Pure natural rubber or rubber cement can be obtained at any rubber store, also prepared patch cloth.
To Make Rubber Cement.
Take half a pound of pure natural rubber, cut it into small pieces, and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of 100 proof naptha. It will take from two to three days to dissolve properly.
To Waterproof Canvas or Cloth.
Take one pound of yellow paraffine wax and dissolve in one quart of benzine. Apply with a brush.
To Make Tissues Incombustible.
The Societé d’Encouragement of Paris has recently awarded a prize of 2,000 francs to J. A. Martin of Paris for the following preparations for making tissues fire-proof. The conditions under which the award was offered were as follows: The ingredients constituting the preparations must be cheap and easily applied, must neither injure the tissues themselves nor their colors, must be neither of a poisonous nor caustic nature, must not change in a very moist nor very dry atmosphere, and finally the impregnated tissues and wood must remain incombustible after they have been exposed for one month to a temperature of 100° to 120° Fahr. It was found that Martin’s fluids made the tissues and the surface of wood incombustible, that they do not attack the tissues and their colors, and that they remained incombustible after having been exposed for several months in a drying chamber to a temperature of 97° Fahr. The experiments were made by the Society and at the same time in the different Paris theaters.
For all Light Tissues.
| Ammonium Sulphate8 | parts. |
| Pure Ammonium Carbonate2 1/2 | parts. |
| Boracic Acid3 | parts. |
| Starch2 | parts. |
| Water100 | parts. |
Two-fifths part of dextrine (or the same quantity of gelatine) may be substituted for the 2 parts of starch. The fluid is heated to 85° Fahr. and the tissues immersed in it until they are thoroughly permeated. They are then slightly wrung and dried sufficiently for ironing. The quantity of the starch or dextrine or gelatine may be changed according as the tissues are to be more or less stiff.