j62 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 



life of gunny as a bafis for the foles, I was led to 

 fuppofe, that if an elaftic cloth, in fome degree cor- 

 respondent to the elafticity of the gum, were ufed for 

 boots, ftockings, gloves, and other articles, where 

 that property was neceflary, that the defects above 

 mentioned might in a great meafure he remedied. I 

 accordingly made my firft experiment with Ccjfimbazav 

 ftockings and gloves. 



Having drawn them upon the wax moulds, I 

 plunged them into veflels containing the milk, which 

 the cloth greedily abforbed. When taken out, they 

 were fo completely diftended with the gum in folution, 

 that, upon becoming dry by expofure to the air, not 

 only every thread, but every fibre of the cotton had 

 its own diftinct envelope, and in confequence was 

 equally capable of refitting the action of foreign bo- 

 dies as if of folid gum. 



The firft coat by this method was of fuch thick- 

 nefs, that for ftockings or gloves nothing farther was 

 neceffary. What were intended for boots required a 

 few more applications of milk with the fingers, and 

 were finifhed as thofe made with the gum only. 



This mode of giving cloth as a bafis I found to be a 

 very great improvement: for, befides the addition of 

 ftrength received by the gum, the operation was much 

 fhortened. 



Woven fubftances, that are to be covered with the 

 gum, as alfo the moulds on which they are to be 

 placed, ought to be confiderably larger than the bodies 

 they are afterwards intended to fit; for, being much 

 contracted from the abforption of the milk, little al- 

 teration takes place in this diminution in fize, even 

 when dry, as about one third only of the fluid evapo- 

 rates before the gum acquires its folid form. 



Great 



