| Grind | 30 | lbs. Clean Java gum, |
| Grind | 5 | lbs. Lamp black, |
| Grind | 11 | lbs. Dry chalk, or whiting, |
| Grind | 5 | lbs. Sulphuret of lead. |
Costing about 12½ cents per pound.
Sometimes the Para gum is used in this mixture; but, though better, its use is not considered imperative if the Java caoutchouc is well cleansed. A cured coat, well vulcanized, is a great improvement in all respects upon the filthy naptha or varnish coat, and should, when competition is thrown into the market, exceed it very little in charge. As long as the calico upon which these are run is covered, the thinner that covering the better; and by far the best I have seen are made by Messrs. Mackintosh and Co., Moulton & Co., Moses, Son & Davis. I have seen some very bad ones, ill-shaped, non-vulcanized, and altogether only useful in bringing the better make into unjust dislike by the public. The sooner these latter daubs are improved, or withdrawn from sale, the better for the reputation of the India-rubber garment dealers. The cloth upon which the material is spread weighs about four ounces by the yard, and therefore the quantity of gum on each article is readily assessed, and the scale will determine which are lightest and best for a storm.
The article termed “sulphuret of lead” in the formula, is the chemical I have before remarked upon, and the screen or blind, nick-named (for reasons therein explained) “hypo,” and is only useful in so far as it is an excellent black pigment, which is only of importance in the garment branch of the trade.
ADULTERATION OF INDIA-RUBBER, IN CONNECTION WITH THE MANUFACTURE OF INVALID WATER MATTRESSES AND CUSHIONS.
There is no necessity for the monstrous charges at present made for these goods, and hence I desire to open up the subject fearlessly. The amount of adulteration necessary to bring up the desired color, is from 4 to 10 per cent. of the pigment termed oxide of zinc; but the formula used for the manufacture of the water or air mattresses and cushions referred to, contains about thirty-five per cent. of this cheap substitute for India-rubber. In writing thereon I take leave to state at the outset, that, like the “air,” or Mackintosh cushions or pillows we have known for so many years, they can be had of any size or shape, and differ from them in being of pure caoutchouc, or elastic gum, (minus the adulteration) instead of only a thin coating of pure gum, upon a cloth or non-elastic foundation. Hence their increased value to medical men in preventing bed sores, &c.
In my judgment, what is understood in these days by the word “humbug,” has gained such ascendancy over common sense, that honorable people, who disdain to practice it, are so out-distanced by the many who do, that they lose thereby several of the chances of trade. This “popular pet humbug” is, therefore, largely dealt in by puffing advertisers (even in these articles) who perpetually issue illustrated catalogues, &c., under the word “patent,” where none exists, “Improved Hydrostatic Water Mattresses,” “Inventor” and “sole manufacturer,” and a host of other fanciful and attractive names, through our Post Office, to the whole medical profession in the United Kingdom, as well as to the staff of medical men connected with all the Hospitals, Poor Law Union Infirmaries, East India and other companies, &c., and these mattresses are now in use at most of such establishments; and if the retail prices were not highly extortionate, and altogether beyond all reasonable limit, I would not throw the “sunshine” upon this valuable medical appliance. It just strikes my memory that there is a quiet notification in the interior of the envelopes of these circulars, that a discount of 12½ per cent. is allowed to the “profession,” (but which some refuse.) I may as well add, that these dealers, of course, have no exclusive right to the above names, as they would lead the public to infer, the manufacture being as free as the air we breathe; and of “hydrostatics,” they understand about as much as they do about general “chemistry,” and I am quite sure that of the latter exquisite science they know only just as much as the letterer can actually embody and make inherent in the words he may be instructed to paint on the door posts or facia outside. It is a melancholy truth, that this lettering is now accepted as proof that the “professor” inside, is in fact, a “practical” or “operative chemist,” though he may live and keep shop at the west end of the metropolis, and exhibit a framed notification, that he is a member of the “Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain,” but without examination.
It is incredible, moreover, how these people, by their presumption, even seem to deceive medical practitioners, judging from the numerous “good names” they append to some of their valueless compounds of exhausted roots. In many cases beyond the capacity of informing an enquirer why, in “camphorated spirit” the addition of “water” precipitates free camphor, (to use a figure) they know no more of chemistry than the writer’s “foot;” and yet if one had not daily experience and proof that true science is modest and retiring, one would be liable to put these “professors” down as real living “Faradays,” “Herapaths,” “Redwoods,” and other equally illustrious chemists instead of quacks. Excuse the digression, but these characters who disgrace an intellectual science, will cross one’s mind in writing.
Returning to the water mattresses, I will show in figures, in the manufacturer’s price in 1850, and the manufacturer’s charge in May, 1856, (and it must be less at this moment,) and the uniform retail price, and to this latter I invite the special attention of your readers, and ask them carefully to note the retailer’s profit on each, and decide the advantage to be derived from purchasing of the manufacturer. I have no personal interest in any of them. I will show also their usual sizes, and their weight, as they are all sold by the manufacturers, on this basis.
I trust this may stir up increased demand for so useful and necessary an article for the alleviation of human suffering, the use of which the immense retail profits have hitherto prohibited among the middle and humbler classes.