The extensive and highly interesting establishment of the Gutta-Percha Company, situated near the City Road Basin of the Regent’s Canal, is worthy of attention even beyond the general average of such centres of industry, for the peculiar character of the substance operated upon necessitates the employment of new processes, new machines, and new tools. An incessant course of invention has marked the manufacturing history of this material during the brief period of its existence. If the gutta-percha is to be applied to some new useful purpose, tools and processes of novel character have to be employed; if an ornamental application is determined on, methods are adopted for developing any natural beauty which the grain of the substance may present; if an attempt be made to supersede leather, or wood, or papier-mache, or metal, by this singular gum, great pains are bestowed on a study of the special qualities to be imitated, and the process of imitation often requires operations and tools differing considerably from those before employed. The first process consists in cutting the block into slices. There is a vertical wheel, on the face of which are fixed three knives or blades; and while this wheel is rotating with a speed of two hundred turns a minute, a block of gutta-percha is supplied to it, and speedily cut into thin slices—much on the same principle as a turnip-cutter performs its work. Woe to the steel edges if a stone be imbedded in the block. These slices show that the gutta-percha is by no means uniform in different parts, either in color or texture. To bring about a uniformity is the object of the shredding or tearing process. The slices are thrown into a tank of water, which is heated by steam to such a temperature as to soften the mass; dirt and heavy impurities fall to the bottom, leaving a pasty mass of gum; and the mass being thrown into another rotating machine, is there so torn and rent, and dragged asunder by jagged teeth, as to be reduced to fragments. The fragments fall into water, upon the surface of which (owing to the small specific gravity of the material) they float, while any remaining dirt or impurity falls to the bottom. These fragments are next converted into a dough-like substance by another softening with hot water, and the dough undergoes a thorough kneading; it is placed in hollow heated iron cylinders, in which revolving drums so completely turn and squeeze and mix the now purified mass, that all parts become alike, and every particle presents a family likeness to its neighbor.