Glue for fancy articles. Great progress has been made in the use of glue and gelatine in the manufacture of fancy articles.
The best known of all these products are perhaps the gelatine foils. They form thin, transparent sheets, brilliantly colored, and are used for printing sacred images, visiting cards, labels, etc.
Gelatine veneers were first shown at one of the Paris International Exhibitions. They consist of sheets varying in thickness, which have been deprived of their translucency by an admixture of colors in imitation of various crystallization of salts, and such stones as lazulite, malachite and avanturine. Glue imitations of mother of pearl, tortoise shell, and ivory were shown which closely resembled the genuine articles. These veneers have been largely introduced in the manufacture of fancy articles, cabinet ware, buttons, etc. The most brilliant use to which they have been put is in the manufacture of fans, for which ivory and tortoise shell were formerly used, and there are perhaps few ladies that are aware that these glittering toys are manufactured from horse bones from the knacker’s yard.
The successful introduction of gelatine veneers was soon followed by a substitute for horn in general, and combs, buttons, snuff-boxes, and hundreds of other fancy articles have been manufactured from these imitations.
In the foregoing statement only some of the principal uses of glue have been enumerated, and there can be no doubt that with an increase in the knowledge of its nature and properties, a wide field is still open for progress in this industry.
[CHAPTER III.]
RAW MATERIALS AND THEIR PREPARATION FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GLUE.
The raw materials used for the manufacture of glue consist of a variety of animal offal. The principal substances employed are refuse from tanyards, such as scraps of ox and other thick hides, the waste of the workshops of leather dressers, morocco leather manufacturers, etc. The tendons and intestines of many animals, rabbit and hare skins deprived of their fur, cat and dog skins, scraps of parchment, waste of turners and button makers, and offal from butcher shops and households, help to swell the series of materials used for the manufacture of glue.
The materials are collected and sold either directly to the glue boiler, or to dealers making a specialty of glue stock.
As a thorough knowledge of these waste products is of importance to the manufacturer, this chapter will be devoted to their detailed description, the success of the enterprise depending largely on the selection of the raw materials and their careful sorting and preparation. By bearing in mind the varied products—from the most ordinary black glue to the colorless glassy gelatine for photographic and culinary purposes—it will be understood that entirely different raw materials have to be employed for the finer products than for the ordinary qualities of glue.