The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-31 00:00:00

GUTTA PERCHA.

The history of gotta percha—or genii tal?fie, as the
learned tell us the beat quality ( f the gum ought to be
called--is brief but not uneventful.
Previous to 1844, the very name of gutta percha was
unknown to European commerce. In that year two cwt.
of it were shipped experimentally from Singapore. The
exportation of gutta prelia from that port rose in 1845
to 169 piculs (the picul is 133 f lbs.); in 1846, to 5 364;
in 1847, to 9,296; in the first seven months of 1848, to
6,768 piculs. In the first four and a half years of the
trade, 21,598 piculs of gutta percha, valued at 274,190
dollars, were shipped at Singapore; the whole of which
was sent to England, with the exception of 15 pleats to
Mauritius, 470 to the continent of Europe, and 922 to
the United States.
But this rapid growth-of the new trade conveys only a
faint idea of the commotion it created among the native
inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago. The jungles of
Johore were the scene of the earliest gatherings, and
they were soon ransacked in every direction by
parties of Malays and Chinese, while the indigenous
population gave themselves up to the search with an
unanimity and zeal only to be equalled by that which
made railway jobbers of every man, woman, and child
in England about the same time. The Tamungong,
with the usual policy of oriental governors, declared the
precious gum a Government monopoly. fie appropri-
ated the greater part of the profits and still left the Ma-
lays enough to stimulate them to pursue the quest, and
to gain from 100 to 400 per cent. for themselves on what
they procured from the aborigines. The Tamungong,
not satisfied with buying at his own price all that was
collected by private enterprise, sent out numerous par-
ties of from 10 to 100 persons, and employed whole
tribes of hereditary serfs in the quest of gutta percha.
This organized body of gum-hunters spread itself like
a cloud of locusts over the whole of Johore, peninsular
and insular. They crossed the frontier into Linga, but
there the Snitan was not long of discovering the new
value that had been conferred upon his jungles. He
confiscated the greater part of what had been collected
by the interlopers, and in emulation of the Tamungong
declared gutta percha, or gatti 11,a), a royalty.
Whether any protocolising between the potentates was
the result of these stringent measures, the historian
leaves untold.

The knowledge of the article stirring the avidity of
gatherers, gradually spread from Singapore, northward
as far as Pinang, southward along the east coast of Su-
matra to Java, eastward to Borneo, where it was found
at Brut , Sarawak, and Pontianak on the west coast, at
Keti and Passir on the east. The imports of gutta
percha into Singapore from the Ist of January to the
12th of July, 1848, according to their geographical dis-
tribution, were—From the Malay Peninsula, 593 piculs;
from the Johoro Archipelago, 1,269; from Sumatra,
1,866; from Batavia, 19; from Borneo, 55. The prico
at Singapore was originally 8 dollars per picul; it rose
to 24, and fell about the middle of 1848 to 13.

The commotion among the human race in the Archi-
pelago was great, but the vegetable kingdom suffered
most by it. In the course of three and a half years
270,000 titio trees were felled in order to get at the gum.
The commodity which left such excitement behind
it in the far east produced excitement in loglaud,
too, but of a more mixed and equivocal character.
The capabilities of the new gum were undoubtedly
great, but invention was rather put upon the stretch
to decide how they should be turned to account.
Like many other persons and things destined ulti-
mately for higher employments, the first occupations of
gutta percha were es law as could be imagined. It was
used to make waterproof soles for shoes, and a most
portentous cackling and puffing was relied about its
virtues in keeping the feet dry. Less has been heard of
it of late in this line: some easy bachelors, who loved to
sit with their feet on the fender, rather brought it into
discredit, for it softened under the influence of the fire,
and kept their feet lucked to their genial footstool.
Surgical bandages, draining pipes—it is impossible to
recapitulate the number of articles proposed to be manu-
factured out of gutta percha. Bread-baskets, ink-
standisher, &c.: the ductile gutta percha allowed itself
to be cast in moulds into all of these forms. Doll-
makers—the comical 'ones—pressed it into their service.
But a day of triumph has at last come for gutta per-
cha; " Fitter hope and nobler doom." It is no longer
to be used merely to keep the fleet feet of the Post office
letter-carriers dry, but has become an essential adjunct
in the transmission and interchange of information by a
mode, that in point of rapidity distances the post, and
all its officials to boot, even with the aid of express trains.
The crowning glory of gutta percha's brief career
was displayed on WA day when, as the Goliah paddled
slowly over a waveless sea, 30 miles of copper wire,
thickly coated with the Indian gum, were slowly " payed
out," to form the line of electric telegraph from the Bri-
tish to the French coast. The ides of asking a ques-
tio❑ in London, and receiving an answer from Pans, in
less than half-an-hour, is sufficiently stupendous. But
if a submarine telegraph is possible from Dover to Cape
Grime, what is there to hinder the extension of a line
to Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, and Simla? The autho-
rities in Lesdenhall-street and Cannon-row may be
transformed from an absentee into a virtually rt*ident
Government, without being obliged to budge from their
chairs.

And what has been done of wonderful, and may be
yet done of more wonderful still, is in no small degree
owing to guns perche. As manageable, enduring, and
economical a coating for the submarine telegraph wires
it would be difficult to find. For bunc]reds and thou-
sands of years this gum kept exuding unnoticed and un-
cared for in the jungles of the India,' Archipelago. A
seeming accident drew to it the notice of an European
adventurer only seven s ears ego. And already it has
made the fortunes of thouslnds of the rude natives; hats
become a bone of contention between their proud and
barbarous chiefs; has tasked the wi's of many of our
numerous speculators possessed of more ingenuity than
steady industry or money; and has contributed materi-
ally to the success of one of the boldest projects in the
way of rendering science practically subservient to our
daily uses, that even this age, fertile in such triumphs,
has witnessed.