to parangs (wood-choppers) instead of wood or horn.

We shall find, at the works in the City Road, that the workmen consider it advantageous for somewhat similar duties. Their knives, barrows, and baskets, have the handles encased in gutta percha. It possesses a slight but sensible elasticity, which makes it more pleasing to the touch than wood or any other material.

There is no substance which ever became applied to so many useful purposes in so short a time as gutta percha. Novel appliances multiply every day. Most of these are the design of the workmen here. Amongst the 200 engaged, are a good many clever fellows.' So says the gentleman who acts as our cicerone; and visitors will not doubt it who see their dexterous manipulations. Uses increase with such rapidity, that the question promises to be, not, 'To what can it be applied?' but, 'To what purposes can it not be applied?'

The works of the Gutta Percha Company comprise an extensive series of workrooms, varied in their operations as in their appearance. We shall enter amongst the steam-boilers and engines. If not quite distracted with the noise, with the novelty and the multifariousness of the operations, our attention will first be claimed by what is called the cutting machine. A modern chaff-cutter with a circular wheel bears some resemblance to it; only this is vastly more massive, and the trough is made to incline. Blades corresponding to those in the chaff-cutter are fixed into the heavy disc or wheel, and made to extend a little towards the trough. Into the trough are put the 'blocks; and, as the wheel revolves at the rate of 200 turns a minute, they are sliced up, thick or thin, according as the cutting instruments are disposed. Injury to the machine and annoyance to the work men not unfrequently occur, owing to tricks of dishonesty which the Malays have very quickly learnt. Purchases are made by weight, and, to increase this, earthy matter is continually mixed with the gutta percha, and sometimes even a large stone is put in the centre of a block. Unless the stone be very large, it is not possible to detect it at the time of purchase. Injury to the apparatus cannot easily be guarded against.

Purification is indispensable, and fortunately, the impurities are removed without great difficulty. Each slice presents a face full of sinuous markings, which gives it a pretty and variegated aspect, but one it does not keep. Hurled into a tank of boiling water, the whole forms into a soft mass, and a good many of the impurities sink to the bottom. Two steam-engines of 50 horse power propel the cutting machine, besides setting in motion most of the other machinery.

Those who have had the advantage of inspecting a paper-mill, will recognise several processes which gutta percha undergoes. When softened, it is submitted to the action of a machine like the engine for rending the linen rags, and technically called the teazer. It consists of a large cylinder enclosed in a box. The cylinder is set with jagged spikes, which work against corresponding teeth in the box. Going at the rate of 600 or 800 revolutions a-minute, the mass is torn into shreds, and all extraneous matter is released. The process of cleansing is simplified very much, from the

fact that the gutta percha does not blend with these foreign matters so as to produce a compound substance, but only mixes mechanically with them. Though softened, it does not become adhesive; and sometimes it is cleansed by the simple operation of rolling it out to a thin sheet, and then picking and brushing the surface. The shreds fall into a tank of cold water, upon which they float, and from which they are removed to be subjected to a second boiling. When again softened, it is ready for kneading, a process similar in principle to that of the same name of a more domestic character. Machinery is brought into requisition here, and strong machinery too. A great roller, with a surface like the grinding cylinder of a coffee-mill, only infinitely larger, moves horizontally upon its axis in a metal compartment in the floor. A man throws in a bushel at a time, of what, at little risk, might be pronounced warm chocolate-paste. While we gaze, it gradually disappears. The apparatus-or masticator, as it is called-monster-like, seems to have an inordinate penchant for the delicacy, and disposes of an unlimited amount down its capacious throat. A thorough mastication' ensues inside. Every hard particle is broken up, and a homogeneous mass is formed by the rolling, and squeezing, and grinding it receives. It is now quite pure, and in a condition for any of the subsequent manipulations in which it may be called upon to take a part. In this stage of its manufacture it is best fitted to mix with other substances. Already very many compounds of gutta percha have been formed. If greater elasticity be required, it gains it by the mixture of caoutchouc; if hardness, combination with sulphur, or the metallic sulphurets, will give it. Metallo-thianised by this latter (a patent) process, it becomes hard as ebony, and can be applied to most purposes for which wood and ivory are generally used.

The bulk of the gutta percha is formed into 'sheeting,' which is accomplished by placing it, while soft, upon bands of felt, and passing it between two steel rollers-a process, in fact, much like to that of rolling lead. The felt bands afterwards take the sheet a long journey, over and under, up and down, for the purpose of cooling it. To aid in doing so, when the material is thick or the weather warm, the surface is fanned and blown upon in its course. The thickness of the sheet is regulated by the distance the rollers are set apart; and to such nicety can this be done that an integument is manufactured to supersede oiled silk for bathing and hydropathic prescriptions. At the end of the journey, it is wound off, cold and hard, upon a drum, to a length unlimited.

