DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0109
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 81
the consistence of leather. Thus agriculturists and manufacturers have turned it to
account for the fabrication of buckets of all kinds, light, indestructible, and capable of
being mended by a slight degree of heat and pressure -when they are worn out. It is
especially in the manufacture of articles for maritime use that gntta percha, resisting
as it does the action of water, and especially of salt water, appears to be the best adapted.
Buoys of every description for anchors, nets, &c, have been made of it; sailors' hats,
speaking trumpets, &c. There is no doubt that it will be brought to perform a useful
part in waterproof garments, as well as in the construction of life-boat apparatus. If
India-rubber has been advantageously combined with leather, it may be conceived that
the combination of gutta percha with wood, of which Mr. Foster has shewn a specimen at
the Exhibition, may in certain cases offer peculiar advantages. The decorative art has
also taken advantage of the plastic properties of gutta percha. All those different
articles of furniture, the prices of which are so much enhanced by carving, are capable
of being reproduced by means of pressure, and thus multiplied at a low price. Writing-
tables, work-baskets, &c, can be produced in gutta percha, and thus be made to combine
the threefold advantage of lowness of price, elegance of form, and absence of fragility.
In the large manufactory which is more especially devoted to the employment of gutta
percha, are made every day a great quantity of mouldings, friezes, panels, leaves, &c,
and of articles of every description. These, combined by the decorator, covered with
gilding (which gutta percha takes in perfection), are, in the manufacture of picture frames,
and in the decoration of furniture, capable of superseding the carving upon wood, which
is so costly, or papier-mache, and carton-pierre, which presents the defect of great
fragility. On going through the exhibition of Messrs. Thorn & Co., as well as that of
the Gutta Percha Company, we may judge of the extent which the employment of this
substance promises to the decorative art by the imitation of carving upon oak, rose-wood,
&c. Bronze articles have also been reproduced in a felicitous manner; and the clearness
of the edges and the purity of the forms make it easy to understand how gutta percha
has been found capable of being used for making galvano-plastic moulds, and how
some experiments have begun to be tried for the purpose of substituting this material in
the process of stereotyping, for the metal with which at the present day the pages of our
illustrated books are multiplied. This employment of gutta percha for the reproduction,
by pressure, of objects for interior decoration cannot but be widely extended, enabling the
many to enjoy those graceful and elegant forms which, as long as they could not be
reproduced in a material indestructible hy water and free from fragility, could only be
brought within the reach of the few.
Quite recently, by the exertions of Mr. Truman, a lump of coloured gutta percha,
moulded into the form of a jaw-bone, has been found capable of holding together artificial
teeth, and thus advantageously superseding those settings in gold, which were so costly,
and the absolute rigidity of which, moreover, presented much inconvenience. The
slight but sensible elasticity possessed by gutta percha renders it, on the contrary,
very well adapted to this use. There is another use to which the exertions of H. Mapple
have rendered gutta percha applicable. Soles of this substance, glued on to the upper
leathers by means of gutta percha dissolved in gas-tar, constitute shoes which are not
affected by water, which last a long time, are very simple and economical in their make,
the soles of which are easily mended, and easily put on again when they come off, and can
be made to serve anew by means of a fresh kneading up when they have become unfit
for use; thus constituting a description of shoes, the use of which cannot fail to become
extended in such a general manner as to render notable service to health. Gutta
percha soles have also been found capable of being affixed with much advantage upon
leather soles. This solution of gutta percha in the oil of tar, like that of caoutchouc,
the consistence of leather. Thus agriculturists and manufacturers have turned it to
account for the fabrication of buckets of all kinds, light, indestructible, and capable of
being mended by a slight degree of heat and pressure -when they are worn out. It is
especially in the manufacture of articles for maritime use that gntta percha, resisting
as it does the action of water, and especially of salt water, appears to be the best adapted.
Buoys of every description for anchors, nets, &c, have been made of it; sailors' hats,
speaking trumpets, &c. There is no doubt that it will be brought to perform a useful
part in waterproof garments, as well as in the construction of life-boat apparatus. If
India-rubber has been advantageously combined with leather, it may be conceived that
the combination of gutta percha with wood, of which Mr. Foster has shewn a specimen at
the Exhibition, may in certain cases offer peculiar advantages. The decorative art has
also taken advantage of the plastic properties of gutta percha. All those different
articles of furniture, the prices of which are so much enhanced by carving, are capable
of being reproduced by means of pressure, and thus multiplied at a low price. Writing-
tables, work-baskets, &c, can be produced in gutta percha, and thus be made to combine
the threefold advantage of lowness of price, elegance of form, and absence of fragility.
In the large manufactory which is more especially devoted to the employment of gutta
percha, are made every day a great quantity of mouldings, friezes, panels, leaves, &c,
and of articles of every description. These, combined by the decorator, covered with
gilding (which gutta percha takes in perfection), are, in the manufacture of picture frames,
and in the decoration of furniture, capable of superseding the carving upon wood, which
is so costly, or papier-mache, and carton-pierre, which presents the defect of great
fragility. On going through the exhibition of Messrs. Thorn & Co., as well as that of
the Gutta Percha Company, we may judge of the extent which the employment of this
substance promises to the decorative art by the imitation of carving upon oak, rose-wood,
&c. Bronze articles have also been reproduced in a felicitous manner; and the clearness
of the edges and the purity of the forms make it easy to understand how gutta percha
has been found capable of being used for making galvano-plastic moulds, and how
some experiments have begun to be tried for the purpose of substituting this material in
the process of stereotyping, for the metal with which at the present day the pages of our
illustrated books are multiplied. This employment of gutta percha for the reproduction,
by pressure, of objects for interior decoration cannot but be widely extended, enabling the
many to enjoy those graceful and elegant forms which, as long as they could not be
reproduced in a material indestructible hy water and free from fragility, could only be
brought within the reach of the few.
Quite recently, by the exertions of Mr. Truman, a lump of coloured gutta percha,
moulded into the form of a jaw-bone, has been found capable of holding together artificial
teeth, and thus advantageously superseding those settings in gold, which were so costly,
and the absolute rigidity of which, moreover, presented much inconvenience. The
slight but sensible elasticity possessed by gutta percha renders it, on the contrary,
very well adapted to this use. There is another use to which the exertions of H. Mapple
have rendered gutta percha applicable. Soles of this substance, glued on to the upper
leathers by means of gutta percha dissolved in gas-tar, constitute shoes which are not
affected by water, which last a long time, are very simple and economical in their make,
the soles of which are easily mended, and easily put on again when they come off, and can
be made to serve anew by means of a fresh kneading up when they have become unfit
for use; thus constituting a description of shoes, the use of which cannot fail to become
extended in such a general manner as to render notable service to health. Gutta
percha soles have also been found capable of being affixed with much advantage upon
leather soles. This solution of gutta percha in the oil of tar, like that of caoutchouc,