Gutta-percha

Fortunately, all these properties are united in gutta-percha.

They exist in nothing else known to art.

Gutta-percha is the hardened juice of a large tree.

It is sonandra gutta, common in the Malay archipelago.

It is tough and strong, easily molded when moderately heated.

There are various other gums found in nature that can for some purposes be substituted for caoutchouc.

Gutta percha, for instance, is pliable and tough, though not very elastic.

It becomes plastic by heat, so it can be molded, but unlike rubber, it cannot be hardened by heating with sulfur.

A lump of gutta percha was brought from Java in 1766 and placed in a British museum, where it lay for nearly a hundred years before it occurred to anybody to do anything with it except to look at it.

But a German electrician, Siemens, discovered in 1847 that gutta-percha was valuable for insulating telegraph lines, and it found extensive employment in submarine cables as well as for golf balls and the like.

Balata, which is found in the forests of the Guianas, is between gutta-percha and rubber, not so good for insulation, but useful for shoe soles and machine belts.

And in addition to these familiar trees, there are hundreds of other varieties not generally known even by name, which produce useful and ornamental woods available for many purposes.

Gutta-percha is found in some localities and the tall and graceful coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is universal and contributes in no small degree to the comfort and prosperity of the natives.

Its trunk, branches, leaves, fruit, shell, and husk are all turned to account.

It produces fruit when seven years old that forms an important article of diet.