SOCIETY OF ARTS.
The lecture at the Society of Arts on Wednesday evening by Professor Solly, "On the nature of vegetable substances used in manufactures," was scarcely less interesting than any of those yet delivered in exposition of the art-use of the Great Exhibition.
Dropping some observations on the barrenness of our national literature on such subjects, he proceeded to show how immense a service the Great Exhibition performed, or offered to perform, to manufacturers and art- ists, in placing under their very eyes those demonstrations of the useful and beautiful qualities of materials which cannot be given by books. The resins and gums, the dyes, the woods, and the textile materials, arranged in rich and illustrative variety in the Great Exhibition, were succes- sively dealt with.
Caoutchone and gutta percha were duly honoured with mention ; and the audience learned that a multitude of cognate materials were shown to the European eye for the first time by the Exhibition, some of which promise to be as strikingly useful as these new "necessities of life" have now become to us. The resin of the xanthowee promises to be used largely in place of shell-lac in the manufacture of sealing-wax. The vegetable tallow of China is becoming an important article of commerce.
Among dyes, was indicated an exeplient one of pure black, which the natives of New Zealand have immemorially used. In reference to dyes, the lecturer hinted that immense profits to the manufacturer, and benefits to the customer, are yet to be reaped by the establishment of chemical manufactories in the regions which produce the bulky and weighty mate- rials of the dyes' when, for instance, we shall get over here the colouring extract of logwood, without the cost of bringing over the ship-loads of timber in the heart of which we now expensively transport it.
One of the most promising sections of the subject, the new resources of first-class timber in our Indian and Colonial possessions, indicated by the unrivalled assortments of wood shown by the East India Company and by our Colonial Governors, was not so fully treated as the importance and popular interest of the subject would have justified. Nevertheless, the audience were much struck by the statement, that at least one new wood, the iron-back, has been added by the insurers at Lloyd's to their register of first-class woods—the iron-back now raises to eight the number of woods reckoned equal to average English oak for purposes of ship- building.
The section of textile materials was made newly interesting, after the public has been somewhat fatigued with the discussion on flax-cultiva- tion, and flax-cotton conversion' by the narration of some facts of curious antiquarian interest. It seems that the ingenious discovery of Chevalier Claussen is a rediscovery. His results were achieved some eighty years ago by an English peeress. The autograph letters of Lady Mom were produced by Professor Solly from the bound records of the Society of Arts itself, describing a chemical process by which she converted the refuse tow of the flax fibre into cotton fibre, just as is now done by the process of the Chevalier. Her Ladyship's lamentations at the obstinacy of the manufacturers in opposing her plan were at once amusing as his- tory and suggestive of modern parallel instances. However, Professor Solly is not sanguine as to the great commercial advantages to be reaped from the discovery in its present unperfected state. This striking instance of rediscovery afforded an excellent illustration of the necessity for improved patent and discovery laws, and of the solid ad- vantages that may be expected from a Museum of Materials used in the Arts and in Manufactures.
Previous page