But the form of sheeting is only one of its useful phases. Nearly the earliest use to which gutta percha was put, was that of 'driving bands.' The French use it for little else yet. Its suitability for the duty has been much controverted. Any visitor to the company's works would think it fully established. There they are to be seen in every part of the building, applied in a variety of ways, and, amongst others, that of driving the machine which serves to cut them out. Making bands is a simple operation. Let us pass on the sheet, just now rolled upon the drum, and it will reach a framework, in the top bar of which are fixed and suspended a number of knives cutting

vertically. Their distance from each other varies according to the breadth of the bands required. As the sheet passes under them, it is divided into strips of an indefinite length, which, in their turn, are wound off upon drums. What outcry has arisen against their use, has been owing to their misuse. Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, the eminent brewers, testify to a saving of £30 a-year in driving bands, by their employment. Skill is required in nicely joining them, but the skill is readily gained by those who follow the simple directions of the company. If these are too troublesome, why, the old leather strap, with its paraphernalia of buckles and hooks and eyes, had better be resumed. Where it is necessary that bands cross, friction should be avoided, as causing heat an enemy to gutta percha which cannot be resisted, and just as great a friend.

From the sheet and bands, innumerable useful things are formed. Industrial and domestic economy tax them both. In a room removed a little from the din and hissing of the steamengine, is to be seen a machine for cutting the bands into squares, and another for fashioning these squares into 'soles.' Both are done by pressure. In the first case, a sharp-edged instrument, and, in the second, a sharp-edged mould, similar to what is used for cutting out envelopes, only of the shape required for a shoe, descends with irresistible pressure, and cuts through half a dozen pieces at once. A die imprints the sign-manual (if such it may be yclept) upon each sole, and they are ready for sale. Space will not permit a dissertation upon the merits of this novel improvement of our 'understanding.' Thirty words will suffice to refer to one or two of its advantages. It is absolutely repellant of water, and a bad conductor of heat. If gutta percha soles were worn, colds from wet feet would be scarcer, and chilblains unknown. We may put in a word for the shoemaker also, who would be saved all the ills from contracted chest, if folks could be persuaded that nothing like leather' is invalid. Accumulated attestations-from the clergy, the army, and the police force-relative to the durability and other excellences of these soles, are possessed by the company and published in their prospectuses.

man in this department requires a jet at his side. The flexibility and length of the tube make it as serviceable as portable gas. A little farther on, we may observe some youths trimming noiseless curtain rings. Their sharp knives remove all the little imperfections of moulding, and finish off one after another as fast as possible.

All the uses to which gutta percha is put, it would be impracticable to enumerate. An auctioneer's catalogue would be filled with the bare mention of the things made by the Gutta Percha Company. Besides the multifold appliances to what is utilitarian, the decorative is equally cared for. One room is adorned with mouldings, panels, festoons, and flowers, as exquisite, though not so fragile, as the highest artistic carving, or the most delicate art-casting. Peculiarly beautiful is a geranium in gutta percha. Only by the assurance that it is imitated, can we be convinced of the fact. The flexibility of the plant and its lightness are perfect. In no other substance could an effort of art like it be made. Prognostications are naturally enough risked of the day when our winter garden shall blossom with the rose, and blandish every floral charm. Easily softened without becoming adhesive, gutta percha receives the impression of the most attenuated tracery, which it retains when cold; the extreme of delicacy in a substance, the extreme of indestructibility. Specimens of the loveliest mouldings abound, a chef d'œuvre being the Hunted Stag.' Chessmen, elaborately-finished workboxes, pictureframes, inkstands made to imitate woods, marbles, or papier-maché; in some instances so profusely and exquisitely decorated, that a Chinese carver would be baffled to imitate it; in other cases, with colored delineations upon them of surpassing beauty.

Imitations of metal have been produced in a felicitous manner. It takes bronze and gilding to perfection. There is no doubt that its plastic property will make it the substitute for expensive embellishments, and furnish the poor man with tasteful objects to adorn his humble home. Costly papier-mache will find an irresistible rival in a material that has the same excellences, is greatly cheaper, and is free from the defects of fragility, however slender and thin it may be made. With one or two glances more at household utilities, we will enter another department. Every vessel not intended for hot liquids, may be made of gutta percha; all the appurtenances of the bedchamber, as well as kitchen utensils. On the one hand we may observe a bread trencher, with emblematical ears of corn round the rim; on the other, ewers, and basons, and bowls, and articles of that kind. Public institutions, prisons, workhouses, schools, will all derive a benefit from wares that are almost indestructible, and whose peculiar elastic nature precludes them ever being used as weapons of offence.

vessel. Fitting into this is another mass of lead, whose convex surface is to form the interior of the article required. While one man is preparing the mould, his mate is engaged in rolling out on a

