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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    ‘^The value of Gutta Percha as an article applied to boats, could, perhaps, never have been better tested than during the late voyage of the Prince Albert in search of Sir John Franklin ; and I feel very great pleasure in giving my humble testimony to its undoubted merits. Having, in almost every instance, had charge of the Gutta Percha Boat,* in the various examinations of the coast we made, and in rough passages through the ice, I had good and ample opportu¬ nities of giving her a fair trial, and the result was highly satisfactory. As an article with which I had previously been but little acquainted, I was at first cautious in the extreme, whenever I was away in that particular boat ; but at last, I preferred her to any other, and would not have hesitated to have gone any distance for any length of time in her. The men (old whalers, long accus¬ tomed to the ice) in like manner gave her the preference, and considered her far superior for such service to the ordinary boats generally used. “ The first trial she received was off the Greenland coast, when we were sur¬ rounded by icebergs. I proceeded in her to a large berg, for the purpose of procuring water, and it was found that she pulled lightly, and swam as buoyantly as we could wish. The various pieces of ice that she unavoidably ran against did her no injury, and they glided past her without leaving the slightest inden¬ tation or mark of the contact. “On the night of the 17th July I again had an opportunity of testing her qualities. In searching for the Danish settlement of Upemavick, I proceeded in her for several miles through the various inlets and channels abounding in the “ Woman Islands.” On one occasion I had her pulled up high on the rocky beach, while landing to examine, and I could not perceive the slightest mark of a scratch, from the rough nature of her bed, such as an ordinary boat would have received if I had attempted the same with it. Upon returning to the ship, we ran through a small stream of rather close ice, and I was agreeably surprised to find how quietly the Gutta Percha appeared to slip through it, and how well it resisted the different attacks it received. As a memorial of our visit, and the value we attached to the article of which our boat was made, the inlet we were then making our way through was called “ GUTTA PERCHA INLET a name it will no doubt always retain, and be remembered by among whalers. “ Frequently after this the boat was in use, and principally among heavy ice. Indeed, when one boat alone was required, the Gutta Percha boat was that invariably used. Every one saw its superiority to the ordinary boats ; and it was kept incessantly at work, boring, breaking, and crossing the ice at all times. “ But the severest trial it endured, and endured successful!}’', was on both my * “ The wooden work of this boat was constructed by Messrs. Searle& Co., of South Lambeth. The covering with Gutta Percha was done at the Gutta Percha Company’s Works, Wharf Road, City Road, London.”
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