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Plastic Before Plastic: How gutta-percha shaped the 19th century
How gutta-percha shaped the 19th century
Brooks and two other pro-slavery congressmen (Laurence Keitt of South Carolina and Henry Edmundson of Virginia) went into the Senate chamber two days after Sumner’s speech and waited for any women who were present to leave (you wouldn’t want your savage beating of a U.S. I blame the persistence of "caning" as the word for this event on the fact that the American Civil War is pretty much the only conflict in world history whose story overwhelmingly has been told from the perspective of the shitbag slavers who lost it. In gutta percha are formed all manner of domestic appliances and ornaments: trays of all sorts and sizes; vases, watch-stands, and plates ; bouquet-holders, statuettes, brackets, jugs, mugs, inkstands, and clothes-lines ; flower-pots and stands, paper weights, medallions, cornices, doors, mouldings, picture and glass frames, drinking cups, fishing nets, and portmanteaus ; skates, policemen's batons, and boats; oil-cans, washing basins, and whips ; stethoscopes, splints for dislocations, and curtain-rings ; stuffing for horses' feet, mill-bands, and stop cocks ; cutting boards,, cabmen's hats, and traces ; life preservers, bottling boots, and seals; powder-flasks, air-guns, and book-covers ; sponge-bags, galvanic batteries, and bandages for broken limbs.
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