Another application of the same principle has given us a conversation-tube for a railway car riage. With it two individuals may hold an animated debate, without edifying their neighbors with one word. This little instrument, about a yard long, is one of the greatest curiosities in the show-rooms. By placing one end to the ear, and whispering in the lowest tone possible at the other, the voice may actually be heard louder than it issued from the lips. Most useful would it be to one whose voice failed, as voices do sometimes; or to one in the habit of conversing with himself, as people sometimes are. If the end be placed against the watch-pocket, the ticking becomes so preternatural that we are ready to believe, if the watch had stopped, yet so excellent a sound-tube would convey at least a faint tick.

finers as

Gutta percha tubing, truly, is invaluable. In chemistry it is used for conveying oils, and acids, and alkalies. Only strong nitric or sulphuric acids seem to touch it. This inertness with the acids, makes it useful in manifold ways beside tubing. With dilute nitric it is used by the rea coating to their various vessels. Glass' carboys' to contain muriatic acid have almost become things that were. Pipes of this acid, secure in gutta percha, are now constantly travelling in every direction upon the railways; the directors of which, a few years ago, would not suffer it to be conveyed on any consideration what

ever.

We must not leave the premises without a look at the most recent application of gutta percha. Of course, that is as a covering for the telegraph wire. It is hardly possible that this wonderful triumph of human intellect, by which a thought breathed in Britain is imprinted on a foreign strand, even while in its birth-throes, would yet have awaited man, without the aid of gutta percha. Amongst the multifarious operations, there is not one that requires so much care as in the covering of this wire. It is made by thousands of miles! In the room appropriated to this work, we may see coils of wire representing distances that would have startled our grandsires. We have heard of such lengths of wire being sunk in the neighboring canal-a most convenient store-room-that we would not dare mention, for fear our authenticity should be questioned in that and other matters.

The machinery employed in the preparation of the covered telegraph wire, is thus described :Two pairs of heated, polished, iron flatting rollers, one vertically above the other, are fed with soft gutta percha cylinders, which they deliver on the other side as flattened sheets. These are made to travel onward, and in the interval between them there also travels a row of copper wires. Thesei. e., the parallel sheets of gutta percha, and the intervening wires-all meet between a pair of grooved cutting rollers, not quite close together. The grooves are, of course, the size of the required casing, and each wire precisely hits the centre of a groove. The whole, therefore, appears on the other side as a band of covered wires, which may either be left together, as in the telegraph for railway tunnels, or pulled apart into sin gle pieces. The wires thus encased are soaked for a considerable time in water, which is sure to find out any flaw, though invisible to the eye, which

would prevent complete insulation.' In this way the sub-marine telegraph was manufactured. The single wires receive two or three coats of the soft substance, and in the end are wound off upon a wheel at a distance. In part, the process resembles wire-drawing, looked at through strong spectacles; except, indeed, that the wire is not lengthened nor lessened in bulk (very modest exceptions truly). Before winding on the wheel, it glides through the hands of a youth, who by practice becomes expert enough to detect the minutest flaw. Several tests are applied to prove the perfect insulation of the wire. The last of all, is that of sending an electric charge through a large coil. If they stand the trial, they are pronounced fit for use.

Space will not permit us to indicate half the useful and ornamental things placed before us at the gutta percha works. We must introduce irregularly a few more exemplifications of its wondrous utility, and conclude. Embossing' is a work that promises to extend itself. Raised maps and globes, for general purposes of teaching; and raised reading lessons for the blind, are made with comparative facility. Already it is greatly used in surgery. A solution in naphtha, which latter evaporates, and leaves the gutta percha uninjured, is used to procure sheets of exceeding tenuity. As a balsam for wounds, this solution will quite supersede the objectionable 'gold-beater's skin, or patch of 'court plaister." Splints moulded to the shape of the fractured limb, have been used with great success. In one case recorded, that of 'broken jaw' from the kick of a horse, the patient was enabled to eat after three days, a fact unparalleled. The vastly greater comfort of these splints can only be avouched by an unfortunate patient. Stereotype plates have been made. The clearness and sharpness of edge, and purity of form, when moulded, make it well suited for this purpose. As many as 20,000 impressions have been taken from an experimental plate at the works, and the woodcuts and text seem as fresh as at first.

It was brought into notice in the form of a horsewhip. We may not spare a sentence to speak of the number of whips now manufactured. Nor can we refer in detail to the gutta percha boats which were found of such eminent use in the search after Sir John Franklin. Nor of the thanks due to gutta percha, from the beautiful science of photography, for pans,' and other aids which it affords better than any other material. Nor, going from great things to small, of cricket-balls, and clothes'-lines, of policemen's staves, and utilities for the 'diggings."

We will offer no apology for having gone so fully into this subject. It possesses an interest of no common kind; and the details will be perused with considerable pleasure by all who, residing at a distance, cannot avail themselves of a personal visit. The public now-a-days, are on the qui-vive to know everything; and it is delightful to be able to assist in the dissemination of sound, useful knowledge.

These particulars will be read with more