“The clamminess of dissolved India-rubber, and its tendency to decomposition are attributed to its resinous properties. On page 28, the following language occurs: ‘After a long series of experiments, in which neither deodorizing or oxidizing substances, neither alkalies, nor mechanical means, which affected the speedy drying, produced the desired result; I succeeded at last in finding in sulphur the substance, which even in very small quantities, perfectly prevented the injurious effect of the resinous aggregation.’ Instructions are given how to prepare the sulphur solution, by heating and stirring three parts of flour sulphur in one hundred parts of rectified oil of turpentine, bringing them to a boiling heat, then dissolving the India-rubber in the solution. By Hayward’s patent, one teaspoonful of sulphur was mixed with that quantity of oil of turpentine required to dissolve a pound of India-rubber, and in this respect, there is little difference between his method and that of the Prussian doctor. It is the sulphur which is the grand agent in the production of vulcanized India-rubber, no matter how combined, in solution, or with India-rubber softened by heat. Leave sulphur out of the question, and we would have no vulcanized India-rubber fabrics. “The question now arises, what reliance is there to be placed upon the authenticity of this pamphlet, published six years before Hayward’s patent was obtained? We have been assured that the original work is in the College Library, at Providence, R. I.; but it is rather singular, that in the many controversies on this subject, and the numerous suits at law which have taken place, respecting the originality of the invention, that such information was not produced as testimony before some tribunal. “That Dr. Luedersdorff made the experiments described, we will assume to be true in every respect, but neither is our country or any other indebted to him in the least, for the introduction and success of India-rubber manufactures. To American inventors alone, is the world indebted for the invention of vulcanized India-rubber. Hayward was no doubt totally ignorant of the Prussian doctor’s experiments; he probably could not read German; he made the discovery of sulphurized India-rubber by his own efforts, and he is an original inventor, in this sense of the term.” We have thus given a brief account of this remarkable discovery. Heretofore but little has been written or published upon the discovery, and the subsequent inventions to which it gave rise. The books which have been published have carefully avoided full and complete statements or facts, and have contained little or no information of value, but on the contrary, have seemed, at least, to deal in generalities calculated to befog and mislead.