What on earth is "Gutta Percha"?

[Auntor]

Hello everyone,

I was reading a childhood memoir by Satyajit Ray (renowned Indian film-maker and writer). There, he mentioned of "black Waterman and Swan fountain pens which were made of a material called Gutta Percha".

As a fountain pen  enthusiast, naturally, I was curious.

A quick Google search showed something related to dentistry instead of what I was looking for. Wikipedia says it is a form of latex.

Does anybody have any idea what is Gutta Percha?

Also, does anyone own a waterman or swan (or any other brand's pen) made of this material?

 

warm regards,

Auntor

[Mercian]

It is indeed a type of latex made from sap derived from a specific species of tree.

 

The material was also e.g. the material that was used in the centres of early golf balls.

[Mangrove Jack]

20 minutes ago, Mercian said:

The material was also e.g. the material that was used in the centres of early golf balls.

 

I think the whole ball was gutta percha. The liquid centres in golf balls came later in the rubber wound ball. 

[Karmachanic]

Wikipedia knows.  Interestingly it doesn't mention tennis rackets.

[Ron Z]

Gutta-percha.  It is a natural thermoplastic.    I've always heard it in connection with undersea telegraph cables, but evidently was used for a lot of other products at one time.  The link is to the Wikipedia page.

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, Auntor said:

Wikipedia says it is a form of latex.

I ought to have mentioned the following fact in my earlier reply:

 

‘Ebonite’ - which is still used today to make many Indian (& some European) pens - is also a form of latex.

Ebonite is latex that has undergone a particular chemical treatment (‘vulcanisation’).

 

I imagine that the same is/was true of Gutta-Percha (which name means ‘latex from Sumatra’).

The Wikipedia page says of Gutta-Percha:
“Allowing this fluid to evaporate and coagulate in the sun produced a latex which could be made flexible again with hot water, but which did not become brittle, unlike rubber prior to the discovery of vulcanisation.”

 

Slàinte,

M.

[Auntor]

2 minutes ago, Mercian said:

I ought to have mentioned the following fact in my earlier reply:

 

‘Ebonite’ - which is still used today to make many Indian (& some European) pens - is also a form of latex.

Ebonite is latex that has undergone a particular chemical treatment (‘vulcanisation’).

 

I imagine that the same is/was true of Gutta-Percha (which name means ‘latex from Sumatra’).

The Wikipedia page says of Gutta-Percha:
“Allowing this fluid to evaporate and coagulate in the sun produced a latex which could be made flexible again with hot water, but which did not become brittle, unlike rubber prior to the discovery of vulcanisation.”

 

Slàinte,

M.

I see, so there might be a possibility that the enigmatic gutta percha waterman fountain pens mentioned by the author are actually the familiar waterman ideals made of BHR (ebonite).

[Mr.Rene]

Gutta Percha was used in the past for provisional dental filling...too...

Regards.

[Mercian]

30 minutes ago, Auntor said:

I see, so there might be a possibility that the enigmatic gutta percha waterman fountain pens mentioned by the author are actually the familiar waterman ideals made of BHR (ebonite).

Perhaps not identical - the treatment that was used to make latex from the Gutta-Percha tree in to a material that is useful for making things is a different process to the ‘vulcanisation’ process that is used to turn latex in to ‘Ebonite’ (which is apparently a proprietary name for the BHR produced by that specific chemical process).

 

That said, ‘Gutta Percha’ is a form of ‘hard rubber’, and it was used for the same purposes for which ‘Ebonite’ has been used since excessive demand for G-P caused unsustainable harvesting practices, and destroyed the supply of it.

 

I do not know which exact form of ‘hard rubber’ the Waterman company used for its earliest pens, or whether it started out using Gutta Percha but changed to making them of Ebonite later.
I would expect that G-P is functionally identical to ‘Ebonite’. I.e. that it is not brittle, and that if you heat it in hot water you can re-shape it.

 

Edit to add:

I have just seen an article about the history of Waterman that says that the early pens were made of vulcanised rubber - which is ‘Ebonite’.

This suggests either that Mr. Ray used the term ‘Gutta Percha’ incorrectly, or that he used it as part of ‘artistic licence’ - because ‘Gutta-Percha’ is almost exactly the same substance as ‘Ebonite’, but its name sounds much more ‘romantic’, and much more evocative of the nineteenth century/early-twentieth century than does ‘Ebonite’.

[dipper]

 

How not to fill a tooth with gutta-percha..

This is an extract from "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby. An account of his voyage from Europe to Australia and back in 1938 when he was aged 18.

