Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-06-20
ALL ABOUT IVORY.
Facts Of Interest About This Usefui
Product.

4 lVOFV-InHt
which we all admire so mucn-nhs II
proI ortion as it is procured Amos
wrought the extinction OF the eiephan
from whom it is taken. Years ana year
ago elephants we're found IN neari,
every section of North America, but q
the present day there are but two spe
cies. the African and the Asiatlc, Stow
ing plainly that with the march OF CIV
ilization has also resulted the gradua
decrease in elephants. Whether they
ever will be extinct is problematicai.
Ivory actually is, as every one knows
the substance OF which the upper lncisol
teeth of elephants is composed, and the
] trade in it dates from far back ages.
We know Of the ivory palaces OF Jud@
the galleys of Tyre, Pliny tells us, had
benches of ivory and the roofs OF early
Greek palaces were inlaid with ivory
and we know that among the Etruscanf
thrones and sceptres were made OF II
whilst the old Roman kings used ivory
for their seats. At one time even the
finest tusks of ivory we're used as door
posts in Ethiopia and as palisades IN
the fields Such luxury In the use OF
what we so prize can hardly be realized.
When Rome fell the ivory trade fell
as well, and Roman mobiles and princes
had to give up the use OF the ivory
tablets upon which they used to write.
The tablets being covered on one side
with thin coating of wax, they wrote
with sharp pointed instrument upon
it.
This had strange result, and in the
seventeenth century elephants tusks
were plentiful. The Portuguese, when
they first settled at Angola and Congo,
finding vast stores Of ivory had accumu-
lated, shipped all the tusks they could
get to Europe, and were highly success
full with this commerce with ivory In
the middle Of the seventeenth century.
In 1910 Dieppe could boast of eleven
manufactures of ivory goods, and at
present there is a steady and regular
demand for it, principally from Eng
land, America, and the European ma
tons, and good many find their way
IT, China. To produce the many hun
bred tons annually imported, seventy
five thousand elephants every year are
destroyed-the elephants being chiefly
African and one-fourth Indian. Very
often the ivory can be taken from the
elephant tusks without destroying the
animal. The tusk is continually grow
ing, the pulp being gradually converted
into ivory, and the cutting of the ivory
can take place about every eight or ten
years.
The best ivory that can be obtained is
from Equatorial Africa. The West
Coast ivory at first seems black outside,
and looks very ugly. When it reaches
the wholesale traders it is wrapped in
raw hides, and these are sewn up by
raw hide thongs. These wraps are
called Schroons by the trade. Different
worries have different hues, and con-
noisseur can tell where ivory comes
from at glance. Billiard balls replire
the very best ivory, and the best are
made in New York at a celebrated house
which has a tusk nearly nine feet in
length rs business sign, the diameter
at the base being six and half inches,
and its weight one hundred and eighty
four pounds. In ivory work nothing is
wasted, the dust is even of use in gar
dening, and is said to have wonderful
effect upon roses. Ii is also used in
tempering steel tools and in making
some acids. Tusks are not always the
same shape, and Thomas Baines, who
travelled with Livingstone ON the Fem
best, tells of very peculiar case. 1t
was of a giant elephant who had nine
tusks, five on the right and four on the
left side, all growing from the upper
jaw.
As ivory is always sold by weight
there are many tricks of trade, such as
having the pulp loaded with metal, and
the tusks themselves often contain great
cavities. Ivory is often spoken of as
bone, or rice rersd, but it is a different
substance altogether. Ivory is much
finer in its structure, more elastic, and
has no canals containing blood vessels,
and is in itself found between the inner
pulp of the tusk and the cementum
that covers the whole tusk. In the
ivory itself there are numbers of very
minute spaces, called inter-globular
spaces, and which cause the many cir
cular lines so like the growth mark on
trees. In living ivory these tiny spaces
are filed with some organic matter.
Ivory polishes well, can easily be dyed,
and is excellent for carving upon.
African elephant ivory is considered
the very best, as / have before said.
1t is thought so much of because the
grain is very close. 1t does not turn so
yellow when exposed. 1t is semi trans
parent when first cut, and ivory workers
call it green" 1t dries
and becomes more opaque as time goes
on and the water dries from it, and
consequently it shrinks a good deal.
That which is used in piano-keys is
shrunk and dried by being baked in an
oven.
Ivory likes the light, and turns vel
low much sooner if kept in the dark.
The ancients are said to have possessed
the secret of softening ivory, but this
cannot be done in these DAYS, though il
can be made more flexible by the use OF
acid.
In speaking of the uses of ivory dust,
| omitted to say that it is often used as
I