Press enter after choosing selection

Miscellany

Miscellany image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
May
Year
1847
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The vari nis formsof use to which this material is applied are multiplying cohtinunlly. lts cnpacities are so manifuld hateach new adaptation suggests some other; and the improvements which have )een made in the art of manufacturing ho raw ma'erin] and of Wending it vith other substances, so as to impart its prculiar properties to a vast variety oC fabrica, open for its use a wide and almost inimitable range. A correspondent of the New Orleans Courifr refers to the India Rubber manufacture, and speaks of Goodyear as one wlio has made great improvements ïö it. Tho following extract will be fonnd interesting : " Until very lately it was fouiid impossilileto prevent the prepnratii nfrom melting in summer. Whole warehouses full of IndiaRubber shoe., clothing, &c. have melted into a mass of muck, to tho great detriment of the pockets of those who had invested their thousands in the stock of India Rubber manufactories. This man, (Goodyear,) nfter patiently devotingseven years to making exporiments, bas at Iength discovered the art of divesting the gum of solobility, and so preparing as to render it incapable of stiffening in the cold, or becoming more pliable except at a vory high degree of heat, which were its former characteristics, inlerfering with its general use f r vcry many purposes to which it is now applied. It is really as-tonishing tobehold the various uses !o which, underhis superintendenee, it hasoflnte years been applied with complete success. Fo'-instance, many of the New York and Liverpool lineships now have sails made of it, which are being preferred to the best Russiadnck, asthey are not only more pKable and durahlebut slied ice like glass. The War De partment are purchasing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth annually for use of the army in Mexico, in the wny of provisión bags, ponion boats, knapsacks, water sacks, cartouche boxes, arnmunition covers, &c. The shoe?, suspenders, mattresses, &c. made of tho preparation, as you know, are exlensively used all over the country. Maps and seamen's charts - ayp, and bank notes- are printed on it at the North. Ilarncss, trunks,iloorcloths. conducting pipes, tnble and piano covers, &c. of thisfabric are coming extensively into use. " In fact, it would puzzle one to go into one of their establishments and see the thousands ef articlcs now made of it for which iron, leather, wood, and linen, cotton, stik, and vvoollen cloths were formerly wholly employed. The housewives of New E-ngland are beginning even ta use it for culinary puposes, instead of tin ware and pot metal. For covering furniture it is fast driving both hair-cloth and velvet out of use, and really makes more elegant and durable parlor furniture than any other I have ever seen. I herewith send you a linie map of the State of Connecticut, printed on the preparation, which is a kind of feit composcd of raw cotton and the gum mixture made into sheets somewhat afterthe ftishion in which hatters prepare the bodie3 of lints. It is made inuch thinner tlian this specimen - so t!iin as to be very little heavicr than the common silk for dresses, and, as thus prepared, is now used for covering umbrellas, &c. - There are nearly fifty factories at work on it already, and in time it is destined to be one of our most valuable branches of manufacturing industry."

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News