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.

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    use of the blind. In the bed-eoom, it appears in the moulded frame of the looking-glass, and—instead of earthenware—in tooth and soap brush trays, a washing bason, ewer, and footbath. Then not to mention other uses, should there be unfortunately a room in the house with damp waUs, the Grutta Percha paper” elFectu- ally prevents the evil, and if placed underneath other papers, pre¬ serves them from discolouration and decay. It is nevertheless important to bear in mind the one circum¬ stance that limits the use of this material. It will not do where the employment of heat is necessary. This we have heard called a “fatal objection” to the value of Grutta Percha. As if we were to decline its employment in the thousand cases of its proved utility, because we cannot make of it a tea-cup or a soup-plate, a saucepan, a fire-screen, a warming-pan, or a poker! y. Prom the house we proceed to the manufactory^ where the use of Grutta Percha, though similarly limited, is almost as various. Its chief value here perhaps is in the form of mill hands and driving straps. Por this purpose it is unquestionably far more durable, more easily joined, and cheaper than leather. The well-known firm of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co., say, “ The stoppage of one portion of our works through the failure of the leather strap used to be of daily occurrence, but with this annoyance we are now never troubled. We have had these straps in operation for nearly three years, and are assured by our engineer that they effect a saving to us of at least tiiiett POTJi^ns a-year^ Abernethy & Co., ironfounders of Aberdeen, write, “We have now had Grutta Percha bands working here for three years. One of them has been driving the fan blast for our smith’s shop for all that time, and for anything wm see, may drive it as long again. The speed of the fan is about 1200 per minute. We have used them with complete satisfaction, driving circular saws, and in some cases where leather bands would have been quite inapplicable from damp.” Similar attestations of their value might be given from railway works, cotton and wooUen mills, bleach and dye works, ship yards,
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