Belting for engines is another article for which Goodyear’s compound is superior to any other, inasmuch as the surface of the India-rubber clings to the iron wheel better than leather or fabric.  Leather polishes and slips; India-rubber does not polish, and holds to the iron so firmly as to save a large percentage of power.  It is no small advantage merely to save leather for other uses, since leather is an article of which the supply is strictly limited.  It is not uncommon for India-rubber belts to be furnished, which, if made of leather, would require more than a hundred hides.  Emery-wheels of this material have been recently introduced.  They were formerly made of wood coated with emery, which soon wore off.  In the new manufacture, the emery is kneaded into the entire mass of the wheel, which can be worn down till it is all consumed.  On the same principle the instruments used to sharpen scythes are also made.  Of late we hear excellent accounts of India-rubber as a basis for artificial teeth.  It is said to be lighter, more agreeable, less expensive, than gold or platina, and not less durable.  We have seen also some very pretty watch-cases of this material, elegantly inlaid with gold.

It thus appears, that the result of Mr. Goodyear’s long and painful struggles was the production of a material which now ranks with the leading compounds of commerce and manufacture, such as glass, brass, steel, paper, porcelain, paint.  Considering its peculiar and varied utility, it is perhaps inferior in value only to paper, steel, and glass.  We see, also, that the use of the new compound lessens the consumption of several commodities, such as ivory, bone, ebony, and leather, which it is desirable to save, because the demand for them tends to increase faster than the supply.  When a set of ivory billiard-balls costs fifty dollars, and civilization presses upon the domain of the elephant, it is well to make our combs and our paper-knives of something else.

That inventions so valuable should be disputed and pirated was something which the history of all the great inventions might have taught Mr. Goodyear to expect.  We need not revive those disputes which embittered his life and wasted his substance and his time.  The Honorable Joseph Holt, the Commissioner who granted an extension to the vulcanizing patent in 1858, has sufficiently characterized them in one of the most eloquent papers ever issued from the Patent Office:—­

“No inventor probably has ever been so harassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the parlance of the world, with no exaggeration of phrase, as ‘pirates,’ The spoliations of their incessant guerilla warfare upon his defenceless rights have unquestionably amounted to millions.  In the very front rank of this predatory band stands one who sustains in this case the double and most convenient character of contestant and witness; and it is but a subdued expression