_Fifthly_, “My invention consists in imparting, by the following process, to gutta-percha and its various combinations with caoutchouc and “jintawan,” when orpimented or sulphureted as aforesaid, almost any degree of hardness and tenacity, without injury to its water-repellent properties. I take the gutta-percha, or gutta-percha compound, after it has gone through the process described under the third head of this specification, and while it is yet in a plastic state, and press it into moulds, which I bind tightly together with iron plates, screws and nuts. I then place these moulds in a chamber or vessel raised by steam or hot air to a temperature of from 300° to 380°, for from one to five or six days, varying the degree of heat and the time of exposure to it, according to the degree of hardness and tenacity required, after which I set the moulds aside to cool slowly. The gutta-percha and gutta-percha compounds may be so hardened by this means, as to be turned in the lathe, like wood or ivory. And they are thus rendered applicable to a great variety of purposes, for which they could not in any other state be suitable, such as picture-frames, knife and sword handles, door-handles and panels, walking-sticks, chess-men, seal-holders, paper-cutters, combs, flutes, musical-keys, buttons, pulleys, ornamental and architectural decorations, &c. “The material may be either at once formed into any of these articles, by making the moulds of the form and figure of the articles; or it may be produced in the first instance in plain blocks, and afterwards cut up and fashioned at pleasure, by such tools and instruments as are ordinarily used for like purposes.”