The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-31 00:00:00

A usErut INVENTION.

The material prodwed by Colonel Szereliny, and
called by the Aralirc sounding name of Z plasm, iv •
specius of paint, varnish, or glue, or rather a substance
combining the a,- eeial qualities of each of these bodies
with oilers peculiar to itself. It can be employed
with the facility of paint. It is as preservative of sur-
face and of lustre as the most suiv.was`ul varnish. It
bids with a tenacity equal to that of th- best marine
glue, not only w sd, paper, and cloth. but stone, glass,
and iron. It is impervious to water. his incombustible
by tire. It is an almost absolute non-conductorof heat.
While qualities such as these are enough to give very
high commercial value to a chemical product, the cost
of production is sail to be very low.
We have not space to enter into the interesting
details of the manner in which Colonel Szerelmy was
led to the discovery of this important materiaL He
believes that it is the very secret that has imparted so
imperishable &durability to the sarcophagi, the mummy
cloths, and the mural paintings of the ancient Egyp-
tians. There is, it is certain, a wonderfully Egyptian
look about the panels, and cloths, and piles, andbelams,
and sleepers, prepared by this process. Some of them
have been for years under water. Some of them have
been exposed to jets of flaming gas. They appear to
have been little affected by either.
Human life is not of adequate length to apply the '
tests to which the inventor proposes to submit the
timbers he has prepared. But when we say that not
only a very large proportion of the newspaper press of
the country has called attention to the results of ex-
periments, but that Dr. Faraday and Sir Roderick
Murchison, in an official report which the House of
Commons ordered to be printed on the 16th of May,
1860, bear testimony to the efficiency of Zupissa for ar-
resting the decay of stone, it will be seen we have reason
for eapressing surprise that the material bassist been
brought Into universal use. Its value for maritime and
military purposes appears to he extraordinary.
Opticians and opera-goers know the worth of the new
metal, aluminium, owing to its two qualities of non,
oxidation and great lightness. A double opera-glass
might be made of Zopiasa paper, so light that the
glass would be the heaviest part, so strong as to be
proof against any but intentional injury, and at a
cost which would leave aluminium nowhere. Again,
for cisterns, pipes, or reservoirs of water : not only
can these be made of this material at a third of the
price of iron, but the chemical action that is always
going on in metal containing water would be obviated,
and the great trouble of the winter frost in London
and other la.ge towns, the fracture of the water-pipee,
would be rendered a thing of the past; owing not so
much to the great strength as to the non-conducting
quality of the pipes made of this cheap material.
Space would fail us to tell of the objects to which it
might be satisfactorily applied. For vessels it may be
made to combine the lightness of timber with the re-
sistance of iron armour. For shoes it is at once light and
durable. For cartridge-cases it presents to the manu-
facturer of small arms, and, indeed, to the artillerist in
any branch, exactly that of which he is in search,—
From "The An Journal" for August.