BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

A STRANGE ANIMAL OF THE SEA. THE STORY OF OUR BATHROOM SPONGE. Dear Boys,— Possibly one of the most common of mistaken ideas is that the bathroom sponge was once a piece of seaweed. The truth is that the sponges are really animals of a very low class. They consist of many cells, and the sponge of the bathroom is really the skeleton of the cells which holds the sponge animal together and gives it shape. The fibrous skeleton is made in such a way, with tiny cells plastered all over Its surface, that it forms a porous mass with mouths and tiny pores on the exterior leading into a network of tubes large and small. The cells set round the pores and mouths, and lining the passages, move together and cause a stream of water to flow in at the pores and out again at the mouths, and in this way food and the gases in the water are made to circulate to all the cells. Most of the sponges of commerce which are used for washing and surgical purposes come from Turkey, Greece and Florida; but the bath sponges are not the only sponges. There are sponges of all shapes, sizes ® n d colours, some the size of a pin s head, some as tall as a man; some fan-like, some tree-like, some cup-like, and some basket-like; some built on a horny framework, some made of lime, some with a glassy frame. Some are snow-white, some grass-green, some sky-blue, some red, and some yellow. In Florida sponge culture is carried on artificially. Small portions of sponge are strung on a wire made of lead with a copper core, and this is suspended in shallow water from two posts. In six months the fragments have grown into sponges six times their bulk when planted. Sometimes the pieces are nailed down to cement slabs and placed in the sea. Off the coast of Florida divers in full costume descend from boats to the ocean bed, and there gather the sponges by plucking them with their hands. The sponges are placed in a large net bag which the diver caries, and when this is full he signals to be pulled up. The boat, guided by the bubbles of his expended breath, keeps just above him as he wanders over the sea bed. ° nce ,fhe sponge is collected the first task is to rough-clean them of the thin slime which completely covers them and to remove from the pore, the .tacky substance which is really the body of the sponge animal. t - . .~e co ** t ? f FTf "da the sponge fishers build inclosures of L™ a. ( C J m°r may Bt ° re the ®P°nge« that have been taken from deeper water. The action of the water makes it fit'for use c,eaners to remove the skin and slime and so render them Having been washed and cleaned, the sponges are put out to dry on wooden racks before (/ transhipment to Europe, where they are again treated before marketing.