Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-01-30


serve that purpose. porcelain ingeniously
coiored and baked In ovens being found
much better for the purpose. The great
spear OF the narwhal, which is the right.
upper incsor-tooth. greatly developed.
the left one being usually aborted. fur
nshes an excellent ivory. There Is no
| substance In nature OF organic origin
that compares in durability with ivory;
the teeth OF human beings and other anil
mails are apt 20 remain perfect long
after the bones have crumbled TO dust.
The bottom OF the ocean seems to -
literally covered with sharks teeth and
the ear-bones Of whales, which are fire.
frequently brought to the surface by
Gredges.
firm OF billiard-table manufacturers
I'm this country has offered prize Of
10000 for satisfactory substitute for
ivory. but Il remains as yet unearned.
The nearest thing suitable ser billiard
balls is celluloid. This substance Is a
mixture OF gun-cotton and camphor, TO
which zinc-whte Is added, TO give white
ness. The stuff is pressed into blocks
by hydraulic power, and the blocks are
turned into spheres in a lathe. They
are then dyed by dipping them into pots
OF color. the parts not to be colored being
protected by cups OF brass, ingeniousy
fastened upon the balls. This is not
so easy to accomplish when the balls
nsve to be colored in stripes. Before
the balls 90 TO the dye-pot numbers are
cut on them, and plumbago Is rubbed
into the numbers to make them black
Finally, the balls are sand-papered and
vanished by hand. Such balls are used
for pool and not for billiards, being not
sufficiently elastic for the latter game,
II is not true that they are apt TO ex-
plode or 70 catch fire, inasmuch as they
are too dense to burn.
Elephants tusks for billiard balls are
sawed into lengths Of three inches, or
little less. and the blocks are turned I'm
lathe. The dust is all saved and used
for making an imitation ivory. From
the two ends of each block are cut rings
for harness. The balls are laid aside
TO season for awhile. being too soft at
first; then they are turned in the lathe
again and polished with chalk and
cbamois skin. The less perfect ones are
colored red. the best being selected for
the white cue balls. The tusks of an
elephant are continually growing, and
those of captive animals are apt to be
cut at intervals, affording small quanti-
ties Of good ivory. though it is never
equal In quality TO the wild product.
Care must be taken not TO cut them too
short, inasmuch as an invasion OF the
soft pulp near the root causes the beast
great pain. Defects are found occa-
sionally In sound-looking tusks. owing
to a bullet that has made its way into
the tooth near the root and produced an
abscess. Once I'm awhile a tusk grows In
the form of a spiral, owing to disease on
one side Of IT,
From the upper Amazon comes a curl
Gus seed that furnishes what Is known
as vegetable ivory. Its substance Is al
most as hard as real ivory, which IL
counterfeits in appearance. The tree
that produces it is related to the palm,
and bears large spherical pods about
the size OF a mans hand These pods
are called "nigger heads" and each Of
them contains from six TO nine Of the
seeds. which are the shape and size of
an average potato. The young seed
holds a clear insipid fluid. which ira
vellers drink to allay thirst: eventually
the fluid becomes hardened into the
Vory-like substance. The Indians Of the
region where the tree grows make toys
and ornaments out Of this vegetable
ivory. which finds similar uses In COM
mercc.
It Is reckoned that 5000 elephants are
killed annually i'm Africa. The ancient
Hebrews. Egyptians, Greeks, and Ro-
mans used prodigious quantities Of ivory.
They made statues out Of IL. In the
Parthenon, at Athens. wag a statue Of
fold and ivory. thirty feet high. repre-
senting Minerva In such so-called
chryselephantine statues gold was used
to represent the clothing. while the ivory
served for the nude part Of the body
Apparently the ancients had a way Of
softening the ivory for working, but how
&c known n
of their workmanship. much larger than
any tusk. have been found. BY the use
of saw, veneers 40 feet long and ~
inches wide have been cut from n single
tusk. II is said that ivory-dust has
been employed as basis for soups.
The tusks of nastodOns are found I'm
various parts Of this country. These
animals were at one time very numerous
i'm what is now the United States. There
was no genus of quadrupeds more eX-
tensively difused over the globe; there
were several species and they ranged
from the tropics OF sub-Arctic regions.
Unlike the mammoth. they did not be-
long TO the genus elephas. However.
they were a kind Of elephant. considera-
bly, larger than any beast Of this type
now surviving.
They were contemporary with the nam
moth. the most important difference
between the two being in the shape of
the teeth. The legs OF the mastodon
were shorter. especially the hind ones.
and it had four tusks-two Of enormous
length, i'm the upper-jaw. and two OF
lesser size, In the lower-jaw. Much
thicker set than modern elephants. they
numbered through the primeval forests.
feeding on the green leaves and twgs Of
trees Often they became mired in shall
low lakes i'm the West from the former
beds of which their bones are dug out
to-day. Mastodon ivory is always too
much decayed to be Of any use and fire.
quently 1t is so rotten as TO crumble be-
tween the fingers.