278 * Scientific Intelligence. 



facture of caoutchouc, and then pressed through rollers; thus being 

 converted into sheets of various width and thickness. When necessary, 

 the sheets are again masticated, and again passed through rollers. 

 These sheets are subsequently cut into hoards by vertical knives, placed 

 at the farther end of ihe fable, along which the sheets are carried by a 

 cloth or web to another roller, round which they pass, and are cut into 

 the required widths. The bands or straps are then removed, and coiled 

 up ready for use. Driving bands for machinery are thus made, and 

 shoe soles and heels are stamped out of similar sheets of gutta percha. 



In making tubes or pipes, either of gutta percha or any of its com- 

 pounds, a mass of gutta percha, after being thoroughly masticated, is 

 placed in a metal cylinder furnished with a similar piston, by which it 

 is pressed down into an air box, kept hot with steam, which has at its 

 lower end a number of perforations, through which the plastic material 

 is forced into a cup, whence it passes out, round a core, into the desired 

 tubular form, and thence through a gauge to the required size, and into 

 a receiver of cold water, being drawn to the other end of a long trough 

 by a cord posing round a pulley at the far end of the trough, and re- 

 turning to the person in attendance on the machine, who gradually 

 draws the pipe away from the air machine. Thus tubes of considera- 

 ble length and diameter are made to a very great extent, and are used 

 for the conveyance of water and other liquids, and are now under test 

 for the conveyance of gas. 



The paper next explained the variety of articles already made of 

 gutta percha, which were of three classes — 1. Useful; 2. Ornamental; 

 and 3. Useful and Ornamental combined. Various articles were then 

 exhibited, including two very handsome shields, and a splendid Com- 

 munion Dish and Service. — Mr. Whishaw next exhibited the Telakou- 

 phanon, or Speaking Trumpet ; and in doing so, said that speaking 

 tubes of gutta percha were quite new, as was also the means of calling 

 attention by them of the person at a distance, which was accomplished 

 by the insertion of a whistle, which, being blown, sounded at the other 

 end quite shrilly. Attention having been thus obtained, you remove 

 the whistle, and by simply whispering, the voice would be conveyed 

 quite audibly for a distance of at least three quarters of a mile, and a 

 conversation kept up. It must be obvious how useful these telegraphs 

 must become in large manufactories; and indeed in private houses they 

 might quite supersede the use of bells, as they are so very cheap, and 

 by branch pipes could be conveyed to different rooms :— and, indeed, 

 if there were no electric telegraphs, they might, by a person stationed 

 at the end of each tube of three quarters of a mile or a mile, be made 

 most speedily to convey intelligence for any distance. In private houses 

 the whistle need not be used, but a more musical sound could be 

 produced. 



He then amused the auditors by causing the end of the tube, which 

 was of the length of 100 feet, to be inserted into the mouth-piece of a 

 flute held in a person's hand, regulated the notes, and placing his own 

 mouth to the other end of the tube, ' God save the Queen,' was played 

 at a distance of 100 feet from the person giving the flute breath. 

 Turning to the Bishop of St. Davids, he said that in the event of a cler- 

 gyman having three livings, he might, by the aid of three of these 



