William
Montgomerie
saw
usefulness of gutta percha
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In
1843 Dr Montgomerie was Assistant Surgeon to the
Presidency at Singapore when that outpost was
first added to the empire of George IV. He
noticed that gum from trees of the genus Palaquium
was used by native woodmen to make handles for
parangs. He obtained samples and realising its
usefulness for making surgical appliances sent
samples to the Medical Board in Calcutta. He also
sent samples to The Royal Society of Arts and by
introducing this Malayan gum to the western world
for the manufacture of surgical appliances he had
placed in the hands of British industry the first
really useful plastics material - gutta percha. A
sample of gutta percha came into the hands of
Thomas Hancock, he showed it to his brother
Charles, a professional artist also interested in
commercial projects, who was experimenting with
bottle stoppers. In 1845 Charles joined forces
with a Dublin chemist, Henry Bewley, who had
invented a special clamped stopper for soda water
bottles. This was the beginning of the Gutta
Percha Company, later to become the Telegraph
Construction and Maintenance Company. Gutta
percha had particular electrical and mechanical
properties which made it suitable for submarine
telegraph cables - the first cable being laid
between England and France in 1850. No better
material was found for this purpose until Polythene
was discovered in the 1930s.
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