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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



warm marble slab a quantity of gutta percha, and 

 then cutting it into strips. By a skilful combi- 

 nation of light-colored and dark -colored materials, 

 a substance is produced which, from its likeness 

 to c elecampane,' or ' lemon-rock,' would be 

 tempting to any youthful palate. These varie- 

 gated strips are placed at intervals, like the ribs 

 of a ship, within the first-named bowl. The ' re- 

 entering ' part of the mould is then inserted, and 

 the whole is slung, by means of hook and pulley 

 and the men's guidance, beneath an hydraulic 

 press. The exertions of a child's force with this 

 powerful apparatus inflicts upon the strips a pres- 

 sure of a hundred tons, causing them to spread 

 out, and, by their edges joining, to form a perfect 

 bowl. Great beauty is the result of this process. 

 Expanding from various central lines, it has the 

 exact semblance of the veins and markings of 

 most beautiful veneer. 



A visitor to the works of the Gutta Percha 

 Company will be struck as much by the noiseless- 

 ness of some of the departments, as by the din 

 in the vicinity of the steam-engines. In one 

 part may be detected, if the eye be bright, a 

 heavy cog wheel working into another. The ear 

 would not detect it, for it works in silence. The 

 pioneer will explain that it is gutta percha working 

 into metal ; that it has been working more than 

 two years without any deterioration ; proof satis- 

 factory of strength and durability. 



A very pleasing feature will also be discerned 

 with respect to the operatives. The relation be- 

 tween employer and employed seems as modern 

 as the material of manufacture. Every face 

 gleams with intelligence ; and, as our conductor 

 exchanges a kindly remark with the men or the 

 youths, a sympathy shows itself, as if every one 

 felt that the credit of the establishment depended 

 upon individual effort. We believe that nowhere 

 will a body of men be found more cleanly, more 

 smiling, more proud of their employment, more 

 emulative of giving the best finish to their work. 

 The development of this new branch of industry 

 is their great aim. Most of its applications have 

 emanated from them. They have contributed, in 

 an eminent degree, to show the extent to which 

 the new substance may be made available for the 

 benefit of man, and also how to make it so. 



Perhaps the most notable service that gutta 

 percha is destined to render, arises from its suita- 

 bility for tubing. In a sanitary point of view, its 

 value is above estimation. The vicious practice 

 of using lead tubing cannot too soon be super- 

 seded. All of us remember the consternation at 

 Claremont, in the family circle of Louis Philippe, 

 when a dozen members of the household were 

 attacked with the symptoms of poison, clearly 

 traceable to the lead which the water held in so- 

 lution. Water acts upon lead in a very short 

 time. The Duke of Bedford's surveyor attests 

 that, where lead has been eaten through in two 

 years, the gutta percha pipe has remained quite 

 unaffected. At Woburn Abbey it is now em- 

 ployed very extensively. A little unpleasantness 

 was imparted to the water at first, but a day re- 

 moved that ; and since, it has flowed perfectly 

 pure. 



Tube making is very ingeniously managed. 

 The apparatus has a cylindrical aperture, through 

 the whole length of which runs a rod of metal, , 



leaving just so much space between it, and the 

 interior surface of the aperture, as is desirable for 

 the thickness. Soft gutta percha is forced through 

 this aperture, and comes out from the other end 

 in the form of tubing. It would of itself collapse 

 immediately, but this is provided against by skil- 

 fully contriving that cold water should fill it as it 

 is produced. It traverses a trough 30 or 40 feet 

 long, by which time it is sufficiently cold and 

 solid to be wound off. Evidently, the only limit 

 to the production of pipe is the limit put to the 

 ' feeding.' From 400 to 500 feet in one length, 

 as perfectly distended in every part as when it 

 first leaves the mould, have been made in this 

 way ; longer by far than has ever been produced 

 in any other material. 



Acoustics as well as hydraulics claim the aid 

 of this tubing. Large and nmall apparatus are 

 made ; from the little cornets, almost invisible 

 when fixed to the ears, to the large trumpet or 

 receiver that needs a table for its support. 

 Curious indeed some of these invention are, and 

 well calculated to astonish anybody who tries one 

 for the first time. Bells are quite done away 

 with at the company's works. Sound is con- 

 veyed to any distance, and with great distinctness, 

 by the ' message-tubes.' We shall not be able to 

 accomplish our tour of inspection without hearing 

 occasionally a low whistle close to our ears. It is an 

 intimation to the individual in charge of the room 

 in which we may happen to be, that some one in 

 a remote department, a fellow-officer maybe, who 

 1 canna be fashed ' to come, wishes to communi- 

 cate with him. He has, therefore, blown at his 

 end of the tube, a distance of fifty, sixty, or a 

 hundred yards ; and produced the musical pheno- 

 menon we chance to hear. He to whom the in- 

 timation is given, removes a little whistle from 

 his end, and replies with a like gentle puff ; then 

 listens. The effect is amusing ; not unlike the 

 sounds produced by a good ventriloquist, when 

 imitating a distant speaker — perfectly audible and 

 clear, yet seeming as though they had travelled 

 far. ........ 



Now let our readers imagine, that such a mes- 

 sage-tube had a mouthpiece where the knob of 

 the ' Night-bell ' usually is on the door-post of a 

 surgeon's house, and that it communicated with 

 the bedside of the surgeon. If, perchance, a rea- 

 der be such functionary, he will, or ought, to hail 

 a contrivance that substitutes a passing of ' symp- 

 toms ' and ' directions ' between the door and 

 the bed. for rising on a frosty night and exposure 

 to the bleak air. 



Speaking-tubes are also suggested as a com- 

 munication between the man on the ' look-out ' 

 and the helmsman, or the captain in his cabin. 

 Gutta Percha is as antagonistic to salt water as to 

 fresh. It will, without doubt, become a sine qua non 

 with every shipmaster for buckets, &c, and by 

 every seaman for 'sou'-westers.' Already it is 

 made into life-buoys, more buoyant than cork, 

 speaking-trumpets, sheathing, cord which does 

 not sink in the water, and other things — a host. 



Ornamental sound-receivers have been fixed to 

 the pulpits of some churches, with tubes passing to 

 the pews of the deaf members of the congregation. 

 By this means, many a one to whom the sound of a 

 sermon had long been strange, has had cause of 

 thankfulness for the introduction of gutta percha. 



