The Bamboo Rich in Utilities.
When Mr. Edison devised his electric lamp, his first successful filaments were fibres of bamboo; they glowed more brilliantly than anything else he could find, they were tenacious enough to withstand intense heat for weeks together. A single gift of nature, such as the bamboo, may be so many-sided that its applications greatly enrich human life. A task of interest would be to trace the vast indebtedness of modern science and art to carbon, iron, or silver, in their various forms. But the bamboo is cheaper and more abundant than any of these, so that it will be worth while to glance at the many wants it has satisfied, at the creations it has suggested to ingenuity. In Ceylon, India, China, Japan, the Malay archipelago, it is the chief item of natural wealth, the main resource for the principal arts of life. First of all it provides food. More than one case is recorded where its abundant seeds have staved off the horrors of famine; these seeds, too, are commonly fermented to produce a drink resembling beer. Many species of bamboo have shoots which when young and tender are a palatable and nourishing food. As a building material it is strong, durable and easily divided. Its sizes are various enough to provide a fishing-rod for a boy, or a column for a palace.
“To the Chinaman, as to the Japanese,” says Mr. Freeman-Mitford, in “The Bamboo Garden,” “the bamboo is of supreme value; indeed it may be said that there is not a necessity, a luxury, or a pleasure of his daily life to which it does not minister. It furnishes the framework of his house and thatches the roof over his head, while it supplies paper for his windows, awnings for his sheds, and blinds for his verandah. His beds, tables, chairs, cupboards, his thousand and one small articles of furniture are made of it. Shavings and shreds of bamboo stuff his pillows and mattresses. The retail dealer’s measure, the carpenter’s rule, the farmer’s waterwheel and irrigating pipes, cages for birds, crickets, and other pets, vessels of all kinds, from the richly lacquered flower-stands of the well-to-do gentleman down to the humblest utensils of the very poor, all come from the same source. The boatman’s raft, and the pole with which he punts it along; his ropes, his mat sails, and the ribs to which they are fastened; the palanquin in which the stately mandarin is borne to his office, the bride to her wedding, the coffin to the grave; the cruel instruments of the executioner, the beauty’s fan and parasol, the soldier’s spear, quiver, and arrows, the scribe’s pen, the student’s book, the artist’s brush and the favorite study for his sketch; the musician’s flute, the mouth-organ, plectrum, and a dozen various instruments of strange shapes and still stranger sounds—in the making of all these the bamboo is a first necessity. Plaiting and wickerwork of all kinds, from the coarsest baskets and matting down to the delicate filigree which encases porcelain, are all of bamboo fibre. The same material made into great hats like inverted baskets protects the coolie from the sun, while the laborers in the rice fields go about looking like animated haycocks in waterproof coats made of the dried leaves of the bamboo sewn together.”