CAOUTCHOUC AND GUTTA-PERCHA. 219 
only receivers of the great council medal, other prize medals being awarded to 
two American, three English, two French, and one German firms. 
The American division of the Paris Exhibition owed its principal attraction to 
its numberless India-rubber articles. A new kind of vulcanized caoutchoue was 
chiefly noticed—another triumph of Goodyear’s inventive genius. We refer to 
the so-called hard caoutchouc. When caoutchouc receives an admixture of 
about a fifth of its weight in sulphur, the mixture being heated to 150° and 
some asphalt being added, a mass is gained which equals marble in hardness, 
and is capable of an extremely beautiful polish. The manifold applications 
which this valuable invention has already found, allow us to realize the extraor- 
dinary extension of which that branch of industry is capable. Hard caoutchoue 
is a substitute, not only for ebony, horn, tortoise-shell, ivory, and whale-bone, 
but also for iron, which so easily rusts in damp air. 
People gazed there with admiration at handles of knives, and rifle stocks, 
adorned with the finest and most artistic reliefs, at opera-glasses, and a thousand 
other optical instruments, or articles of cabinet ware, which were formerly man- 
ufactured of ebony or buffalo’s horn. There were also exhibited richly gilt pieces 
of furniture, wrought entirely of this new material, as well as articles of vertu 
set with genuine pearls, and various utensils ornamented with Chinese paintings. 
We observed further musical instruments, such as violins, clarionets, and trum- 
pets. Whenever we visited the exhibition we could not refrain from admiring 
the exercises executed on one of those trumpets, shortly before the close, which 
was indicated by the ringing of all the bells contained in the building. To 
make the contents of the whole collection more complete, we must add candela- 
bras, an electric machine, very flexible whips and canes, surgical instruments 
of every kind, powder-horns, various seals, printing type, spools, shuttles, 
slates. Large sheets of hard caoutchouc, destined for the plating of ships, 
attracted particular attention. The low price, the slight weight, and the inde- 
structibility of this new material will soon entirely supersede the now usual 
copper plating. At Havre and New York the new method of coating vessels 
has already been tried in the dock-yards of most prominent ship-builders. 
Ships have sailed from both ports for long voyages, and nobody doubts that on 
their return the theory will be confirmed by experience. At Plymouth, England, 
on the proposition of Mr. Forster, of the royal navy, the outsides of plank are 
coated with gutta-percha. 
Neither was the art of printing forgotten in this rich collection A thick 
quarto volume contained the history of that branch of industry on which we here 
comment. ‘The leaves challenged destruction by water, being made of vulcan- 
ized caoutchouc, as the elegant binding was of the kind designated as vulcanite. 
It is greatly to be regretted that this invention was made at so late a period; 
made earlier, it might have saved us many treasures of antiquity. The deluge 
itself would have been powerless to destroy such written monuments. 
Of the articles of vulcanized caoutchouc contained in the American division 
we must chiefly mention, besides toys already alluded to, maps, a great variety 
of water-proof articles of dress, water-proof military tents, and very carefully 
worked pontoons. 
Young as this branch of industry is, it has already achieved wonders. Not 
content with alleviating the sufferings of man, gladdening the heart of children, 
and saving from floods the manuscripts of authors in the archives of nations, 
it continually seeks new paths for its progress. Side by side with the neatest 
little shoes that would have graced the feet of a Chinese lady, there could 
he seen gigantic boots, reminding one of seven-miles boots of the fairy tales, 
as well as specimens for the most varied deformities of the human foot. A 
certain kind of shoes and boots at first observation appeared a perfect riddle, 
but their distinctive feature was explained to consist in ventilating appliances. 
The manufacture of hard caoutchouc is also extensive in France, owing 
