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Show 7 PAPERMAKIN or insects' eggs. Senger discussed the probability of suficient conferva being found to act as a substitute for rags as a papermakin material. As Réaumur was the first writer to give account of th wasp as a fabricator of paper, Senger was the carliest scientist t dwell ac Length upon conferva as a form of paper, also a produc of nature. Senger relates: "In my walks on the border ofa smal brook, I found both shores on the side of the hedges covered wit a limy substance, which the overflowed brook had deposited. Th surfice of the water was covered anew with a yellowish gree vegetation, and in the windings of the stream there lay quantitie of this fine vegetable product piled in heaps, which gave additiona beauty to the blooming shores of the flowing brook. The appearance of this beauty and the thought of a useful application of thi material awakened my interest, for I could not persuade mysel that thrifty Nature would have brought forth so much beauty an | such a great quantity of the fleccy substance, without its havin ‘ useful purpose. This covering cxtending over the surface of th water, was not only a resting place for insects of various sorts, an a well secured storchouse for their broods, but as Nature intend everywhere to give many advantages, I soon experienced that i contained a proper stuff for the making of paper, and what is mor | i " I [ '! i surprising, a paper prepared by Nature alone, without the assis ance of imitating processes "This peculiar web contains innumerable lecy part tion, which are generated, i the first. par of the spring, ofon vegetaand other standing waters; they detach themselves from thepond bot tom, and rise on the surface, where they appear as a handsom green and yellow covering. After these flecc es have remained for some time on the watery mirror; by the heat of the sun and by the changing degrees of cold and warmth of the water they become more united and felted together, bleached, and at las turned into a tough paperike covering. Or, if this fleecy substanc Digital Imag © 2004 University of Utah. All rights reserved |