ItfDIA-RUBBER OR CAOUTCHOUC. 11 



rubber was first applied to the manufacture of large flat- 

 bottomed boats, which were used for pontoons as well as for 

 exploring purposes, their great recommendation being their 

 portable character and the ease with which they could be 

 carried when not inflated. 



The patents that have been granted for manufactures in 

 connection with India-rubber have been extremely numerous. 

 Some idea of their extent may be obtained when it is stated 

 that the " Abridgments of Specifications relating to India- 

 rubber (Caoutchouc and Gutta-percha) " issued by the Patent 

 Office forms an octavo volume of over 700 pages, and this 

 extends only to the end of the year 1857. The use of rubber 

 is now so universal that it has come to be regarded as one 

 of the necessaries of life. Enveloped in a thin film of India- 

 rubber, as we are when equipped in our macintosh, we are 

 inclined to regai'd it as one of the blessings of modern times. 

 Air-cushions, hot-water bottles, water-beds, elastic stockings, 

 door-mats, etc., are all modern luxuries, the introduction of 

 which we owe to caoutchouc. Amongst other uses to which 

 soft rubber is put maybe mentioned valves, buffers, washers, 

 packing, garden hose, waterproof garments, etc. ; and from 

 hard rubber or ebonite are manufactured photographic and 

 surgical instruments, vessels for holding liquids, acid-pumps, 

 insulators, and a host of other articles both useful and orna- 

 mental. Vulcanite or hard rubber has indeed almost entirely 

 replaced glass for frictional electrical machines. 



Important as all these applications are, and to meet the 

 demands for which enormous quantities of rubber are now 

 brought into the English market, they are eclipsed by the 

 application of this substance as an insulator in telegraphy. 

 The progress made even in the last ten years in the develop- 

 ment of electrical science has been materially assisted by 

 the peculiar properties of India-rubber, for as a coating for 

 the wires of deep-sea telegraphs and telephones it, together 

 with its allied substance gutta-percha, has played a most 



