GUTTA PERCHA PENCIL TRAY, 1880's

The Gutta Percha Company was founded in Stratford London in 1885 by Henry Bewley and Samuel Gurney, eventually moving to Wharf Road London. Gutta Percha is a Latex substance and is also Thermoplastic, it originates from the Gutta Percha or Isonandra tree in Malaysia, like Rubber it is collected from the trees weeping exterior and processed into a hard black substance that can be formed into any shape required, when cooled it becomes hard and solid and was used in the making of many objects such as, drinking mugs, buckets or washing bowls, and other items. It was discovered by Michael Faraday that it was an ideal insulator of electricity and was subsequently used for undersea cables in 1850/1 continuing for the next 80 years until being replaced by Polythene in the 1930's. It is of interest to note that the first undersea cables failed due to many reasons, among them was that Gutta Percha was being eaten or damaged by living creatures (Teredos Marine worms), later cables were protected from this problem. See Items A0570-A0571-A0572- A0573-A1316 and A1317.

Nortel Collection

A1788