Home » categories » rare book library » Kunz. Ivory and The Elephant.
This chapter is tagged (labeled) with: 

Ch. 8: Vegetable and Imitation Ivory

Ch. 7: Working of Ivory Page of 681 Ch. 8: Vegetable and Imitation Ivory Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
CHAPTER VIII
VEGETABLE AND IMITATION IVORY
The beauties of genuine ivory are such, and they are now so highly and generally appreciated, that even articles made of imitation ivory are sold in great quantities. This is known under various trade names, as "Parisian ivory," "French ivory," "Egyptian ivory," and "ivorloid." A favourite modern use is for clocks, some of which are pro­vided with an electric flashlight, the apparatus being so disposed in a funnel slanting toward the clock face that when a button is pressed the dial is brightly illuminated, enabling any one to see immediately the time when in an entirely dark room.
The tagua palm, as the natives of Ecuador call the Phytelephas macrocarpa, was first brought to popular notice about fifty years ago by some rubber gatherers, who, in carrying on their work in the forests of northern Ecuador, had come across an unfamiliar species of palm, having as fruit a nut in whose shape they saw a grotesque resemblance to a negro's head, and hence called the nuts negritos. Hav­ing picked up, dried out, and broken open some of them, they noted that the kernels bore a close resemblance to ivory, and the idea quickly suggested itself that they might be used as a cheap substitute for the costly, genuine ma­terial. To test the value of the nuts some were shipped to Europe; and although at first they were not received with much favour, their excellent qualities soon became ap-
279
Ch. 7: Working of Ivory Page of 681 Ch. 8: Vegetable and Imitation Ivory
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page