The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-28
VARNISH Is MADE OF RESINOUS GUM Brought to Makers from Far
 Parts of the Earth THE BEST IS FOSSILIZED Carved Head of Maori Chief In kauri Gum Creates Much Interest In
 a New York Varnish
 Store.

| Among the many sculptured heads of
 marble, bronze or other material that | might be found in New York there Is per | haps none more curious than one repre- senting the head of Maori chief carved
 in kaur gum. Of life size and lfelike in | appearance this striking and remarkable
 head, wrought by a native artist in New Zealand, whence it came, serves very ap-
 propriately as an adornment in the office
 of Yarnish manufacturer
 Varnish as the majority of people may
 or may not know, is commonly made of
 resinous gum of some sort. which is melt
 ed and mixed with linseed oil and turpen-
 tine. There are of course, various pre- 1 liminary processes. The gum Is first sort l ed out and separated, the light from the
 dark and one grade from another, and it | Is freed as far possible from dirt. The | material used may be combined in Vari-
 ous proportions and subjected to various | treatments according to the kind and l quality of varnsh to be produced; but 1 commonly speaking varnish is made of
 resinous gums, linseed oil and turpentine. | Thus made, the varnish is stored in
 tanks to settle, to free it as far as settling | may from impurities still remaining in it;
 and from the settling tanks 1t Is pumped
 in due time 10 be forced under compressed 1 air through fibers.
 , Thus filtered the varnish Is pumped Into l storage tanks, from which 1t may be
 drawn into barrels or cans for distribu- l ton and consumption. Varnish, however
 improves with age, and the highest grades
 of varnish stored for year or year
 and half to age.
 Egyptian AsphaItum. 1 Varnishes are made also with another
 material in place of gum, as those that
 are made with Egyptian asphaltum; and some are made without oil or turpentino
 such being shellac varnish, which is made l by dissolving shellac gum in alcohol Shel- | lac Is the varnish that dries on applica- | ton; other varnishes made with oil, | quire various periods for drying Varnishes are made in pretty nearly endless variety. Very many of the uses of varnish quite familiar to every | body, as, for instance it's use riages, on pianos and on furniture: but even for such familiar uses the varieties of varnishes made many. Here. for example, are listed more than a dozen varieties of coach varnish, half a dozen kind of piano varnish, and two dozen
 varieties for furniture, while there are also dozen and a half specially made | for chairs.
 Then there are more than a dozen va rieties of railway varnishes, for the in- side and for the outside of coaches, and for freight cars, and for locomotives;
 
 finishing varnishes; and nearly a dozen varieties of coffin casket varnishes. Of agricultural varnshes, as they are called, there are about a dozen, for var
 nishing ploughs and other agricultural implements; and there are label varnish- es trunk varnshes, electrical varnishes for vanishing electrical appliances and parts of electrical apparatus and marine varnishes and varnishes for corncob pipes and for straw hats and for harness ami
 for table oilcloth and broom handles and kegs and barrels.
 But perhaps the most interesting thing
 of all about varnish relates to the gums
 which enter into it's composition
 Gum for Varnlsh.
 The gums used in varnlsh making are either what are called recent gums,
 which are gums stripped from trees whose gums are suitable for varnish purposes, or they are fossilized gums tree gums that have been buried in the earth for centuries or they are shelac gums. A
 myriad of tiny insects settle on the twlg of a tree boring into it innumerable min ute holes through which they draw the twigs sap, to form around the twig resinous incrustation from which sub
 stance the shellac gum is made. Shellac varnish has its many special uses, and recent gums are used for many Varn1sheS; but best of all Is fossilized gum, which in
 the course of its long deposit In the earth mas lOSl dll us NOidllle suDSiahNC' s'iA become hard and uniform with only its best properties remaining. Fossilized gum of one sort or another is employed In the manufacture of half of all the var niShes made.
 These arious gums used in varnish making are gathered from more or less remote parts of the globe. Some fossil | iZed gums brought from south | American countries and some from the | west coast of Africa but the bulk | comes from New Zealand, the Philip | pine Islands and the east coast of Af- 1 rica.
 The gum runs down perhaps among l the roots of the tree, or 1t drops from | the tree in built up masses or punches, to be in the course of time buried | under accretions of matter forming l new earth above 1t. In the course of l time the trees from which this gum | was exuded may die and new trees spring up from the surface of the earth | under which the old gum deposits lie | buried.
 In New Zealand the searchers for the | buried gum use pointed Iron rods with l which they prod the earth if they | strike lump they stop and dig 1t up. 1 It may be little lump or mass of generous dimensions. The head of the | Maori chief was carved from such gum, fossilized kauri gum.
 Not all the various fossilized gums | are everywhere found in the places in which they were originally deposited. Washouts on the land may shift them, | to be buried under new, but still 1t l may be when found, centuries old, GOV erings Or the may encroach upon l gum bearing forests and destroy them | and wash out the gum deposits that 1 had long lain under them, perhaps in l time to wash these back on the beach. | On the coast of Zanzibar, in East Af- l rica, they tunnel for fossillzed tree l gum in sandy beaches where there are l no trees ct all, finding 1t there in mug gets and masses of various proportions. l Sometimes in one of these Jumps is | found an insect with wings outstretch- l ed. The insect had been caught in the | gum and gradually imprisoned. Arta a%i