viii AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
October, 1912 
f of this well-planned 
modern home is the 
Morgan “iii Doors 
with whichit is furnished throughout. If you want your house 
Weavise Buar€y¥ GRMN poche. 
admired as you admire this and other handsome houses, have 
it finished with Morgan Perfect Doors and Millwork. Well- 
informed architects who take pride in their creations 
specify Morgan Doors because they want to be 
judged by the Morgan Standard. 
“*The Door Beautiful,’’ an artistic,de luxe book, 
describes them in detail and offers bright, help- 
ful pictorial hints on making homes more attrac- 
tive. Sent free on request. If you are thinking 
of building or remodeling, write fora zopy today. 
Morgan Sash & Door Co., Dept B2, , Chicago 
MORGAN COMPANY MORGAN micLWORK CO. 
Oshkosb, Wis. Baltimore, Md. 
r - Descriptive details of Mor- 
Architects * gan Doors may be found in 
Sweet’s Index, pages 910 and 911 
This brand is on the top rail of 
every genuine Morgan Door. 
Insist on seeing before buying. 
Electric Stationary for all kinds of 
VACUUM CLEANERS 335. cocaome et 
55 pounds. Country Homes special | 
Broomell’s 
“The reliable inexpensive 
Cleaning device — 
- BISSELLS 
“Cyco” BALL-BEARING 
Carpet Sweeper 
5 Other cleaning devices come 
and go, but the Bissell Sweeper 
withstands all competition, al- 
| ways emerging with increased wy 
| prestige and a broader measure - 
| of public favor. The reasons for 
| y 
| __* this are very plain andsimple. The “~~, 
| 
t 
Bissell Sweeper occupies a distinct ae 
field of usefulness that no other clean- : 
ing device covers, meeting a daily necessity 
of every home that cannot be practically 
compassed by expensive cleaning machines 
that are cumbersome to use; and beyond 
this, the ‘‘Bissell’, gathers up miscellaneous 
litter that other devices cannot pick up—all 
of which is recognized by housewives gen- 
erally The dirt and dust problem has to be 
met every day in the year, not periodically; 
\ and the Bissell Sweeper is the only cleaning 
, device which, on accouut of its lightness 
\ and efficiency, is practicable to use daily. 
\ The very latest BALL-BEARING BIS- 
\ SELL costs but $2.75 to $5.75, and will 
last from five to fifteen years, according 
to care given it. 
For sale by all the best trade. Write 
for free booklet, “Easy, Economical, 
Sanitary Sweeping.” 
Bissell Carpet Sweeper Co. 
Dept. 125 
Grand Rapids, Mich. | 
(Largest Exclusive Carpet | 
weeper Manufacturers 
or use with Gasoline Engine. 
66 VICTOR 99 VICTOR CLEANER COMPANY 
YORK PENNSYLVANIA 
S U N A Beautiful Illustrated Booklet, 
“WHERE SUN DIALS ARE 
MADE,” sent upon request. 
i Estimates furnished. 
Ask for Booklet No. 5 
Any Latitude 
E. B. MEYROWITZ, 237 Fifth Ave., New York 
Branches; New York Minneapolis St. Paul London Paris 
For American Homes and Gardens 
and Scientific American sent to 
$5 one address for one year. $ 6 
REGULARLY 
The Stephenson System 
of Underground Refuse 
Disposal 
Keep your garbage and 
waste out of sight, under ground or below 
floor in 
eet 
assaces Underground 
veace wane 
Garbage and Refuse Receivers 
Sanitary, odorless, fly-proof, a clean back yard, 
a fireproof disposal of refuse in a 
cellar, factory or garage. - 
Underground Earth Closet with port- 
able steel house for contractors, farm 
or camp. - 
Nine years on the market. It pays 
to look us up. 
Sold direct. Send for circular. 
C. H. STEPHENSON, Mfr. 
21 Farrar St. Lynn, Mass. 
THE EARLY HISTORY OF INDIA- 
RUBBER 
N article in The Automobile presents 
some interesting facts about india-rub- 
ber as first used by Europeans. Following 
the discovery of America an early Spanish 
writer made mention of the fact that the 
Haitians “played a game with gum balls,” 
the first reference in literature of any sug- 
gestion of india-rubber. Mexicans were 
later mentioned as “making slits in trees to 
permit the flow of a pleasant smelling, 
milky gum.’ Another Spanish _ writer, 
whose book was issued in 1615, after de- 
scribing the rubber-tree, says the Indians 
“used this elastic gum for medicine and the 
Spaniards used it for waterproof cloaks.” 
Other interesting historical items in the 
article are the following: 
“TLacondamine sent some of the dark, 
gummy caoutchouc from Brazil to the Paris 
Academy in 1736. With great difficulty 
chemists sought some sort of solvent for 
this, but not until 1761 was it accomplished. 
Herissont and Macquer then dissolved 
caoutchouc in oil of turpentine, rectified 
over lime, and obtained a mass that allowed 
the rubber to regain its elastic state. Ether 
was also used. Priestley, the great discov- 
erer of oxygen, in 1770 found that rubber 
made a good eraser for pencil-marks. Two 
years later, Magellan induced the French 
to use rubber commercially, and its price 
was $5 an ounce. In 1798, J. Howison dis- 
covered a rubber-tree (Urceola elastica) in 
Penanh province, and Dr. Roxburgh an- 
nounced another tree (ficus elastica) in 
Assam province. 
“In 1791 Samuel Peal had already taken 
out the first patent in connection with rub- 
ber ‘for the application of dissolved rub- 
ber to waterproofing.’ A second equally. 
useless patent was obtained twenty-nine 
years later by Thomas Hancock, April 29, 
1820. In 1823, Charles Mackintosh re- 
ceived the patent on waterproofing fabrics 
by dissolving rubber in coal-oil, and built 
the first factory in Glasgow, removing later 
to Manchester. 
“The fact that all articles made would 
not stand the stress of heat and cold led a 
German chemist, Professor Ludersdorf, to 
the discovery in 1832 that sulphur mixed 
with rubber dissolved in turpentine, re- 
moved all viscosity from the rubber. Here 
he stopped. 
“Then, in 1839, Nelson Goodyear, an 
American, solved the riddle of the rubber 
question. He discovered how to produce 
rubber objects that would withstand all ex- 
tremes of cold and heat. Nathan Haysard, 
his friend and partner, one day accident- 
ally dropped some rubber mixed with sul- 
phur upon a heated stove. When he picked 
it up, it was noticed that the sulphur was 
absorbed by the rubber, which kept its elas- 
ticity when afterward exposed to the hot 
sun. Goodyear, who had three years be- 
fore started in the rubber business by get- 
ting United States Government contracts 
for rubber mail-bags, continued experi- 
menting with this discovery, and in 1844 re- 
ceived his patents on the vulcanizing pro- 
cess.” 
FOXES NOT EASY PREY 
OXES often kill buzzards and the 
smaller hawks that have been impelled 
to attack them through hunger. They have 
mainly done this by dragging the birds 
through branches and brushwood; for they 
usually have their talons deeply imbedded 
in their intended victim, and are unable to 
let them go. 
| 
