One Thousand Ways to Make Money by Page Fox

from $3 to $4 per pound. No artificial substance has as yet been found to take its place, but we are surely on the eve of that discovery. No one substance is at the same time so hard and so elastic, but experimenters will yet find a combination which will answer the purpose. One has already been found which draws the surplus demand when the genuine article cannot be obtained. The inventor who can advance another step and produce an exact imitation will have the whalebone market in his hands. This field is rich with possibilities. P. S.--Since writing the above we have the secret. Here it is: Treat the rawhide with sulphide of sodium, remove the hair, immerse the hide twenty-six to thirty-four hours in a weak solution of double sulphate of potassa, and stretch it upon a frame or table, in order that it may not contract in drying. The desiccation is allowed to proceed in broad daylight, and the hide is then exposed to a temperature of fifty to sixty degrees. The influence of the light, combined with the action of the double sulphate of potassa absorbed by the skin, renders the gelatine insoluble in water, and prevents putrefaction, the moisture being completely expelled. Thus prepared, the skin is submitted to a strong pressure, which gives to it almost the hardness and elasticity which characterize the genuine whalebone, with the advantage that before or after the process of desiccation any color desired may be imparted to it by means of a dye bath.