The marvellous bond: Animal glue and isinglass as vital waste in England, 1600–1800

Abstract

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, isinglass, made from fish swim bladders, and common glue, made by boiling the hides of cattle or other animals, were put to a great variety of uses, making glue a form of ‘vital waste.’ This essay surveys the different forms and manufacturing processes of glue and glue's many uses in the arts, medicine, and the sciences. Focusing on the latter, I highlight the importance of glue for making natural knowledge, in the use of paper, bookbinding, collecting practices and instrument-making. Glue was also a subject of study, appearing in a growing number of artisanal and chemical accounts of glue-making. While the expanding use of, and knowledge about, glue made it ‘vital waste,’ it equally made the vitality of glue – its roots in animal bodies – more invisible.