SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
+—— 
a An American method carefully tested and applied upon a seale of 
actual production, is, or was, to plunge completed cabinet work, or at 
least finished parts, into tanks of varnish, and then by automatic 
machinery to gradually elevate the object, having regard to the surface 
tension’ and a viscosity previously calculated. An even temperature is 
easily provided, but there are great objections to the method itself. 
“© Small objects of wood, as doubtless you are aware, are treated by 
frequent mechanical dipping in celluloid preparations, continued for 
“veeks or months. The Du Pont de Nemours Company of America, 
who were the chief suppliers of explosives to the Allies, and thus 
‘fealized avaricious dreams beyond your wildest guess, have applied part 
‘of their plant and profits to utilizing their chemistry for peaceful pur- 
Suits. Amongst these is the production of varnishes of quite novel 
¢haracter, and they have not the unfortunate inflammability of celluloid. 
_,, But of all varnishes one stands pre-eminent as enduring the test of 
ages, and because of its beauty united to great power of resistance. 
‘That is the Japanese lacquer, perhaps wrongly so called, because we 
‘understand. lacquering to be varnish floated by application of heat. 
T once hired a Japanese artist to teach me the use of their varnish, 
‘known to. them as “urushi,” the juice of a tree of one of the Rhus 
family. The practice has come down for centuries, how far back I 
‘do not know, but certainly the lacquer resists molecular change beyond 
all others. We have still, I believe, some of the material in its original 
‘packages, a dark-brown liquid that can only be used according to long- 
settled rules. It is too long a story to relate, but the strangest of its 
‘many idiosyncrasies—if we may use the word—is that all the work 
‘must be carried out in a cool and thoroughly moist atmosphere, a con- 
dition that would be destructive to all other varnishes that we know of. 
Neither shellac, nor copal, nor Kauri gum, nor celluloid will tolerate 
cold moistures in the application of them. Yet in the preparation of 
urushi, to my surprise, water was mixed in the preparation of the 
jnaterial for the ground work, which the artist explained would presently 
4éparate itself all at once. This indeed occurred, the water suddenly 
‘flowing out on all sides and leaving the other materials, whilst they are 
‘still being blended with a palette knife. This ground layer, together 
With the wood to be lacquered, was placed in a very moist chamber for 
‘days to harden, just what would not happen with other varnishes. And 
sure enough it became very hard and fit-for cutting down. | The sub- 
sequent processes consist of adding coats of urushi coloured as desired 
sand each laboriously cut down to smoothness. 
» As already said, the lacquer will last indefinitely, will resist’ all 
ordinary exposure, is unaffected by boiling water and temperatures that 
‘Would destroy other covering. I was informed that the only practical 
‘diluent is the juice of a fruit tree quite different to the Rhus itself. So 
far as I am aware the only successful attempts to carry out.the process 
‘in Europe were made before the war in Austria, but it may be doubted 
that the experiments have been brought to actual utility. ae 
{..,I-have not at hand my books of reference, and so have to quote 
from memory... Professor Friedliinder, of K6nigsberg, author of 
Sittengéschichte Roms, often-cited by Mommsen, deals shortly ‘with the 
mentions of> cabinet: work.‘in the: Roman’ Imperial period: | Amongst 
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