ON THE MANUFACTURE OF STRINGS FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, 159 



the vapour of sulphur, rubbed with a horse-hair glove, submitted to a new 

 torsion, sulphured again, further rubbed, and dried. 



The dried strings, rolled upon a cylinder and tied, are rubbed with fine 

 olive oil, to which one per cent, of laurel oil has been previously added. 

 The oil of laurel is supposed to keep the olive oil from becoming rancid. 



The gut-strings employed by turners, grinders, and for cleaning cotton, 

 &c, are made with the intestines of oxen, horses, and other animals. 

 These, clearedby putrefaction of the mucous and peritoneal membranes, and 

 treated by a solution of carbonate of potash, are cut into straps by means 

 of a peculiar knife, and spun in the same way as the musical strings. 

 The uses of bladders and gut for holding lard, for covering gallipots and 

 jars with preserves, as cases for sausages, polonies, &c, and other domestic 

 purposes, are well known. Lately, however, the vegetable parchment, as it 

 is termed (which is ordinary paper steeped in sulphuric acid), has come 

 into extensive use for this purpose. 



Insufflated, or inflated guts, are chiefly employed for the preservation 

 of alimentary food. They have to pass through a long series of modifica- 

 tions and processes, before becoming fit for use. The end of these prepa- 

 rations is, to free the muscular membrane of the intestine from the two 

 other membranes covering it, the peritoneal and the mucous. 



The first operation of scouring, consists in freeing, by means of a knife, 

 the gut from the grease attached to it, and also of the greatest part of the 

 peritoneal membrane. The scoured guts are washed and turned inside out, 

 then tied together, put into a vat without any more water than that 

 adhering to them, and left in this state to undergo a putrid fermentation. 

 The time required for this operation will be from five to eight days in 

 winter, and two or three days only in summer. If the fermentation were 

 pushed too far, the guts would be disorganised : to avoid this incon- 

 venience, the workmen are often obliged to add some vinegar, in order to 

 neutralise the ammoniacal compounds formed, and also because fermen- 

 tation is slow in the presence of acids. 



After this fermentation, the mucous membrane is completely decom- 

 posed, and the remaining portions of the peritoneal membrane are easily 

 taken off. The guts are then well washed, and insufflated (inflated). 



This operation is performed in the same way as swelling a bladder, with 

 this difference, that the extremity of the gut is tied by a ligature serving 

 also to join a new gut insufflated (inflated) in the same way. During this 

 operation, the guts exhale the most noxious smell, and workmen employed 

 at such work could not blow or insufflate many days in succession without 

 having their health affected. 



In order to prevent that inconvenient, unhealthy process of manufacture, 

 the Societe d' Encouragement of Paris proposed a premium for a chemical 

 process enabling the manufacturers of these articles to dispense with putrid 

 fermentation. -The process suggested by Mons. Labarraque, the successful 

 candidate, is remarkable for its cheapness, and the facility of its application. 

 In following the method recommended by this chemist, these animal 



