The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-08-18
surTA PERCHA IN DEMAND.
The Progress OF Electricity Driving Ie
From the Market.


The projectors of the Guatemalan
and Pacific cables are said to be con-
f-opted with a serious problem as to
insulation. What they are to use to
cover their long submarine wires is al
most as important question as were
she original preliminary grants They
want gutta percha, because that Is the
material always used in long-dis.ance
submarine insulation, and because
there is no other substance that has yet
been found to take its place But the
supply is so limited that an attempt to
ouy such quantity a. they will need
would send the price from one dollar
and seventy-five cents q pound. rs it
is now quoted. up to four or five dollars
pound.
Gutta percha. like platinum. is stuff
that has increased in price as the use OF
electricity has become more and more
general. Just rs platinum has almost
become the king of metals, so gutta
percha has become the king of insu-
lators. 1t was very cheap a few
years ago, but the demand has sent
it up to one dollar and seventy
five cents a pound now, with constant
tendency to increase. The Guatemalan
cable people, it is said, have proposed
the use of caoutchouc to insulate their
wires, and the rubber market, in conse-
quence, has been expecting boom.
But experts say that while Para rubber
is a good insulating material under or
binary circumstances, it cannot with
stand the forces that attack it at the
bed of the ocean, and it is extremely
improbable that the projectors OF q
great cable will try any such elaborate
experiments with it as would be in
volved in a trans-ocean line.
Balata, which is neither gutta percha
nor rubber, but possessing many of the
properties of the former, would be q
good substitute for gutta percha, it is
said, if it could be found in sufficient
quantities. There is also said to be .
gum on the banks of the Orinoco which
makes an insulating material almost as
good as gutta percha, but it is not
| found in commerce.
Gutta percha, which thus bids fair to
be q more important article in the mar
ket than ever before. comes to US
through England from the Malay PEN
insula, India. and China. Gutta, or, as
it is variously written. gutah. gatta,
gittah, gotta, is the Malayan term for
gum, and percha is the name OF the
tree. The trees attain a height Of from
sixty to eighty feet, with diameter
of from two to four feet The wood is
soft, fibrous, spongy. and of pale
color, marked with black lines. these
being the reservoirs of gutta percha.
The gutta, as it flows from the tree, Is
of a grayish hue, although the market
product becomes almost black in its
preparatory processes.
The collection of gutta pcrcha gener
ally takes place directly after the rainy
season, as in the dry season the gutta
does not flow so readily. The yield Of
a well-grown tree of the best variety i.
from two to three pounds. The native.
extract the gum by cutting down ths
tree at height Of fourteen or sixteeI
feet above tine ground Narrow strip:
of bark are then removed and ar
beaten by the natives TO accel
crate the flow of milk or gut
ia which is received into hol
low bamboos or in holes scrapet
in the ground. The next step in thu
J process is boiling. This is conducted il
, q .kwali," or pan of iron, in which lim'
Juice or cocoanut oil is mixed with thu
gum. When sufficiently boiled the gut
! Ia is pressed into molds.
On arriving at the port of shipment
the gutta, before expectation, under
goes examination and classification int
parcels, according to its quality. Near
I " the whole product is then shipped Il
England, whence it reaches the Unite'
, States in small quantities and general.
I Of the poorest variety. Four-ffths O
! the entire product is used in making
! cables, and nine-tenths of it is handles
] in England. That which is exported +
E this country is oftentimes only tn
: refuse from the British shops, boile
over and remolded.
The constant diminution in the sur
4 ply of gutta percha was explained by a
, importer in this way: II a Malay O
|. Chinese wishes to plant pepper or any
g thing else. he burns portion OF tn
e | forest, and when he has raised two @
o three crops he clears a new portion
Thus finely-woodcd spots become d.
nuded of trees and covered with ran
grass, rendering them unfit for furthe
cultivation. Again, to obtain the gur
the trees are cut down. none are plan
ed to take their places, and the result
e that in districts where percha trees one
:, abounded only one or two can now
D. found A writer IN an eastern pape
y says that in twenty years over ninet
Il thousand piculs tof liak pounds eacf
y of gutta percha were exported frol
Sarawak alone and that this meant tn
J, death of at least three million trees
n. Y. Times.
e St Agedore Ito his tailor)-"Kh, I
IL the way, you have a fellow to keep a
counts. of coursey' The TailOr-"Ce