Class XXVIII.]

GUTTA PERCHA; ITS ELEMENTARY PROPERTIES.

597

Louisa Piece, Geneva (233, p. 1281). Caoutchouc knitstockings for iinalids.

J. Vie, Caoutchouc Manufacturer, 161 Rue St. Jacques,Paris (726, p. 1213). Caoutchouc tissues, elastic stock-ings, belts, knee-caps, &c.

Section B.— Manufactures from Gutta Perciia.

$ 1. General Remurks.

The substance designated by the name of gutta percha(pronounced pertsha ), is, like caoutchouc, a carburet ofhydrogen, and isomeric with that substance, and possessesa great number of the properties which characterize India-rubber, but exhibits certain special properties which admitof its being applied to particular uses to which caoutchoucis not adapted. Gutta percha possesses as great an inde-structibility by means of chemical agents as caoutchouc.It has an intermediate consistence between that of leatherand wood; it is capable of being softened by heat, andof regaining its primitive consistence on cooling. It is,therefore, at the same time capable of taking and ofretaining the most delicate impressions. The importantuses to which it has been latterly applied are only theforerunners of those to which it will be adapted hereafter,provided the lack of this precious material (which unfor-tunately is produced in much less quantities than India-rubber, and in localities much more circumscribed) doesnot present an obstacle to it.

Whilst the plants which furnish caoutchouc abound inthe whole of the territorial zone which extends betweenthe tropics, the Isonandra gutta, belonging to the naturalorder Sapotacece , is the only tree which yields guttapercha. It grows scarcely anywhere except in certainparts of the Malayan Archipelago , and up to the presenttime lias been almost exclusively obtained from Singapore .It was brought for the first time into England, in the daysof Tradescant , as a curious product, under the name ofMazer icood , and subsequently it was frequently broughtfrom China and other parts of the East, under the nameof India-rubber, in the form of elastic whips, sticks, &e.In 1843, Doctors D’Almeida and W. Montgomery drewparticular attention to it, together with its various sin-gular properties, its easy manipulation, and the uses forwhich the Malays employed it. The most commonemployment of it was for whips : and it was by the intro-duction of a horse-whip made of this substance that itsexistence was for the first time known in Europe . Theexhibition of the products of the East Indies, shown bythe Honourable East India Company , proves that thenatives of the country in which the Isonandra gutta grows,knew also how to appropriate it to the manufacture ofdifferent kinds of vases, and that European industry haslittle more to do than to imitate their processes.

The importation of gutta percha into England, wherethe employment of this substance first drew' attention,was in 1845 only 20,600 lbs.: but in 1848 it had increasedto above 3,000,000 lbs.; and during the last three yearsthe importation has amounted to a much larger quantity,and one which begins to cause some apprehension as tothe possibility of the supply sufficing for the requirementsof the novel uses in store for it in the future. It is truethat during its use gutta percha is but little consumed,and the waste from the articles in this material, submittedto a proper softening, can be made to serve new uses;nevertheless its constantly increasing consumption, addedto the barbarous manner in which the product has hithertobeen extracted, may well justify some apprehension.

During the first few years of the employment of guttapercha, it was the custom to cut down the tree for thepurpose of obtaining the juice, which, left to itself, verysoon allowed the gutta percha to separate and coagulateof its own accord. There is reason to hope that European industry will soon be embarked in the cultivation of thisproduct, and that the Aiato (which is the name that theMalays give to the tree which produces gutta percha),multiplied by means of a regular culture, naturalized inother countries than those to which it is indigenous, andworked by regular incisions, which will only take fromthe tree a portion of its juice without hindering its de-velopment, will be the means of furnishing at a low price

a substance which is destined to render notable servicesto industrial and domestic economy.

The gutta percha, which arrives iu Europe in the formof lumps of some pounds weight, is far from being pure.The natives of the Malayan Archipelago make no scrupleof introducing into it stones, earth, &c.; the presence ofwhich in the interior of these blocks renders a purificationindispensable, which purification, how ever, is capable ofbeing attained without much manipulation.

Ever since its first introduction into Europe , gutta perchahas, in fact, found everything provided for the purposeof cleansing it, and has been found capable of beingworked by the processes and instruments which areemployed in the purification of India-rubber. At thepresent day the block of gutta percha, cut into slices bya strong machine, is softened by means of hot water,divided and torn into shreds by the same machine that isused for India-rubber, which serves to knead the guttapercha in such a manner that the crushed stones andearth may be separated from it on being diluted in thewater; it is then dried, and submitted, by means of apowerful machine, to a mastication similar to that whichIndia-rubber is made to undergo; and when, after somehours of kneading, the mass has become homogeneous andsufficiently softened, it is drawn by the drawing-millinto cylindrical cords, into tubes of various diameters, orit is spread out by means of the flattening machine (as isdone with lead) into sheets of various thicknesses, whichare finally divided into bands, from which are cut outwith a nipping tool the pieces which are required to beemployed iu different uses.

Whatever difficulty manufacturers may have had inprocuring gutta percha fit to be made use of, they haveat least been able to concentrate their efforts upon thediscovery of uses to which it is adapted ; and in the spaceof a few years have discovered numerous and importantones, as may be witnessed in the beautiful exhibitionmade by the Gutta Percha Company. One of the firstand principal uses of gutta percha was to supersede theleather bands employed in machinery for the transmissionof movements. This is very nearly the only use to whichit has hitherto been applied in France . It seems, more-over, that latterly in England some inconveniences havebeen found to result from this employment of guttapercha; but should its use for that purpose diminish,every day others are found for it.

Indestructible by water, and at the same time a badconductor of electricity, gutta percha has been foundavailable for enclosing the metallic wires employed in theelectric telegraph; and the use of this substance maycertainly claim its share in the success of the submarinetelegraph, which has just brought London and Paris within a few minutes of each other.

It may be conceived to what a variety of forms asubstance can be turned which, becoming soft withoutadhering at the temperature of boiling water, regains atthe ordinary temperature the slight elasticity and theconsistence of leather. Thus agriculturists and manu-facturers have turned it to account for the fabrication ofbuckets of all kinds, light, indestructible, and capable ofbeing mended by a slight degree of heat and pressurewhen they are worn out.

It is especially in the manufacture of articles formaritime use that gutta percha, resisting as it does theaction of water, and especially of salt water, appears tobe the best adapted. Buoys of every description foranchors, nets, See., have been made of it; sailors’ hats,speaking-trumpets, &e. There is no doubt that it willbe brought to perform a useful part in waterproof gar-ments, as well as in the construction of life-boat appa-ratus. If India-rubber has been advantageously combinedwith leather, it may be conceived that the combinationof gutta percha with wood, of which Mr. Forster hasshown a specimen at the Exhibition, may in certain casesoffer peculiar advantages.

The decorative art has also taken advantage of theplastic properties of gutta percha. All those differentarticles of furniture, the prices of which are so muchenhanced by carving, are capable of being reproduced bymeans of pressure, and thus multiplied at a low price.