Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1898 — Making the Moth Work. [ARTICLE]

Making the Moth Work.

Few suspect that the common moth may be utilized as a decorative artist, but he may be, if only one be watchful, patient and acquainted with the creature’s habits. The larva of the moth has a habit of spinning about itself a sort of sac from the material upon which it feeds. As the worm grows it enlarges this sac by the process of splitting it and inserting new material. Now, if a moth-worm that has inclosed itself in red flannel be afterward transferred, sac and all, to white flannel, the growing insect will slit its red flannel covering and enlarge it with a portion of the white flannel. If, then, the worm and the sac be transferred to blue flannel, the creature will in course of time enlarge the sac with blue flanuel, and thus clothe Itself patriotically In red, white and blue. A cable’s length is one-tenth of a nautical mile (6,080 feet). The longest mile is the Norwegian, which Is within a fraction of seven times ours.