The modern illuminate gel ant farm bears little resemblance
to the museum pieces of the mid-Victorian gentleman
naturalists. so how did the one evolve into the other?
It's not easy to say but people seem to have begun building
ant farms in the mid nineteenth century. Until the mid
1800's, glass had been a fairly expensive commodity and
certainly not something one would 'waste' on a child's toy.
Until the development of the float glass process, most
window glass had been produced by the cylinder method,
invented by Sir Henry Bessemer in 1848. Nolten glass was
formed into big cylinders which were slit open to make a
flat (or flattish) sheet; no wonder it was expensive.
We don't have a name for the first person to layer some
sand between sheets of glass to make an ant habitat but it
was probably one of the gentleman naturalists of the
Victorian period. These were of the sons of wealthy
industrialist, who didn't want to follow their father's
footsteps and would often spend their days studying nature
or exploring. We have a lot to thank them for, as the
undoubtedly contributed much to our understanding of
nature. The first ant farms were call formicaries and were
typically beautiful examples of Victorian workmanship. They
were used for study in universities and museums.
In the mid-1950s the Pilkington company of England at last
perfected the float glass method of manufacture that flat
sheets of glass at last became available for building
purposes and to the public at large. This enabled ant farms
to be built from waste glass quite easily.
Simultaneously, a toy company based in Hollywood of all
places, Uncle Milton Industries, began to market plastic
ant habitats with great success. They gave the toy the name
of 'Ant Farm' and protected the name by registering it.
Half a century later the formicary has evolved into
hundreds of ant farm models of many different types and
sizes. Even NASA has got in on the act by developing an ant
farm where the burrowing medium is not sand but a
transparent nutrient gel. These are now widely available
too. From the early formicaria of the gentleman naturalists
to the space-age gel versions of today, the ant farm is as
popular now as it ever was and the amazing activities of
ants still hold us in thrall just as they did all those
years ago.
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Discover for yourself the fun you and your kids can have
with an ant farm at http://www.antfarmcentral.com
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