VARNISH. We find in the Providence Journal some interest ing information in reference to the origin, constituents, and sources of varnish and its uses. The best varnish is ma le from gum copal. The name is derived from the Mexican copalli. The tree from which this gum is obtained is found in Mexico, Africa, Bra zil, New Zealand, India, and the East Indies. Zanzibar is the great market for gum copal, and from that place it finds its way to all parts of the world. The gum resembles amber. The fresh gum from the trees is not the true gum copal of commerce. The gum that exuded from trees a thousand years since, and has since remained buried in the earth, is the desirable and valuable agent known to commerce. It is a fossilized gum, and the trees from which it came disappeared a thousand or more years ago. The natives find this gum by probing the earth with some sharp-pointed instrument made for the purpose. Experts can tell when they touch gum or some other substance, and are thus saved the trouble of digging for something useless. To the manner of digging, and to the scarcity of the gum, is due the small importations. In the making of varnish, copal gum is the chief ingredient, and lin seed oil and turpentine are the other ingredients. The linseed is
compressed, the oil extracted and bleached. Turpentine is made from the gum of the long-leaf pine. Georgia produces the best turpentine. The tree is squared on two sides from eight to ten feet from the ground up. As the sap rises it runs out upon these Vized surfaces and congeals. It is then scraped off and distilled. The residue is rosin. • To unite these elements into varnish requires elaborate apparatus to melt the copal gum, and great sk:11 in the entire manufacture. The average price of gum copal is $216 per ton, and the shipments from Auckland every year amount to more 5,000 tons. It is said that the ship ments of gum in the last 25 years have amounted to more than the trees now growing in New Z.)aland could supply in 10,000 years Gum copal is used by enamellers of jewelery, and to a small ex tent for ornaments similar to those made from amber. Varnish not only brightens but preserves. The bare wood is varnished even on some out-door contrivances. It is a transparent enamel that takes the place and serves the purpose better than glass