Paris; but there was considerable delay and
no little trouble with the custom–house at
Calais. Permission had to be written for
from the authorities at Paris, and in the
meantime the patentees fumed, and cocked–
hats stirred up the villanously–smelling
compound, and wondered what infernal
machine it was to prime. At last with
a contemptuous Chimie applied to this
evil–scented stuff, all was suffered to pass
under the protest of disgust and ignorance;
and the first French caoutchouc
manufactory was established, to the edification
of the authorities, still mindful of the chances
of some tremendous iniquity contained in
the odd–looking machinery and nauseous
Chimie.

A German wove over the elastic threads,
but was obliged to go to Paris to learn how
to fasten off the ends. Of course such a hint
was not lost, and the English firm soon turned
out woven elastic, both in cloth and ribbon.
It was difficult to keep these elastic threads
straight, for one was perhaps stretched out
to a greater degree of tension than the other,
and the effect was too often a mere piece of
uneven pucker. So, to remedy this, the
threads were plunged into a hot bath, then
taken out and stretched on the frame till
they became stiffened by cold; they could
then be woven easily and cannily under these
conditions; and, when the weaving was
completed, a hot iron passed over the cloth broke
the spell, restored their resilience to the
threads, and the cloth or ribbon gathered up
in those beautiful little plaits we are all
familiar with in ribbon elastic. Boats and
pontoons were made on the same principle of
compartments as the air–beds and cushions;
diving–dresses, life–preservers, and swimming
belts, fishing trousers and wading boots,
balls, gloves, and leggings for cricket, a ball
for letters at sea, so that should the ship fail
the letters might be thrown overboard and
eventually saved; and a cloak that might
be made into a boat; and above all, Mr.
Brockedon's corks were made. Those corks
seemed to have lain very near the
father's heart. But they promised better
things than were fulfilled: for though
admirable at first, they soon lost their
elasticity by cold, and after a time became
harder and less elastic than the wood they
were to supersede.

About this time an American came over to
dispose of a secret; not quite his own, he said.
Something had been found out that would
prevent the rubber from stiffening by cold,
and that rendered it indifferent to solvents,
heat, and oils. Mr. Brockedon got some
specimen bits, which he gave to Mr. Hancock,
and the father pinched and pulled and tested
and smelt, and found sulphur in the specimens
—and so got on the trace of the secret.
Whereupon he took out a patent, and the
American went home—if he ever went home
at all—minus his secret, his patent, and his
reward. This was in point of fact the famous
vulcanised india–rubber which Mr. Hancock
thus discovered and applied—that horribly
scented stuff which is so curious and useful,
so common and so offensive. And thus we
have the beginning of that branch of the
manufacture which turns out the most elastic
material known, as well as a hard and horny
substance that can be cut by carpenters'
tools, and turned in a lathe as ebony or ivory
might be; that makes combs and knife
handles equal to tortoise shell; jet black
flutes equal to ebony; bracelets, pens and
penholders, picture–frames, and embossed
ornaments, at the same time that it gives
carriage–springs and railway–tires, machinery
bands, hose–pipes and tubings, trouser–straps
and shoulder–straps, printers' blankets and
letter–bands, and takes exquisite casts from
copper and other engravings. All these
multifarious things from the elastic substance
that closes over a pistol ball, and is not
dinted with blows that will break six–inch
shot to fragments! Then Mr. Brockedon's
corks were brought to real perfection; being
actually turned by the sulphur of the colour
of cork, and insensible to cold. And was not
that a triumph?

Hayward's Rubber Company (American)
next infringed the patent for vulcanisation
by sending over the American over–shoes,
which the firm had also begun to make; and
later, a trial took place which troubled the
father not a little. He won his cause,
re–established the impugned validity of his
patent; and from the dates and
reminiscences he was forced to bring forward in
his defence came this book—The Personal
Narrative of the Caoutchouc Manufacture in
England. By Thomas Hancock.

And now, what is caoutchouc? Called
gum elastic it has none of the characters of
gum, being insoluble in water; nor is it a
resin, for it is insoluble in alcohol. Ether,
naphtha, oil of turpentine, chloroform, and
sulphuret of carbon all dissolve it; but
naphtha and oil of turpentine are the best
solvents. Nothing was known of its origin
or formation for many years. It came to this
country in the shapes of bottles and animals,
and was sold as high as a guinea the ounce,
for the sole purpose of rubbing out pencil
marks—no one dreaming of the brilliant
career it was to have. The first reliable
account of it ever received in Europe was sent
by De la Condamine to the French Academy
in seventeen hundred and thirty–six, describing
it as the inspissated juice of a tree called
by the natives hevee. In seventeen hundred
and fifty–one Frisnan found the same tree in
Cayenne; and it is now known to be the
produce of many trees growing in South
America and the East Indies. These are the
most important of the caoutchouc–yielding
trees.

First. Siphonia elastica; one of the spurge
tribe, found in the dense forests on the banks