ceptibility of gutta percha to be softened by heat and rendered plastic and easily worked by immersion in hot water, Richard Archibald Brooman, in the year 1845, secured letters patent for a method of preparing it for use in the arts. Covering everything into which gutta percha could be manufactured, this patent was called the "Master patent." It only now remained to discover some effectual method of applying the gutta percha thus prepared, to the covering of the telegraph wire. In September, 1845, Henry Bewley took out letters patent, in England, for a machine for making tubes, flexible syringes, bottles, hose, and other like vehicles or vessels, or to the improvement thereof, &c. Hancock and Keene also took out letters patent, in England, about the same time, for processes of purifying and working gutta percha, &c. (Vide the "Magazine of Science and Arts," 1846.) Brooman and Bewley sold their patents to the London gutta percha company, who, under them, made the Atlantic telegraph cable. The present process of making lead pipe of indefinite length, by machinery, is in principle similar to that for forming gutta percha pipe. The Bishop Gutta Percha Company of New York use the same machinery, and by it have made all the telegraph cable used by the Government of the United States, and nearly, if not quite all, that has been laid by the telegraph companies in this country. The annexed drawings gives a view of this machine, and its manner of working. The process of making pipe is through a die, with a mandrel or core attached to the head of the machine, at the point where the formation commences. The process of covering wire is through two dies, with the wire in the centre, which is carried along with the gutta percha, thus forming the coating; the same cylinders are used in both cases, and no change except the wire instead of the mandrel, and two dies in covering wire, and one in making pipe. FIRST USE OF GUTTA PERCHA AS A CABLE INSULATOR. Pierrer's Universal Lexicon, 17th vol., page 339, has the fol lowing: "In 1846 the Prussian Lieutenant, Siemens, tried first to cover telegraphic wire with gutta percha, and in 1847 laid down three hundred German miles; but they soon ceased to work well |