Barbara Rogers, age 13, of Portland, Ore., for her question:
WHERE DO WE GET IVORY?
Ivory is a hard, white substance that makes up the tusks of a number of large animals, chiefly elephants. By far the largest amount of the world's best ivory is obtained from Africa.
Ivory is known as a dentin. This is the tissue that forms the major part of teeth. Dentin is similar to but much denser than bone.
Man started carving ivory into little statues back in the ancient Stone Age. Many ivory carvings made from the tusks of mammoths, as well as some made from reindeer horn, were found in caves in the southern parts of both Switzerland and France. These date back to prehistoric days. The earliest goes back more than 5,000 years.
Today most of the ivory used for carving comes from the elephants of Africa, although for commercial purposes, the tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, sperm whale and wild boar are also classified as ivory.
An elephant's tusks are two upper incisor teeth. They stick out from the mouth and continue to grow throughout the elephant's life.
The average elephant tusk weighs about 60 pounds, but some weighing as much as 200 pounds have been found. The tusks also vary in length ¬the longest ever found measured a gigantic 12 feet.
Chief ivory markets of the world are London, Antwerp, Liverpool and Hamburg. These centers receive the high quality ivory primarily from a number of African export centers. Some ivory, however, comes from the smaller tusked Asian elephants.
The experts agree that the very best ivory that with the greatest density and most pleasing whiteness comes from the male elephants of the African species.
Only about 20 percent of the tusks that find their way to markets these days come from what can be called live ivory. Most ivory is taken from the skeletons of animals that have been dead for many years.
An interesting source of ivory today is the U.S.S.R., where large numbers of fossil remains of prehistoric mammoths and mastodons have been found buried in icy ground. Many of these were preserved and can be used for commercial purposes.
The Middle Ages have been called the golden age of ivory. At that time many finely carved ivory book covers were produced as well as caskets, combs, mirrors, figurines and hunting horns. During the Renaissance period, ivory inlaid items became very popular.
For many centuries, the artists of China have used ivory. Intricate flowers and animals have been carved into such items as fans, bird cages, combs, pipes and boxes.
Ivory today is used in artwork and is also used commercially for furniture inlays and decorations, piano keys, billiard balls, combs, chessmen, and toilet articles. Ivory is also used for the handles of knives, umbrellas and swords. Ivory dust is used in India ink and it is also added to certain paint pigments.