 

In the midships fo’c’sle there were two miserable people, Essin and Pipinen. Essin, the sailmaker's assistant, had broken one of his molars in the general struggle to cat everything within reach. He now lay groaning in his bunk, his face swathed in mufflers. I tried to plug the cavity with gutta-percha, which on the advice of my dentist I had brought with me in anticipation of such an emergency. It had looked easy in Wimpole Street when he demonstrated how to do it; he put a little Vaseline on a plugger, heated the gutta-percha, and popped it into the hole. Now, overcome with wine and food, in a swaying ship, by the murky light of a hurricane lamp I felt like a tipsy surgeon about to perform a major operation. Worse still, the patient kept flinching and I dropped a blob of bubbling hot gutta-percha on his tongue. He leapt into the air screaming and three boys had to hold him down while I tried to push a cooler piece into the hole. But it would not stay in, and I gave him an overdose of aspirin and hoped for the best. The operation had not been successful.

 

[VersoFolio]

I have used 'gutta percha' as an art material. I has a 'barrier or resist' function similar to the molten wax traditionally used in the making of 'Batik' cloth.

I used it as a 'resist' when dyeing and painting silk, specifically to cause a waterproof dam to stop colours bleeding together.

 

Cheers, P.I.Tom

[Auntor]

8 hours ago, Mercian said:

I have just seen an article about the history of Waterman that says that the early pens were made of vulcanised rubber - which is ‘Ebonite’.

This suggests either that Mr. Ray used the term ‘Gutta Percha’ incorrectly, or that he used it as part of ‘artistic licence’ - because ‘Gutta-Percha’ is almost exactly the same substance as ‘Ebonite’, but its name sounds much more ‘romantic’, and much more evocative of the nineteenth century/early-twentieth century than does ‘Ebonite’.

I agree.

Perhaps, those who sold Waterman and Swan fountain pens in India at that time used the terms interchangeably which led to this mistake. 

Or, as you said, Ray used 'Gutta Percha' to suit his own narrative requirements.

 

Thanking you,

Auntor

[Auntor]

8 hours ago, dipper said:

 

How not to fill a tooth with gutta-percha..

This is an extract from "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby. An account of his voyage from Europe to Australia and back in 1938 when he was aged 18.

 

In the midships fo’c’sle there were two miserable people, Essin and Pipinen. Essin, the sailmaker's assistant, had broken one of his molars in the general struggle to cat everything within reach. He now lay groaning in his bunk, his face swathed in mufflers. I tried to plug the cavity with gutta-percha, which on the advice of my dentist I had brought with me in anticipation of such an emergency. It had looked easy in Wimpole Street when he demonstrated how to do it; he put a little Vaseline on a plugger, heated the gutta-percha, and popped it into the hole. Now, overcome with wine and food, in a swaying ship, by the murky light of a hurricane lamp I felt like a tipsy surgeon about to perform a major operation. Worse still, the patient kept flinching and I dropped a blob of bubbling hot gutta-percha on his tongue. He leapt into the air screaming and three boys had to hold him down while I tried to push a cooler piece into the hole. But it would not stay in, and I gave him an overdose of aspirin and hoped for the best. The operation had not been successful.

 

A side-splitting anecdote😄. Thanks for sharing.

 

1 hour ago, Pale.Ink.Tom said:

I have used 'gutta percha' as an art material. I has a 'barrier or resist' function similar to the molten wax traditionally used in the making of 'Batik' cloth.

I used it as a 'resist' when dyeing and painting silk, specifically to cause a waterproof dam to stop colours bleeding together.

 

Cheers, P.I.Tom

Very interesting use. 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for you replies. You all have been really educational.

 

Regards,

Auntor

[Ink Stained Wretch]

On 3/31/2023 at 7:25 PM, dipper said:

 

How not to fill a tooth with gutta-percha..

This is an extract from "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby. An account of his voyage from Europe to Australia and back in 1938 when he was aged 18.

 

In the midships fo’c’sle there were two miserable people, Essin and Pipinen. Essin, the sailmaker's assistant, had broken one of his molars in the general struggle to cat everything within reach. He now lay groaning in his bunk, his face swathed in mufflers. I tried to plug the cavity with gutta-percha, which on the advice of my dentist I had brought with me in anticipation of such an emergency. It had looked easy in Wimpole Street when he demonstrated how to do it; he put a little Vaseline on a plugger, heated the gutta-percha, and popped it into the hole. Now, overcome with wine and food, in a swaying ship, by the murky light of a hurricane lamp I felt like a tipsy surgeon about to perform a major operation. Worse still, the patient kept flinching and I dropped a blob of bubbling hot gutta-percha on his tongue. He leapt into the air screaming and three boys had to hold him down while I tried to push a cooler piece into the hole. But it would not stay in, and I gave him an overdose of aspirin and hoped for the best. The operation had not been successful.

 

Ouch! I have some gutta-percha in my mouth right now. I know that my early root canals used the stuff.

 

Probably best that the narrator of that story couldn't get the plug of gutta-percha into that molar. Neither the cavity in the molar nor the gutta-percha were likely sterile. After some hours of being sealed up the bacteria in the molar would have reproduced enough that they'd cause a lot of pressure and that is painful. The gutta-percha would dutifully keep it all sealed and the pressure and pain would mount.