ungumming

Updated: May 13, 2025

These vaunted committees cannot but be a failure except in those things which immediately concern the welfare of the committees themselves. The feeble authority of headquarters, now that puny diplomacy has been so busy, has become more feeble than it was in the first days, and, like the Chinese Government, we, too, shall soon fall to pieces by an ungumming process.

- Indiscreet Letters From Peking : Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, from Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900—The Year of Great Tribulation

Dilute caustic alkalis, if sufficiently dilute, will dissolve off the sericin and leave the inner fibre of fibroïn; but they are not so good for ungumming silk as soap solutions are, as the fibre after treatment with them is deficient in whiteness and brilliancy.

Watson Smith - The Chemistry of Hat Manufacturing: Lectures Delivered Before the Hat Manufacturers' Association