Word: naptha
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...natives playing with balls which seemed to bound miraculously to Heaven. Three centuries later, Chemist Joseph Priestley advised his fellow Englishmen that the miraculous substance would erase pencil-markings, might well be called "rubber." It was only 100 years ago that a Scotchman named Mackintosh dissolved rubber in naptha and perpetuated his name in an overcoat. And in 1839, U. S.-born Charles Goodyear dropped rubber (mixed with sulphur) on a hot stove and witnessed the first, accidental process of vulcanization...
...Herr Mann wishes to picture modern life as well as life in general. Lengthy talks and debates upon contemporary social and philosophic problems of the day immediately before the war are carried on by various patients, in particular the Italian humanitarian, Ludovico Settembrini, the clever Jesuit, Naptha, and the aristocratic Pieter Peeperkorn. These philosophisings may be realistic in that they are mediocre but certainly they are mediocre but certainly they are tiresome reading...