Heat Treatment and Polymorphism of Gutta-Percha and Balata

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Abstract
The hydrocarbon from balata or gutta-percha is polymorphic, and the modification in which it is usually known is the metastable variety, but it can be converted to the stable modification by one of a variety of comparatively simple heat-treatments. The α modification, to which it is converted by the heat-treatment, has somewhat different properties and these are compared. Some beneficial effects are reported which enable gutta-percha products to become the basis of a very superior variety of submarine cable insulation, which has been called K.-gutta. In writing this article the author is indebted to W. S. Smith and H. J. Garnett for criticism and advice and to F. Mattingley and H. F. Wilson and others of the laboratory staff for assistance and coöperation in carrying out this work. Thanks are also due to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co., Ltd., for permission to publish these results.

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