Gutta percha, its discovery, history, and manifold uses.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gutta percha, its discovery, history, and manifold uses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/50 page 12
    CrllTTA PERCH A. ; Fig. 7. Teaser. to 800 turns in a. minute, and of course tears the material all to shreds. These fall into a vat of water underneath. Here the Grutta Percha being lighter than water floats upon the surface, while the impurities disengaged from it by the rough handling it has just undergone, sink to the bottom. The puriflcation is thus completely effected, and the fragments of Grutta Percha, crisp and clean, are ready for the next operation. A second boiling follows, which has the effect of blending the purified substance again into a warm soft mass. In this state it is handed over to the “kneaders,” as they are quaintly called. ISTot indeed of the “ softer sex;” for these “industrious house¬ wives” are nothing else than “thick, strong, round iron boxes, about three feet long, and a foot and a half deep.” They occupy the floor at one end of the spacious apartment, and one observer, at least, has compared their appearance to “ a large family of iron bolsters.” Perhaps their gentle name has been bestowed upon them from their office, which is to knead the material into a compact and homogeneous body. They are also called “ masticators” for the same reason. The warm ductile mass, placed inside the box, is received by a revolving drum, kept hot by steam, with a cogged surface, by which it is carried
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