192 GOODYEAR ON GUM -ELASTIC, 



PLATED FABRICS. 



The term " plated" has been adopted to designate a peculiar 

 method of coating cloths with caoutchouc and its compounds. 

 Plated fabrics are made by the interposition of a thin bat or 

 fleece of cotton or flax fibres between the gum and any fabric to 

 which it is applied, whether woven, knit, or felted. The gum, 

 when applied in this manner, is partly intermixed with the bat 

 or fleece of fibre, and both are securely united to the fabric, and 

 are held firmly even upon linen or any canvas made of hard- 

 spun thread. The coarser and more open the fabric, the 

 greater is the economy, and the advantage every way in 

 plating, instead of coating it by the old method of applying the 

 gum to the cloth, because the plating is laid over instead of 

 being forced into the meshes of the canvas ; the consequence is, 

 that the coarsest and most open canvas is, when plated, ren- 

 dered water-proof with about the same quantity of gum as is 

 required for the finest muslin. Heretofore, when gum-elastic 

 was applied to woven fabrics, and especially to linen or coarse 

 fabrics, without the interposition of fibres, the gum was not only 

 easily peeled or chafed from the fabric, but it required so great 

 quantity of it to fill the meshes of the fabrics, and render them 

 water-proof, that their expensiveness, together with their great 

 weight, almost wholly prevented the manufacture of this class 

 of caoutchouc fabrics. The same obstacles of weight and ex- 

 pensiveness have always existed to prevent the manufacture of 

 heavy oil or other water-proof cloths sufficiently strong and 

 yet cheap and light enough for the uses for which such fabrics 

 are desirable. 



By this improved method of plating fabrics, they are made so 

 cheap and light, and yet so durable, that there is good reason 

 for believing that this method will be generally adopted, but 

 more especially for linen goods, heavy canvas, and bagging. 



