EXPERIMENTS WITH SULPHUR. 113 



abandoned by the Eagle Company. Soon after this it was occu- 

 pied by the writer, who employed him for the purpose of man- 

 ufacturing life-preservers and other articles, by the acid gas and 

 solarizing processes. About this time the writer purchased the 

 claim of combining sulphur with India rubber, of Mr. Hayward, 

 for which a patent was taken out February 24, 1839. It should 

 be remarked that this claim was for the use of sulphur, and not 

 for the heating or vulcanizing process, subsequently discovered 

 by the writer. 



One remarkable fact relating to the use of sulphur with a sol- 

 vent deserves to be noticed, and also the manner in which it 

 was ascertained that its use by mixing the flour of sulphur with 

 the gum, without a solvent, has a very different effect from that 

 which is obtained by its use with a solvent. When a minute 

 portion of it is put into the solvent, or when the solvent is 

 impregnated with a quantity to the gallon so small as hardly 

 to be appreciated in weight, the gum which is dissolved with it 

 and spread thin upon cloth, when exposed to the sun for a single 

 day, will dry up so that it may be rubbed off the cloth in a dry 

 pov/der, whereas the sulphur in large quantity, or as much as 

 half a pound to the pound of gum, (which either has or has 

 not been dissolved,) may be mixed with it, and it will not be 

 scorched in solarizing, or injured by exposure to the sun after- 

 wards, for a great length of time.* 



From having the use of the only machinery with which the 

 gum was worked at that time without a solvent, the writer made 

 his first experiments with sulphur in that way, by which means 

 he ascertained the results peculiar to the different ways of using 

 the materials. It was his discovery and observation of this 

 peculiar result, that led the writer to continue his experiments 

 with sulphur, and to purchase the patent of Mr. Hayward.f 

 notwithstanding its use was not considered advantageous or 

 practicable by the Eagle company, or other manufacturers. He 



* These peculiar results, from the different methods of combining sulphur and gum-elastic, are 

 considered worthy of notice, although neither of them are practiced by manufacturers at the 

 present time. 



t Taken out at the suggestion of the writer. 



