARIOUS "USES.
The existence of a milky juice in many plants, which flows from them when their tissues
■are wounded, is a fact that has been familiarly known from time immemorial. It is,
however, only a matter of recent discovery that this milky juice characterises several
families of plants. Although the great majority of plants which yield this juice in
abundance are tropical, yet they are not without their European representatives. The
spurges, dandelion, and celandine of our road-sides, are instant. The families of plants
which furnish this milky juice in the greatest abundance are MV>raceEe, Euphorbiacefe,
Artocarpeje, Apocynacea;, Cichoraceas, Papaveraceas, Oampanulacese, and Lobeliaceee.
This juice, which is called by botanists " the milky juice," because it has an appearance
similar to milk, has also the physical constitution of that fluid. It is an aqueous liquid,
charged with soluble matter, in which float globules of a substance insoluble in water,
and which are by their tennity held in suspension in the liquid, but for which they have
no affinity, in the same manner as butter is held in suspension by milk. Prom the
difference of the refractive powers of these two substances, each of which, taken
separately, would be colourless or transparent, arise the opacity and white colour of the
two; hence the compound is properly called a " milky juice." The analogies which this
juice exhibits with the milk of animals and vegetable emulsions are seen in the manner'
in which it acts when left to itself. Run out into the air, received and preserved in close
vessels, it separates itself into two layers, as milk itself would do. The watery part very
soon has an insoluble part floating upon it, which collects together, and swims at the
top as cream swims upon milk, and which forms nearly half of the entire mass. But
with these physical resemblances the analogies cease. That which in milk and in
-old man tottering along with his barrow laid across his arras like a baby in long clothes!
.The first snort of the iron horse seems to have produced a complete panic, and the
.movement of a steam-engine was hailed like a new Avatur. I was at much pains, he
says, in endeavouring to explain the principles of its action to the most intelligent of the
workmen; but I found they had long ago provided themselves with what, to their
thinking, was, a complete theory of the whole matter. The doctrine was, that the
boiler contained an English, bhoot (spirit); that we made a fire beneath the boiler, and
roasted the said bhoot until he called out duhagei (mercy) through the safety-valve; and
then only, and not before, would he go to work: the water was merely given to quench
his thirst! The time is not far distant when the rich produce of Central India will
be poured into Europe with a profusion and regularity never yet dreamed of. The
steam-engine is destined to do more for India than all her other teachers have yet
effected. This iron apostle of civilization does not declaim; it does not dispute nor
vituperate; but it works, and always succeeds.
CHAPTER XI.
MANUFACTURES FROM CAOUTCHOUC.
(From the Jury Reports.)
ACCOUNT OS PRODUCTION OP CAOUTCHOUC—HOW PEEPAEED AND PUEIEIED—PIRH OP JIACEIN-
TOSH AND CO.—ME. GOODTEAE—VULCANIZATION OP INDIA EUBBEE—ITS CONTINUALLY
INCREASING USEPULNESS----MANUFACTURES FROM GUTTA PEECHA—MODE OP OBTAINING
GUTTA PEECHA—EEMAEES ON ITS VARIOUS "USES.
The existence of a milky juice in many plants, which flows from them when their tissues
■are wounded, is a fact that has been familiarly known from time immemorial. It is,
however, only a matter of recent discovery that this milky juice characterises several
families of plants. Although the great majority of plants which yield this juice in
abundance are tropical, yet they are not without their European representatives. The
spurges, dandelion, and celandine of our road-sides, are instant. The families of plants
which furnish this milky juice in the greatest abundance are MV>raceEe, Euphorbiacefe,
Artocarpeje, Apocynacea;, Cichoraceas, Papaveraceas, Oampanulacese, and Lobeliaceee.
This juice, which is called by botanists " the milky juice," because it has an appearance
similar to milk, has also the physical constitution of that fluid. It is an aqueous liquid,
charged with soluble matter, in which float globules of a substance insoluble in water,
and which are by their tennity held in suspension in the liquid, but for which they have
no affinity, in the same manner as butter is held in suspension by milk. Prom the
difference of the refractive powers of these two substances, each of which, taken
separately, would be colourless or transparent, arise the opacity and white colour of the
two; hence the compound is properly called a " milky juice." The analogies which this
juice exhibits with the milk of animals and vegetable emulsions are seen in the manner'
in which it acts when left to itself. Run out into the air, received and preserved in close
vessels, it separates itself into two layers, as milk itself would do. The watery part very
soon has an insoluble part floating upon it, which collects together, and swims at the
top as cream swims upon milk, and which forms nearly half of the entire mass. But
with these physical resemblances the analogies cease. That which in milk and in